86. A Million-Year View on Morality

Frances Arnold pioneered the process of directed evolution — mimicking natural selection to create new enzymes that have changed everything from agriculture to laundry. SOURCES:Frances Arnold, professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. RESOURCES: "Innovatio ... Show More

Steven Pinker’s new book argues that all our relationships depend on shared assumptions and “recursive mentalizing” — our constant efforts to understand what other people are thinking. He and Steve talk about the psychology of eye contact, the particular value of Super Bowl ads, ... Show More

The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg wrote his new book in an attempt to learn how to communicate better. Steve shares how the book helped him understand his own conversational weaknesses. SOURCES:Charles Duhigg, journalist and author. RESOURCES:Supercommunicators: How to Unl ... Show More

Some animals, like sea sponges, can live for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. They also never get cancer. Understanding why that’s the case has led scientists to question conventional notions of ageing. The idea that future humans may never grow old now seems theoretically p ... Show More

Can humans ever be inherently good or evil?Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesWhether we see humans as essentially good or essentially selfish and violent has been central to our politics, our account of society, and our vision f ... Show More

In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast David Edmonds interviews Will MacAskill on the controversial idea that we ought to give the interests of future people substantial weight when deciding what we ought to do now.    

What would Immanuel Kant say about a fender bender? In a surprisingly funny trip through the teachings of some of history’s great philosophers, TV writer and producer Michael Schur (from hit shows like “The Office” and “The Good Place”) talks through how to confront life’s moral ... Show More

Philosopher William MacAskill of the University of Oxford and a founder of the effective altruism movement talks about his book What We Owe the Future with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. MacAskill advocates "longtermism," giving great attention to the billions of people who will liv ... Show More

Children are sometimes perceived as "defective adults", empty epistemic vessels that need to be filled with the knowledge of their elders. In fact, children can teach adults a thing or two when it comes to the getting of wisdom. But does this mean that children are philosophers? ... Show More

We think of grief as a normal response to the death of a loved one. We’re familiar with the so-called “five stages” of grief. Grief seems as an emotional episode that befalls us along life’s way, something to be endured and then gotten over. But grief isn’t as straightforward as ... Show More

Sam Harris speaks with David Benatar about his philosophy of “anti-natalism.” They discuss the asymmetry between the good and bad things in life, the ethics of existential risk, the moral landscape, the limits and paradoxes of introspection, the “experience machine” thought exper ... Show More

Albert Camus was a prolific French-Algerian philosopher and author who contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as Absurdism. He is also considered to be an existentialist. This video explores his main ideas: The Absurd, Revolt and Rebellion, as well as his most notable wo ... Show More