Philosophy For Our Times

There is hope for academia after all.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesWe need a revolution. Universities are turning into corporations, students, academics and the culture at large is damaged as a result. Cambridge academics Michael Hrebeniak and Isabelle McNeill lay out their vision of how to revolutionise education by removing neo-liberal "outputs" culture and democratising the university once again.Michael Hrebeniak is a polymath: an academic, author, film-maker, ex-jazz musician, and journalist. He is Director of Studies in English at Wolfson College and Lecturer in English at Magdalene College, Cambridge.Isabelle McNeill is Philomathia Fellow in French at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, where she teaches French literature and cinema.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=a-radical-plan-to-save-educationSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is consciousness independent from our bodies? Or is it just a hallucination? Listen to find out.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesSomehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons work to create our conscious experience. How does this happen? Why do we experience life in the first person? After over twenty years researching the brain, world-renowned neuroscientist Anil Seth puts forward a radical new theory of consciousness and the self.Anil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. His TED Talk on the brain has had close to 12 million views and he is the author of multiple books alongside his blog, NeuroBanter.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=anil-seth-are-we-hallucinating-ourselvesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why do Flat Earthers believe the world is flat even when confronted with scientific evidence? Why don't anti-vaxxers "trust the science"? Listen to find out.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesDallas Campbell is one of the most celebrated science television presenters in the UK. He has been communicating complicated ideas to the nation for years. But what does it really take to mediate between scientists and the public? In this interview, Dallas shares his insights into the scientific community and sheds light on why we choose to believe what we believe. Gunes Taylor 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=dallas-campbell-the-big-ideas-we-choose-to-believe-inSee 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 if birds talk to each other like we do? Listen in to find out whether we are really all that different.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesMany think language makes us uniquely human. Are humans no different in principle from other animals and plants? Or is language profoundly different from all other forms of communication and the enabler of consciousness itself?Joining us to debate the uniqueness of human language are bestselling author of The Genius of Birds Jennifer Ackerman, philosopher and cultural critic Ray Tallis, and author of A Field Guide to Reality and Zed Joanna Kavenna.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=does-language-make-us-uniquely-humanSee 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 if you are a "good" person? Are any of us actually morally good? Listen in to find out.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesFrom fervent socialists to devout Christians, many have sought to live by a strict moral code. Yet from the gulags to the Inquisition it has often been those with the strictest codes who have perpetrated the greatest crimes. Is this just accidental, or is there something about a strict morality than makes hypocrisy unavoidable? Professor of International Relations David Chandler, award-winning journalist Ece Temelkuran, and esteemed philosopher Julian Baggini debate the hypocrisy of the good. Myriam Francois 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=are-we-moral-hypocritesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How much risk is too much? Listen to find out!Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesIn a Covid world we have been focused on safety. Yet almost all of us choose to engage in activities, from swimming in the sea to driving a car or having a bottle of wine, that carry risks. In fact, more died globally last year from alcohol than Covid. So how do we assess what risks to take and how much time and resource to protect ourselves from future risk?While it looks as if vaccines will bring the Covid pandemic under control, the next pandemic is potentially just a virus away. Must we act urgently now to safeguard the world from a further catastrophe? Or should we assess against other global risks and the cost and resource involved? Is our ultimate goal to eradicate risk or must we accept risk is unavoidable? In association with Seqirus.Head of Influenza Scientific Affairs at Seqirus Beverly Taylor, political commentator Ella Whelan and Emeritus Professor of Decision Sciences at LSE Lawrence Phillips debate playing with fire. Mary Ann Sieghart 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=playing-with-fireSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Was Planck wrong or was he into something? Our experts discuss.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesMost of us, scientists included, see physics as an attempt to provide an objective description of the world independent of human subjectivity and consciousness. Yet, Max Planck, one of major scientific figures of the twentieth century and the founder of quantum mechanics, stated as a result of his investigations and experiments: “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.”Should we listen to Planck? Can we plausibly see matter as derivative of consciousness? Might doing so help solve the deep puzzles facing contemporary physics and overcome the ‘hard problem of consciousness’ itself? Or does this outlook, as Einstein argued, undermine the very success and objectivity of science and take us back to a world of superstition?Cosmologist, theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton, groundbreaking physicist Brian Greene, esteemed physics and philosophy writer Amanda Gefter and eliminative materialism pioneer Patricia Churchland debate Planck and the Consciousness Puzzle. Catherine Heymans 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=was-planck-right-about-consciousnessSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Could this be the end of modernity?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesWhether it's the discussion on rising sea levels or nuclear waste, islands have gravitated to the epicentre of the geopolitical zeitgeist. But why are we more interested in islands than ever before? Professor at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, David Chandler explores the importance of islands in the Anthropocene.David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, and edits the journal Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman and the book series Routledge Studies in Resilience. His most recent monograph is Ontopolitics in the Anthropocene: An Introduction to Mapping, Sensing and Hacking (2018).Chandler’s long-term research focus is on new forms of subjectivity, shaped by both a retreat from the human as subject and the world as object.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=islands-and-the-anthopoceneSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Should narratives reflect or escape reality? Our panellists discuss.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesFrom fairy tales to Harry Potter, from Avatar to James Bond, we love fantasy and expect our books and films to take us there. Yet at the same time we want our poems and plays, novels and movies, to reflect life and reality.Should our narratives be seeking to uncover reality or be seeking escape from it? Or are both goals impossible? Are we on the one hand unable to create a narrative that tells it how it is, and on the other incapable of making a fantasy that does not reflect our current circumstances? And if so, why?Director and producer of The Pervert's Guide to Cinema Sophie Fiennes, leading figure in contemporary philosophy of art Noël Carroll and myths expert Betty Sue Flowers explore whether narratives should reflect reality, or escape it. Mark Salter 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=fantasy-and-realitySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are humans beyond nature?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesHumans are unlike anything else in the universe. We're the only part of existence that can observe and reflect on being itself, that can choose to destroy or repair our own habitat. Or so Raymond Tallis argues in this deep dive interview into what it means to be human. Watch to find out how we came to be so unique, what it means for our relationship to nature, and what Parmenides has to do with all this.Physician, philosopher, poet and novelist Raymond Tallis is ‘one of the world’s greatest living polymaths’ (Intelligent Life). He is the author of such wide-ranging books as The Enduring Significance of Parmenides, The Kingdom of Infinite Space and Aping Mankind.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=humanity-beyond-natureSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.