Philosophy For Our Times

Can morality lead society down dangerous roads? Listen to how our speakers deconstruct our idea of right and wrong.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesMany would argue that for at least a century we have been moving away from the moral certainties of traditional Christianity. Yet, a new form of moral certainty is now reappearing, with much of our culture seemingly gripped by a focus on virtue and a tightly policed sense of right and wrong.Should we welcome this return to virtue and embrace a moralism that will purge society of its newly found sins? Or are these certainties a new prejudice and the intolerant assertion of tribal attachments? Is our culture morally bankrupt in need of greater virtue, or could we be in the early stages of a Salem witch trial?Chief Executive of The RSA and former head of the No. 10 Policy Unit Matthew Taylor, ethicist Rebecca Roache and philosopher and Closure theorist Hilary Lawson ask whether it's time to move beyond our fixation on morality is misguided. Author Danielle Sands hosts.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=virtue-and-viceSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Free will? Nah...Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesDo we have free will? Are we exercising our agency or following our predetermined destiny? How would we structure our society if we believed that individuals are not responsible for their actions? Or maybe we already do?In this interview analytic philosopher Galen Strawson discusses free will, ultimate moral responsibility and the thin veneer of our own rationality. Strawson probes at how the narratives we require in order to have an idea of the 'self' allow us to follow misguided illusions.Galen John Strawson is an acclaimed British analytic philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind and metaphysics. His work covers free will, panpsychism, the mind-body problem, and the self. He has been a consultant editor at The Times Literary Supplement for many years, and a regular book reviewer for The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Independent, the Financial Times and The Guardian. He is the son of philosopher P. F. Strawson.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=Galen-Strawson-interviewSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Does life have meaning or is it time to embrace nihilism? Listen to find out!Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesHumans have always sought meaning beyond themselves in stories about the gods and the “beyond”. Yet today contemporary culture and thought has left many alone with only human, and contradictory, perspectives on the universe. In the absence of something beyond ourselves some would argue we have also lost meaning and purpose.Do we need the transcendental to give our lives meaning? Can we conjure a 21st century form of the transcendental in the philosophical mysteries of life and the universe? Or should we ring out a Nietzschean cheer at the death of god and focus our attention on creating our own, human meanings that have lasting value and importance?There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=The-Search-For-MeaningSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Can AI really help us reach our human potential? How reliant should we be on technology?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesWe all know that the world of AI is rapidly changing. What is less obvious are the ways in which we change with it. In this talk, complex systems expert and pioneer of the world’s first empathic technology, Fotini Markopoulou, explores how we co-evolve with our technologies, and what this means as we build a new world of AI and emotion technology.Fotini G. Markopoulou-Kalamara is a Greek theoretical physicist interested in quantum gravity, foundational mathematics and quantum mechanics and a design engineer working on embodied cognition technologies. Markopoulou is co-founder and CEO of Empathic Technologies.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=AI-emotions-and-the-tech-evolutionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Can language ever truly capture reality? Is there anything unsayable? Listen to what the experts have to say.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes"What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence", famously claimed the philosopher Wittgenstein. He primarily had in mind the relationship between language and the world, and more generally the very idea of metaphysics. Yet, a century after Wittgenstein's conclusion, many continue to wildly speculate about the ultimate meaning and nature of reality using our all-to-human language.Have we ignored Wittgenstein's clear message that we cannot know how language and our theories relate to the world? Are all our lofty descriptions about the nature of reality and metaphysics simply nonsense? Or was Wittgenstein wrong, and can we continue in our human quest to uncover the essential character of reality and our relationship to it?Author of the bestselling Zed Joanna Kavenna, philosopher and neuroscientist Ray Tallis, and post-realist philosopher and author of Closure, Hilary Lawson lock horns over how we understand the world. Hosted by author and research fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, Maria Balaska.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-unsayableSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Have you ever wondered how animals, robots and even aliens think? Listen to find out!Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesHow do non-human minds think? Acclaimed science writer Philip Ball provides a whistle-stop tour of the kinds of minds that might exist in the universe and how these might be similar to and different from our own.Philip Ball is a science writer and broadcaster. He is the former editor of the journal Nature and a prolific author of popular science books. Ball’s 2004 book Critical Mass won the Aventis Prize, and in the same year, he presented Small Worlds, a three-part series on nanotechnology for BBC Radio 4.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-mechanics-of-other-mindsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is there a universal moral code? Or are we lying to ourselves? Listen to find out.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesAbsolute moral claims are making a resurgence along with demands for action in response. Yet at the same time many proclaim the value and importance of upholding diverse cultural outlooks with sometimes radically different moral codes.To avoid this hypocrisy should we give up belief in a universal moral code, and see morality, as Nietzsche argued, as the product of a monotheistic culture which over the centuries has often led to violence and warfare? Or should we reassert confidence in our moral framework and deny alternative accounts? Is a 'universal moral code' a guise for the tyranny of western, Christian ethics, or is it the cornerstone of a fair and just society in any culture and at any time?Infamous anarcho-capitalist David Friedman, leading analytic philosopher Timothy Williamson and morality specialist Maria Baghramian dig into the true nature of morality. Robert Rowland Smith hosts.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-paradox-of-moral-codesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is it time to shift our perception of the universe? Listen to what the experts have to say.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesSince the 1970s we have understood the world through the lens of the Standard Model and its account of the forces and particles that make up the universe. But a series of deep puzzles have emerged. And now, even more significantly, a new force has been discovered throwing the whole theory into question.Can the Standard Model be modified to answer the increasing number of challenges it faces? Or is the Standard Model fatally flawed - and time for the next great paradigm shift to a radically different account of the universe? Alternatively, should we conclude that all theories have limitations and not worry about the flaws, however profound they might be?CERN research scientist Sam Henry, renowned author and theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, and distinguished philosopher of science Bjørn Ekeberg discuss whether it is time to move past the standard model of particle physics. Acclaimed science writer Philip Ball hosts. There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=new-theories-of-the-universeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What is wrong with truth? Can we find a solution? Listen to find out.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesThere are many varied voices who see the attack on objective truth as the root cause of all that is wrong in today’s society, including recently Tom Stoppard, UK Cabinet member Liz Truss, and Pope Benedict. But philosopher and renowned critic of philosophical realism Hilary Lawson warns this is a dangerous and mistaken response. Instead we need a radical new way of looking at the world. Hilary Lawson is a post-postmodern philosopher and is best known for his theory of 'Closure' which calls for a post-analytic return to metaphysics. There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=new-theories-of-the-universeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is there a connection between philosophy and psychoanalysis? A place for discussing children in philosophy? Listen to find out.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesPsychoanalysis and philosophy share a deep interest in what it means to be human and what it means to be in the world. At the heart of both philosophical and psychological investigations lies three questions: What can I know? What ought I do? And what can I hope for?Dr Maria Balaska discusses the connection between our psychological understanding of ourselves, and our philosophical understanding of the world around us.Maria Balaska is a philosopher at the University of Hertfordshire. Her book Wittgenstein and Lacan at the Limit: Meaning and Astonishment brings together philosophy and psychoanalysis on the significance and the challenges of experiences of astonishment.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=maria-balaska-interviewSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.