Philosophy Bites

Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is a notoriously difficult work. In this interview for Philosophy Bites A.W. Moore of Oxford University gives a succinct account of this complex and influential attempt to clarify the limits of human understanding.

Philosophers of mind have traditionally introspected sitting alone in their rooms. Now new developments in neuroscience are producing surprising results, some of which are relevant to philosophy. Phenomena such as blind sight and mirror neurones suggest that we would be foolish to decide what is possible a priori. Barry C. Smith gives an insight in to this intriguing area in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

Ray Monk discusses the relationship between philosophy and biography in this interview with Nigel Warburton for the Philosophy Bites podcast. Can an understanding the life of a philosopher help us understand that philosopher's work? Is there anything that philosophers can learn from biography? Monk as author of biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, two very different personalities, is well-placed to address these questions.

Philosophy began in earnest with Socrates. He asked impertinent questions. In this interview with M.M. McCabe, Philosophy Bites explores the nature of Socratic Method and Socrates' claim that the unexamined life is not worth living.

Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas about art and truth run through much of his philosophical writing, but are most apparent in his first book, The Birth of Tragedy. In this episode of Philosophy Bites Nigel Warburton interviews Aaron Ridley about this topic.

Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling retells and interprets the story of Abraham and Isaac. In Kierkegaard's hands the story becomes a model for the human predicament. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Clare Carlisle provides an interesting overview of some of Kierkegaard's themes in this book.

How can we enjoy watching tragedy when it is a genre that deals with suffering and pain? In this episode of  the Philosophy Bites podcast Alex Neill explains what the paradox of tragedy is, and shows how he thinks it can be dissolved. He also relates this discussion to related questions about our experience of horror movies.

Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince is one of the most notorious works of political philosophy ever written. Quentin Skinner sets it in its historical context and explains its key themes in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

Plotinus, who lived in the 3rd Century A.D., was the founder of neo-platonism. In this episode of Philosophy Bites Peter Adamson explains what Plotinus had to say about evil.

What precisely is a legal right? Matthew Kramer discusses this question with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

Modern society is for most people synonymous with progress. Not for the eighteenth century thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau believed that civilization corrupts us in certain ways. Melissa Lane explains Rousseau's views on progress in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

How do we weigh lives one against another? Governments frequently have to make life and death decisions that take in to account such issues as the quality of life compared to the length of a life. In this episode of Philosophy Bites John Broome presents his view of how such decisions should be taken.

Jacques Derrida, father of deconstructionism, divided philosophers. For some he was a genius; for others a charlatan. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites Robert Rowland Smith defends Derrida's views about the concept of forgiveness.

John Locke, writing in the Seventeenth Century, argued for religious toleration, though stopped short of toleration of atheists. In this episode of the podcast Philosophy Bites, Nigel Warburton interviews Locke expert John Dunn on this topic.

Should minority groups such as recent immigrants or those who have suffered historic injustice be given rights that other citizens don't have? Will Kymlicka believes they should. Listen to his arguments in defence of this position in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

What goes on when someone does something deliberately? Jennifer Hornsby discusses this difficult philosophical question with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

In this bonus episode produced in association with the Open University, Tim Scanlon discusses the limits of free speech with Nigel Warburton. A transcript of this episode is available from www.open2.net/ethicsbites/

Do you own your body? If not, who does? These are important questions in an age in which there is extensive trade in body parts. Donna Dickenson, author of Body Shopping, discusses this issue with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

In this bonus episode produced in association with The Open University, Mary Warnock, a philosopher who also sits in the House of Lords, addresses the question 'Do we have a right to have babies?' A transcript of this episode is available at http://www.open2.net/ethicsbites/right-have-babies.html

Thomas Aquinas, the thirteenth century Dominican is the subject of this episode of Philosophy Bites. Anthony Kenny explains the key features of Aquinas'  ethics in conversation with Nigel Warburton.