Philosophy Talk Starters

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/flirting-philosophy. What is flirting? Can you flirt without intending to? Can you flirt by dressing a certain way, by walking a certain way? Is flirtatious behavior culturally relative? Could you flirt with a robot? With your own long-term partner? With an idea? Join John and Ken as they plumb the philosophical depths of flirting with Carrie Jenkins from th...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-through-humor. Why did Nietzsche cross the road? To get beyond good and evil! How is a good joke like a good philosophical argument? Are philosophical tenets at the core of much of humor? To find out, join the philosophers and their guests, Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, authors of "Plato and A Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/capital-punishment. The death penalty: An effective deterrent? A just retribution for horrendous crimes? Or a racist, classist form of state-sanctioned murder? Join John and Ken and their guest, Robert Weisberg, Director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, as they discuss the philosophical pros and cons of capital punishment.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-list-2007. Are there philosophers, philosophies, or philosophical issues you want to read up on over the summer? Kant's Critique of Pure Reason probably isn't the obvious choice to take to the beach (though it does make great radio), but there are a lot of readable, beach-friendly classics and non-classics to add philosophical depth to your Su...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/aging-and-well-lived-life. Aging is a physical process that will always be with us. But conceptions of aging, views about the contributions older people can make to society, and what society owes them change from era to era and differ from culture to culture. In conjunction with the Stanford Humanities Center, John and Ken explore the issues involved in grow...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/artificial-intelligence. At least some versions of artificial intelligence are attempts not merely to model human intelligence, but to make computers and robots that exhibit it: that have thoughts, use language, and even have free will. Does this make sense? What would it show us about human thinking and consciousness? John and Ken uncover the philosophical...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/science-ethics-and-censorship. Science is, on the one hand, a huge enterprise funded to a great extent by the government and by industry. On the other hand, science is supposed to be the dispassionate, objective search for truth. What happens when the search for truth conflicts with the needs and desires of the funders? Should those funders be allowed to cen...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/autonomy. Philosophers call a person autonomous if she is responsible not just for what she does but also for the principles and rules that guide her. But does this really make sense? Aren't we all just products of culture, education and genes? Join John and Ken as they investigate the nature of autonomy with John Christman from Penn State University.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/ethics-journalism. Freedom of speech tells us the government shouldn't restrict the journalist. But should anything restrict the journalist? Should the duty to inform be limited by the duty not to betray national security, not to injure the innocent, not to corrupt the jury pool, and similar considerations? How do we draw the line? John and Ken welcome Dale...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/can-science-explain-consciousness. Human are conscious, billiard balls are not, and computers aren't either. But all three are just collections of molecules, aren't they? What is consciousness, and does it go beyond what science can explain? John and Ken probe the limits of scientific accounts of consciousness with Joseph Levine UMass Amherst, author of "Pur...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophical-shout-out. On this special pledge-week episode, John and Ken open the phones and the inbox to their listeners, answering questions about art, politics, proof, and philosophy itself.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/skepticism. Various forms of skepticism play important roles in the history of philosophy. Do we really know there are external objects? That there are other minds? That there is a distant (or even a not-so-distant) past? All the evidence we have for these things seems consistent with our being in a world in which they don't exist. What does this tell us abo...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/immortality-and-afterlife. Many religions contemplate some form of personal continued existence after death: reincarnation in another body, or continued being in some vastly different place like Heaven or Hell. Do any of these conceptions make sense? If so, is there any evidence for any of them? And why do people want continued existence, even immortality? W...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/wittgenstein. The Austrian/British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein exercised enormous influence over philosophy in the middle third of the last century, and his view and his life continue to fascinate thinkers around the world. What are the basic tenets of Wittgenstein's philosophy, and what is their enduring legacy? Join John and Ken as they investigate the...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/judiciary-democracy. In many democracies, the judiciary is protected, to one degree or another, from the voters. Our federal judges, for example, though appointed by elected officials, then have lifetime tenure. In more local venues, however, many judges are directly elected. What is the role of the judiciary in a democracy, and how much protection from demo...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/mental-imagery. In the Early Modern period many philosophers took ideas to be mental images of the objects they stood for. During the 20th century, that notion fell into considerable disrepute. Yet recent cognitive science has revived the idea that at least some of our mental representations are highly imagistic in character, not just mental representations...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/if-truth-so-valuable-why-there-so-much-bs. Everywhere we look -- in the media, in our political campaigns, in the hallowed halls of the academy -- we are confronted with an endless stream of BS, spin, propaganda, half-truths, and even outright lies. Yet for centuries, philosophers have argued that the pursuit of truth is both intrinsically good and instrumen...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/legal-ethics. Lawyers are often thought to be hardly better than hired guns, who, in the words of Plato, are paid to "make the weaker argument the stronger" -- like the sophists of old. In fact, lawyers are legally and morally bound by stringent codes of ethics. Noted philosopher of law David Luban, of Georgetown University, is the guest as Philosophy Talk e...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/weve-been-framed-how-language-shapes-politics. Does the hijacking of words by political forces tell us something interesting about the nature of language and meaning? Would liberals by some other name smell sweeter, or are they really tax-raising, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/promise-and-perils-new-genomics. John and Ken welcome their special guest, noted scientist and entrepreneur, Craig Venter. From the mapping of the human genome, to the patenting of synthetic life forms, to bio-prospecting for genetic gold in the depths of the oceans and the deepest reaches of the world's rain forests, Craig Venter has been at the forefront o...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-and-film. Despite the crass commercialism that drives the production of many movies, there's no doubt that film is a distinctive and distinctively powerful art form. Cinematic representations move us in ways that few others do. Film has also proven to be an outstanding vehicle for conveying philosophical ideas. John and Ken explore both the philos...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-and-neuroscience. Philosophers have always been concerned with the mind. What is consciousness? Representation? Emotion? Now that neuroscience is making headway on these same questions, we should ask: how should philosophy and neuroscience relate? John and Ken discuss this question and more as they delve into neuroscientifically-minded philosophy...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/american-pragmatism. Pragmatism is perhaps America's most distinctive contribution to philosophy. Developed by Pierce, Dewey, and James in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pragmatism holds that both the meaning and the truth of any idea is a function of its practical outcome. The pragmatists rejected all forms of absolutism and insisted that all princ...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/what-child. Back in the middle ages, people thought of children simply as little adults. Modern psychology has destroyed that theory. But then, what is a child? How are their minds different? And what are the moral implications of these differences for how we should treat them? Join John and Ken as they reflect on the nature of childhood with Tamar Schapiro...

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/dreaming. A scary dream brings all the fears that a scary real situation can, and a happy dream can make us feel truly happy. But what are dreams? Where do they come from? And why do they feel so real? Thinkers from Descartes to Freud have been fascinated by dreams and their philosiphical significance. Join John and Ken as they explore one of the mind's grea...