Philosophy Talk

Is race a discredited pseudo-scientific category? Or a real dimension of difference among humans? Or a socially constructed reality? What difference does it make? John and Ken question the category of race with Anthony Appiah from Princeton University.

Pick your favorite age. You are healthy, career thriving, family intact (at least pretend!). Would you like to live forever at that age, in that health, with those friends and family members also living forever with you? Immortality, on earth? How about an extra fifty or one hundred years or two hundred beyond your present life expectancy? Yes! Think of all I could get done! No. I would be bored!...

What is the difference between mere aggression and preemptive self defense?  Can you really permissibly “defend” yourself against an attack that hasn’t even begun?  How does preemptive self defense differ from preventive war, from humanitarian intervention? John and Ken do not pre-empt their questions to George R. Lucas Jr., Professor of Ethics and Public Policy at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Many philosophers have been tempted to condemn lying as an absolute evil. The problem is that as soon as you articulate some absolute principle such as “Never lie!” you can almost immediately think of circumstances in which lying seems the better course.

What is terrorism? Is terrorism morally worse than other forms of warfare. Was Truman’s decision to drop the A-bomb and act of terrorism? Is the US a terrorist State? Is terrorism an insult the powerful use to deligitimate the only means of resistance open to the disempowered?

Will Computers someday be able to have humanlike consciousnes and intelligence? Will they someday outstrip the thinking of humans? Would it matter if they did? Or is Artificial Intelligence on fundamentally the wrong track?