logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2014
1h 10m

Episode 56: Moral Heroes and Drunk Utili...

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
About this episode
tail spinning
Up next
Jan 13
Episode 324: Irruption of the Sacred
David and Tamler consecrate their podcast with a discussion of "The Sacred and the Profane" by Mircea Eliade. We focus on the first chapter on sacred spaces, where the divine breaks through (or irrupts) our homogenous and chaotic reality, creating a center that gives us meaning a ... Show More
1h 7m
Dec 23
Episode 323: Debate Me 'Phro
David and Tamler dive into Plato's Euthyphro, part of our intermittent Back 2 Basics series. A young cocksure priest, confident in his holiness, bumps into Socrates on his way to court to prosecute his father for a wrongful death. After a few rounds with Socrates on the nature of ... Show More
1h 8m
Dec 9
Episode 322: A Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities (William James' "The Stream of Thought")
David and Tamler return to William James' monumental "Principles of Psychology", this time wading through his famous chapter "The Stream of Thought." We talk about his rejection of empiricist theories of consciousness in favor of a view that consciousness is a continuous stream o ... Show More
1h 21m
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2023
#126 — In Defense of Honor
Sam Harris speaks with Tamler Sommers about cultures of honor. They discuss the difference between honor and dignity, “justice porn,” honor killings, honor and interpersonal violence, prison and gang culture, collective responsibility and collective punishment, retributive vs res ... Show More
46m 19s
Feb 2022
The dangers of morality | Rebecca Roache, Matthew Taylor and Hilary Lawson
tail spinning
37m 3s
May 2023
#48 — What Is Moral Progress?
Sam Harris speaks with Peter Singer about the concept of universal moral truths, the ethics of violence, free speech, euthanasia, animal welfare, and other topics. Peter Singer is the Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.  He is ... Show More
38m 53s
Nov 2021
The Quest for a Moral Life
<p>Note: This is a rebroadcast. This episode originally aired June 2019.</p><p>Do you ever feel like you’re spinning your existential wheels in life? That outwardly, you seem to be doing ok, but inwardly, you feel kind of empty? </p><p>My guest today would say that you’ve got to ... Show More
48m 56s
Dec 2020
Morality Before Metaphysics | Simon Blackburn, Raymond Tallis, Joanna Kavenna
tail spinning
48m 59s
Mar 2019
The Morality of the Artist and the Art
“Leaving Neverland”, a two-part TV documentary broadcast this week, details child sex abuse claims against Michael Jackson. The renewed allegations have prompted a debate about whether we should stop listening to his music. Some believe a boycott takes an important moral stand ag ... Show More
42m 55s
Dec 2020
Best of: The moral philosophy of The Good Place
After creating and running Parks and Recreation and writing for The Office, Michael Schur decided he wanted to create a sitcom about one of the most fundamental questions of human existence: What does it mean to be a good person? That’s how NBC's The Good Place was born. Soon in ... Show More
1h 42m
May 2020
Criminal Minds | Crime and Punishment
One place where law and morality are supposed to agree is that there should be no crime without a criminal mind, what is called “mens rea” in criminal law. But there have been a proliferation of crimes that do not require knowledge or intent, contributing to over-prosecution and ... Show More
55m 24s
May 2019
E30. Andrew Doyle Discusses the Dangers of Well-Intentioned Authoritarianism
Andrew Doyle is the man behind satirical Twitter account Titania McGrath – a radical intersectionalist, feminist, and slam poet, who is constantly telling people how oppressed she is – and author of Woke: A Guide to Social Justice. He and Bridget have a fascinating and important ... Show More
1h 29m