logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2024
28m 3s

Jonathan Birch on the Edge of Sentience

EDMONDS AND WARBURTON
About this episode

Recent zoological research has shown us that a wide range of animals are likely to have sentience. We don't know for sure. There is sufficient evidence to think that it is likely that, for example, lobsters can feel pain. What should we do in the light of this? Jonathan Birch of the LSE,  author of The Edge of Sentience, discusses this important question with Nigel Warburton. 

Up next
Nov 21
Samuel Scheffler on Grief and Time
<p class="MsoNormal">Grief is affected by the passage of time in a way that some attitudes and emotions aren't. Samuel Scheffler explores why this might be so in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.</p> 
21m 2s
Nov 2
Edouard Machery on Variations in Responses to Thought Experiments
Philosophers who use thought experiments often believe their own intutions in response to them are unviersal. But that's not always so. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Edouard Machery discusses his research on this topic, and some of his surprising conclusions. Th ... Show More
21m 36s
Oct 17
Lewis Gordon on Frantz Fanon
Frantz Fanon, who was born in Martinique, died aged 36. He nevertheless made very significant contributions to the discussion of racism and colonialism, influenced strongly by the existentialist tradition. In this episode of the Philosphy Bites podcast David Edmonds discusses Fan ... Show More
23m 11s
Recommended Episodes
May 2025
Beyond human minds: The bewildering frontier of consciousness in insects, AI, and more
What if there’s something it’s like to be a shrimp — or a chatbot?For centuries, humans have debated the nature of consciousness, often placing ourselves at the very top. But what about the minds of others — both the animals we share this planet with and the artificial intelligen ... Show More
3h 34m
Aug 10
#116 Peter Godfrey Smith - Animal Consciousness: What Can We Know?
Peter Godfrey-Smith is an Australian philosopher of science and writer, who is currently Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. Buy his books here. Timestamps: 0:00 How Many Times Has the Brain Independently Evolved? 4:36 What is a Nervous Sys ... Show More
1h 56m
Jul 2025
Ep111 "Might we be surrounded with undetected minds?" (with Michael Levin)
What is intelligence? If we look hard, can we find it in unexpected places: not just in brains but in all kinds of structures? How should we recognize it? And what does any of this have to do with a bipedal dog born without front legs, or making small new organisms out of single ... Show More
51m 33s
Feb 2022
Episode 105, 'Animals in Transhumanism' with Michael Hauskeller (Part I - How to Become a Post-Dog)
<div id="block-1c7dd56c727cd84c2be6" class= "sqs-block html-block sqs-block-html" data-block-type="2"> <div class="sqs-block-content"> <p class="">Welcome to 'Episode 105 (Part I of II)', in which we'll be discussing animals in transhumanism with Michael Hauskeller.</p> <blockquo ... Show More
42m 18s
Oct 2024
Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare
<div class="post__title__excerpt wysiwyg p italic mb1 mt025 pr2 o4 theme__text ">A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consci ... Show More
18m 9s
Jul 2024
Minds of machines: The great AI consciousness conundrum
AI consciousness isn’t just a devilishly tricky intellectual puzzle; it’s a morally weighty problem with potentially dire consequences. Fail to identify a conscious AI, and you might unintentionally subjugate, or even torture, a being whose interests ought to matter. Mistake an u ... Show More
32m 3s
Nov 2024
Consciousness predates life | Stuart Hameroff
Consciousness predates lifeDid consciousness exist before life? Could such a counter-intuitive idea, in fact, be the answer to the hard problem of consciousness?Join anaesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff as he puts forward his theory that consciousness came before the origin of life ... Show More
32m 25s
Mar 2023
Breaking through the consciousness stalemate | Philip Goff
Can we free ourselves from stale ideas about consciousness?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesSome argue that the reality we perceive is a controlled hallucination. Others claim that science is about to crack the ancient problem of ... Show More
26m 7s
Oct 2024
Do Primates Kill Each Other? Richard Dawkins talks to ethologist Frans de Waal
Richard Dawkins talks to ethologist Frans de Waal about animal behaviour and whether it is truly altruistic.    
1h 14m
Sep 2
A landscape of consciousness | Robert Lawrence Kuhn and Hilary Lawson
Will we ever reach a conclusive, agreed-upon theory of consciousness?Over the millennia of recorded history, countless stories, theories, and arguments have emerged to explain the origins of consciousness. And yet, here we are in 2025 - post-Plato, post-Descartes, post-scientific ... Show More
41m 19s