philosophy bites

Josiah Ober on the Civic Bargain

How do you solve the question of collective self-government by citizens? Josiah Ober argues that we need to become civic friends, a concept he explains in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Listen to Josiah Ober on the Civic Bargain

Skye Cleary on Authenticity

What is authenticity and how can we achieve it? Skye Cleary discusses this important question through the lens of Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy.

Listen to Skye Cleary on Authenticity

Peter Railton on AI and Ethics

Technological developments have transformed Artificial Intelligence in the last decade. Can ethics move quickly enough to keep apace of it? Peter Railton discusses some of the problems that arise when thinking about ethics and AI with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. 

Peter Railton gave the 2022 Uehiro Lectures on Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

Listen to Peter Railton's Philosophy Bites interview on Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

Clare Chambers on the Unmodified Body

Throughout history people have modified their bodies one way or another. But how much of this is morally acceptable? In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, the philosopher Claire Chambers  bucks the trend and makes a cases for the  unmodified body. Clare was interviewed by David Edmonds.

Listen to Clare Chambers on the Unmodified Body

 

Peter Singer on Consequentialism

Peter Singer's positions on animals, human suffering, poverty, and much else besides are all underpinned by his consequentialism: he believes that the right thing to do is to maximise happiness. Here he explains what that means in practice, and in particular what it means for rich people...

 

Listen to Peter Singer on Consequentialism

Listen to a short clip of Peter Singer explaining why he gave the million-dollar Berggruen Prize money away

Listen to a short clip of Peter Singer on the importance of writing clearly in the humanities and in philosophy

 

Previous interviews with Peter Singer on Philosophy Bites:

Listen to Peter Singer on Life and Death Decision-Making

Listen to Peter Singer on Henry Sidgwick's Ethics

Listen to Peter Singer on The Life You Can Save

Listen to Peter Singer on Human Use of Animals

 

 

 

Cécile Fabre on the Ethics of Spying

Is it immoral to act as a spy? We hear a great deal about the ethics of just wars, but very little about the ethics of spying. Here Cécile Fabre discusses some of the ethical implications of spying in its various forms. 

Listen to Cécile Fabre on the Ethics of Spying

Ro Khanna on Digital Dignity

The Internet and digital technology have transformed our lives. Is it possible to preserve human dignity in the face of technological progress? Ro Khanna explains how he things this can be possible.

Listen to Ro Khanna on Digital Dignity

Benjamin Lipscomb on Four Women Philosophers

Benjamin Lipscomb, in conversation with David Edmonds, discusses how four women philosophers, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch met in Oxford and went on to make significant contributions to philosophy. 

Listen to Benjamin Lipscomb on Four Women Philosophers

Paul Bloom on Psychological Hedonism

Many philosophers have argued that we pursue pleasure. But perhaps things aren't as simple as that. Perhaps sometimes we pursue pain or discomfort too. Paul Bloom explains.

Listen to Paul Bloom on Psychological Hedonism

 

Myisha Cherry on Rage

Seneca famously declared that anger is a useless emotion and suggested a variety of ways to avoid feeling it. Myisha Cherry in contrast, argues that rage can be a useful emotion, particularly rage against racial injustice. In discussion with Nigel Warburton she explains the importance of this kind of emotion in motivating action and bringing about political change. 

Listen to Myisha Cherry on Rage

Agnes Callard on Complaint

Agnes Callard discusses the nature of complaint and its philosophical importance. 

Listen to Agnes Callard on Complaint

Arash Abizadeh on Thomas Hobbes' Ethics

Thomas Hobbes is best known for his account of why we should accept political authority. But, argues Arash Abizadeh, that was Hobbes' solution to the problem of how we should live together in society that arises directly from his views about what human beings are and what obligations we have to one another. 

Listen to Arash Abizadeh on Thomas Hobbes' Ethics

 

Steven Nadler on Spinoza on Free Speech

Spinoza expert Steven Nadler discusses Spinoza's views on free speech in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. 

Listen to Steven Nadler on Spinoza on Free Speech

Listen to an earlier Philosophy Bites interview with Steven Nadler on Spinoza on Death

Please consider supporting Philosophy Bites, either via the links in the sidebar or on Patreon.

Read Nigel Warburton's recent Five Books interview with Steven Nadler on the best books by and about Spinoza

 

Suki Finn on the Metaphysics of Nothing

What is the status of something that is an absence, like a hole? Suki Finn explores the metaphysics of nothing in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Suki is also the editor of a new book based on Philosophy Bites interviews with women philosophers selected from our archive Women of Ideas, to be published by Oxford University Press in April.

Listen to Suki Finn on the Metaphysics of Nothing

You might also be interested in this previous related Philosophy Bites interview with Tim Crane:

Listen to Tim Crane on Non-Existence

Women of Ideas edited by Suki Finn

We are delighted to announce that Suki Finn, lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, has selected and edited a collection of transcripts of Philosophy Bites interviews with women. This is to be published by Oxford University Press as Women of Ideas on 22nd April 2021. This is the fourth book of interviews from Philosophy Bites. 

From Amia Srinivasan on gender to Mary Warnock on public philosophy, from Martha Naussbaum on disgust to Onora O’Neill on consent, this new volume features interviews with leading women philosophers on some of the pressing issues in the world today.

Here is a list of the interviews included in Women of Ideas:

Amia Srinivasan: What is a Woman?

Janet Radcliffe Richards: Men's and Women's Natures

Patricia Smith Churchland: What neuroscience can teach us about morality

Christine M. Korsgaard: The Status of Animals

Ashwini Vasanthakumar: Do victims have obligations too?

Miranda Fricker: Blame and Historic Injustice

Kimberley Brownlee: Social Deprivation

Sarah Fine: The Right to Exclude

Anne Phillips: Multiculturalism and Liberalism

Jennifer Saul: Implicit Bias

Martha C. Nussbaum: Disgust

Elisabeth Schellekens: Disagreement about Taste

Emma Borg: Language and Context

Rebecca Roache: Swearing

Teresa M. Bejan: Civility

Katherine Hawley: Trustworthiness

Onora O'Neill: Medical Consent

Katalin Farkas: Knowing a Person

Jennifer Nagel: Intuitions about Knowledge

Susan James: Michel Foucault and Knowledge

Kate Kirkpatrick: The Life and Work of Simone de Beauvoir

Katherine J. Morris: Merleau-Ponty on the Body

Alison Gopnik: Hume and Buddhism

Katrin Flikschuh: Philosophy in Africa

Angie Hobbs: Plato on War

Helen Beebee: Possible Worlds

Tamar Szabó Gendler: Why Philosophers use Examples

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein: Progress in Philosophy

Mary Warnock: Philosophy and Public Life

About the editor:

Suki Finn is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. She researches in the areas of metametaphysics, the philosophy of logic, the metaphysics of pregnancy, the epistemology of love, and feminist and queer theory. Suki has published her work in various philosophy journals, edited collections, and in the online magazine Aeon. Women of Ideasis Suki’s first book. Suki is on the Executive Committee for the Society for Women in Philosophy UK, and on the Council for the Royal Institute of Philosophy. In her other life, Suki is a musician. Suki is represented by Ben Clark at the Soho Agency.

Women of Ideas is already available for pre-order:

Peter Salmon on Derrida on Deconstruction

Jacques Derrida was a controversial philosopher, and his writing could be fiendishly difficult to read. He nevertheless attracted many followers and imitators. Here Peter Salmon, author of a recent biography of Derrida, explains Derrida's key concept: deconstruction.

Listen to Pete Salmon on Derrida on Deconstruction

 

David Bather Woods on Schopenhauer on Compassion

Arthur Schopenhauer is best known for the pessimism of his The World as Will and Representation. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast we focus on a  less pessimistic aspect of his thought: his views on compassion. Unusually for an early nineteenth century European thinker, he was very influenced by his reading of Indian philosophy. David Bather Woods is the interviewee.

Listen to David Bather Woods on Arthur Schopenhauer on Compassion

You might also be interested in this essay on Schopenhauer and Happiness that David Bather Woods wrote for the online magazine Aeon, and in this interview he did on Schopenhauer for the website Five Books.

We are very grateful to St John's College for sponsorship of this episode. St John's College offers in-person and online courses focused on great books. Find out more here.

 

Samantha Hill on Hannah Arendt on Pluralism

Hannah Arendt's experience of the Eichmann trial in 1961 and of the reaction to her book about this, Eichmann in Jerusalem, led her to think deeply about politics, truth, and plurality. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Samantha Rose Hill, author of a biography of Arendt, explains the context, and outlines the key features of Arendt's approach.

Listen to Samantha Rose Hill on Hannah Arendt on Plurality

We are grateful for sponsorship of this episode from St John's College. You can find out more about St John's College, including online options, at www.sjc.edu/podcast

 

Bonus Episode - David Edmonds on Undercover Robot

David Edmonds has co-authored (with Bertie Frasier) a brilliant children's book Undercover Robot: My First Year as a Human. Listen to David discussing this book with Nigel Warburton on this bonus episode of Philosophy Bites originally released on Nigel's Thinking Books podcast.

Listen to David Edmonds discussing Undercover Robot

 

 

Steven Nadler on Spinoza on Death

Baruch Spinoza was famous for equating God with Nature - a view that many of his contemporaries, perhaps rightly, thought was a form of atheism. But what did he think about death? Spinoza expert Steven Nadler, author of A Book Forged in Hell, and more recently Think Least of Death, discusses this aspect of his thought with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. 

Listen to Steven Nadler on Spinoza on Death

Please consider supporting Philosophy Bites, either via the links in the sidebar or on Patreon.

Read Nigel Warburton's recent Five Books interview with Steven Nadler on the best books by and about Spinoza