About this episode
Apr 14
How they ruined philosophy | Babette Babich, Genia Schönbaumsfeld, and Christoph Schuringa
Did analytic philosophy ruin the entire discipline?For more than a century there has been a divide in Western philosophy between two distinct approaches, often described as analytic and continental philosophy. Analytic philosophy is predominantly based in the English-speaking wor ... Show More
48m 36s
Apr 6
A new theory of ethics | Martha Nussbaum
Do we need a moral reawakening? Is animal suffering simply a fact of life or can it be avoided? How did the US Navy break whale protection laws? Is there more to animal suffering than just pain?From the cruelty of the factory meat industry to hunting and habitat destruction, anim ... Show More
27m 28s
Mar 31
Crisis in the academy | Yaron Brook, Eric Kaufmann, Catherine Liu
Universities, long celebrated as sanctuaries of free thought and intellectual rigour, have for centuries been regarded as the best way to educate and conduct research. But increasingly, this assumption is being questioned. A recent study found that two-thirds of academics feel th ... Show More
46m 43s
Sep 2024
213. What Is Evil?
39m 15s
Apr 2021
Five: Prof Will MacAskill on moral uncertainty, utilitarianism & how to avoid being a moral monster
Immanuel Kant is a profoundly influential figure in modern philosophy, and was one of the earliest proponents for universal democracy and international cooperation. He also thought that women have no place in civil society, that it was okay to kill illegitimate children, and that ... Show More
1h 52m
Jun 2025
116 TEASER | Are We Losing our Morality? Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue and the Nihilism of Modern Society
<p>In this episode, we discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s landmark book <em>After Virtue</em>. MacIntyre, an ex-Marxist and committed anti-liberal, offers a defense of the Aristotelian tradition and its search for the truly common good against the dominant tendency of liberal societies ... Show More
10m 7s
Jun 2025
Why Morality Feels Broken
In a world of conflicting values, polarized opinions, and ever-shifting cultural norms, it’s no wonder morality feels... broken. In this episode of Rethink, Anderson, Sayenne, and Jose explore how our traditional moral frameworks are being challenged—from the decline of religious ... Show More
55m 8s
Apr 2025
Schopenhauer on Ethics (Part One)
On The Basis of Morality (1840), Part III: "The Founding of Ethics," Ch. 5: "Statement and Proof of the Only True Moral Incentive." Everything up to this point in the book has been negative: Morality can't be founded on pure reason as Kant thinks, or on the idea of the good life ... Show More
1h 4m
Oct 2024
215. Is It Okay to Do the Right Thing for the Wrong Reason?
35m 2s
Sep 2023
David B. Wong, "Moral Relativism and Pluralism" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Today I talked to David B. Wong about his book Moral Relativism and Pluralism (Cambridge UP, 2023).
The argument for metaethical relativism--the view that there is no single true or most justified morality--is that it is part of the best explanation of the most difficult moral di ... Show More
1h 3m
Nov 2025
Episode 148, 'Divine Commands' with Paul Taylor (Part II - Further Analysis and Discussion)
Most people believe in moral facts – that is, there's something about torturing and murdering innocent people that makes it wrong, which goes beyond just a feeling. Yet it's hard to locate morality anywhere in the natural world. For this reason, many have understood God to be the ... Show More
37m 53s
Oct 2025
Episode 148, 'Divine Commands' with Paul Taylor (Part I - The Euthyphro Dilemma)
Most people believe in moral facts – that is, there's something about torturing and murdering innocent people that makes it wrong, which goes beyond just a feeling. Yet it's hard to locate morality anywhere in the natural world. For this reason, many have understood God to be the ... Show More
31m 41s
Nov 2007
Guilt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss morality by taking a long hard look at the idea of guilt. The 18th century politician and philosopher Edmund Burke was once moved to comment: “Guilt was never a rational thing; it distorts all the faculties of the human mind, it perverts them, it l ... Show More
42m 14s
Can we make ultimate moral judgements?
Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes
For a couple of millenia in the West we have judged people and their actions by the standards of good and evil. But, from Mother Theresa to Winston Churchill the notion that an individual is simply good is hard to sustain. Almost all c ... Show More
<p>What makes normal people do terrible things? Are there really bad apples — or just bad barrels? And how should you deal with a nefarious next-door neighbor?</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a href="https://jonathanhaidt.com/">Jonathan Haidt</a>, professor o ... Show More
<p>What’s wrong with donating to charity for the tax write-off? Should we think less of people who do volunteer work to pad their resumes? And why is Angela stopping women in public parks to compliment them?</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a href="https://en. ... Show More
