Philosophy Talk Starters

Money makes the world go around. But what sort of thing is money? Bits of paper and metal? An elaborate set of IOUs to be redeemed with more IOUs? An abstract accounting tool? If money is real, how can billions disappear on the stock market? And where does it go? Ken and John follow the money – its nature, its utility, and whether it is the root of all evil – with Stanford Economist Alex Gould. Mo...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/copyright-wars. Today there is an entire generation of people who have never paid for music. From Napster to YouTube, some of our most innovative and inventive young people have been the targets of lawsuits by entertainment industry lawyers for violating copyright laws. What are the ideas behind copyright protection? What is the philosophical and practical b...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/challenges-free-will. We seem to be able to decide our behavior for ourselves – what we do is up to us. But if everything that we do can be explained by physics, does this leave room for freedom? Are all of our actions pre-determined? Are we slaves to fate? Is freedom compatible with determinism, or does science teach us that we're nothing but complex machin...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/bi-racial-identities. Many people identify strongly with the ethnic or racial group to which they belong – as Jews, or African-Americans, or Latinos. But to which groups does a person truly belong? President Obama has a white mother from Kansas and an African father from Kenya. Why is he seen as our first African-American President, rather than our forty-fou...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/different-cultures-different-selves. Why do we do what we do? To please others? To live up to what culture expects? Or for our own reasons –- as "autonomous agents"? Americans tend to admire (at least in theory) the autonomous individual, the person who knows what he wants, and sets out to get it, no matter what the world might think. Is this true of all cul...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/movie-show. Movies play a large role in modern life. We enjoy watching them; we idolize the actors and actresses who appear in them; we analyze the directors. What is special about cinema as an art form, a mode of learning, a technique of propaganda? Do movies pose special problems for aesthetics? With the Oscars coming, Ken and John discuss the most philoso...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/civil-disobedience. Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King all engaged in civil disobedience, and are widely admired for doing so. But how can democratic society function if each person's conscience has to be satisfied for a law to be obeyed? When is civil disobedience justified? When is it required? How does the concept fit with the great ethical and polit...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-history. Is history just a series of events, or an interpretation of those events? Is there progress in history? Can history be objective, or is it, as Napoleon said, just the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon? Ken and John delve into the past and its meaning with Daniel Little, Chancellor of the University of Michigan-...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/idea-university. Is a university a research institute with students, or and educational institution with research around the edges – or something in between? To whom does the university answer – the trustees? The administration? The faculty? The students? Or something more abstract, like knowledge and wisdom? John and Ken examine the very idea of a universit...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/bodies-sale. I can sell my house, the things I make, and the services I provide. So why can't I sell one of my kidneys? What is the philosophical basis for the taboo against selling parts of our bodies? There is an (illegal) market in body parts; shouldn't we trust the wisdom of the market and make it legitimate? Or would doing so undermine the very dignity...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/levels-reality. Are there levels of reality, with each level emerging from the other in a way that provides a truly new aspect of reality? The concept of emergence has been seen as an alternative to mere reducibility in discussion of the relation of the physical world to the biological world, consciousness, the social world, and God. Ken and John probe the n...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/william-james. William James is a great figure, historically important as a philosopher (pragmatism and radical empiricism), a student of religion (author of the monumental "Varieties of Religious Experience"), and psychology. Ken and John examine the life and ideas of this towering figure with Russell Goodman, a leading scholar of Pragmatism and author of W...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/making-decisions. When we make decisions we think we're in control, making rational choices. But are we? This is the central question posed by Dan Ariely, Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, in his book "Predictably Irrational." Ken and John discuss irrationality, its dangers, and perhaps also its benefits, with this philosophical and fasci...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/digital-selves. Second Life and dozens of other online adventures involve creating digital selves, and millions of users are taking advantage of the opportunity to develop new personas. Cyberpunk literature, like William Gibson's Neuromancer, describes worlds in which the line between digital selves and real selves is hard to draw. What makes your digital se...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/overcoming-terror-death. To many death is terrifying. But why? As David Hume pointed out, all the years we didn't exist before we were born seemed painless enough. Why worry about future non-existence? Is the real worry that we will continue to exist? Ken and John confront mortality with psychiatrist and novelist Irv Yalom, author of "Staring at the Sun: Ove...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/morality-food. Veganism, freeganism, organic, sustainability, simplicity, biofuel, animal rights, worker's rights, nutrition, preventing hunger, reducing waste and protecting the environment. What obligations do we have when it comes to buying, eating and producing food? How should we balance moral and practical concerns? John and Ken chew on these questions...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/utilitarianism Can morality be quantified? Can the good be calculated? Utilitarianism says the right action is the one which leads to the most overall happiness -– a deceptively simple theory, but not without its detractors. Is utilitarianism compatible with the idea that people have inalienable rights? Should we be so focused on the consequences of our acti...

More at philosophytalk.org/shows/global-justice-and-human-rights. What constitutes a just society? What are the obligations of liberal democracies to ensure the rights and well-being of the citizens of other countries? What kinds of interventions and institutions are most suitable to the task of preventing war, disease, and poverty in the world today? John and Ken discuss the requirements of justi...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/dualism. What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Monists believe that there is only one substance or property in the Universe, be it physical (Materialists) or mental (Idealists). But Dualists, like the 17th Century French philosopher Rene Descartes, hold that mental stuff exists side by side with physical stuff. Can this view be defended, i...

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-and-pop-culture. From Star Trek and the Grateful Dead to South Park and Stephen Colbert, philosophical questions are everywhere in popular culture: Is time travel possible? Can a person survive being disintegrated and reassembled? Does humor enable the expression of deep truths, political or otherwise? John and Ken look at the Big Questions in pop cu...

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/giving-and-keeping. How should people allocate their assets – however modest or grand – ethically and effectively? What kinds of giving should the government encourage through tax incentives and other measures? Is providing for loved ones more worthy than self-expression through philanthropy? John and Ken are joined by Rob Reich, Professor of Political...

More at: http://philosophytalk.org/shows/luck-draw. Sometimes it isn't possible to distribute goods evenly. When this happens, we often leave it up to randomness – in the form of lotteries – to decide who gets what. Is this just? Or is it merely the best we can do? What distinguishes fair systems of randomization from unfair ones? John and Ken take their chances with Peter Stone, Professor of Poli...

More athttp://philosophytalk.org/shows/altruism. Are people genuinely altruistic, or is altruism just a type of selfish-behavior? Are other animals altruistic? Should we strive to be altruistic, or is selfishness a higher virtue? John and Ken take the moral high ground with their guest Jeff Schloss, Professor and Chair of Biology at Westmont College and co-editor of "Altruism and Altruistic Love:...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/problem-evil. Many religions tell us that God is perfect: all-knowing, all-powerful, and beneficent. Why then do bad things happen? John and Ken discuss the problem of evil with their guest, Michael Tooley from the University of Colorado at Boulder, co-author of "Knowledge of God."

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-list-2008. Summer's just around the corner – what books are you going to pack with your Speedo? John and Ken leaf through some of this summer's philosophy, fiction, and non-fiction reading with Danielle Marshall from Powell's City of Books.