A History of Ideas

A History of Ideas episodes:

• 08.07.2015

  Neuropsychologist Paul Broks on Wittgenstein

  Paul Broks looks at the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the problem of "other minds". How do I know you are not a zombie who behaves like a human but actually has no consciousness? Even if you are conscious, how can...

  
• 08.06.2015

  Philosopher Clare Carlisle on Reality and Perception

  If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? That's the kind of head-scratching question that's popularly believed to occupy the time and brains of philosophers. It relates to the...

  
• 08.05.2015

  Physicist Tara Shears on Falsification

  Science is based on fact, right? Cold, unchanging, unarguable facts. Perhaps not, says physicist Tara Shears. Tara is more inclined to follow the principles of the Anglo-Austrian philosopher, Karl Popper. He believed that human knowledge progresses through 'falsification'. A...

  
• 08.04.2015

  Lawyer Harry Potter on Eyewitness Testimony

  Barrister Harry Potter asks whether we can believe the evidence of our own eyes. It's a vital question for the justice system today and Harry traces it back to the work of 18th century Philosopher David Hume. Hume, a key...

  
• 08.03.2015

  How Can I Know Anything at All?

  A history of ideas. Presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Each week Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking 'How can I know anything...

  
• 07.31.2015

  Writer Lisa Appignanesi on the Love of Children

  How should we love our children? Can we build on the feelings we experience when we see them for the first time, raise them by instinct and personal principles or should we consult the childcare gurus of the internet and...

  
• 07.30.2015

  Psychotherapist Mark Vernon on Freud

  What is love? Psychotherapist Mark Vernon looks at Freud's ideas on the Greek god Eros, which he saw as a kind of life force running through us, shaping our desires and passions Freud is often thought of as reducing everything...

  
• 07.29.2015

  Theologian Giles Fraser on Altruism

  Giles Fraser discusses gene theory versus altruism with playwright Tom Stoppard whose play The Hard Problem explores the extent to which our genes dictate human acts of love and kindness, and Armand Leroi, the evolutionary biologist who says we are...

  
• 07.28.2015

  Classicist Edith Hall on Aristophanes in Plato

  In 416BC the Greek playwright Aristophanes went to a drinking party. The guests included many famous Athenians, including Socrates, and all of them delivered a speech about love. Aristophanes' speech, says presenter Edith Hall, is 'quite simply the most charming...

  
• 07.27.2015

  What Is Love?

  A history of ideas. Presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Each week Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking 'What is Love?'. Helping him answer...

  
• 07.24.2015

  Philosopher Timothy Secret on Ancestor Worship

  If we're to live well together we must first learn to live well with the dead, says Timothy Secret. At traditional Chinese funerals money, and sometimes paper effigies of goods like washing machines and aeroplanes are burned so that the...

  
• 07.23.2015

  Philosopher Angie Hobbs on Plato's Philosopher Kings

  Professor Angie Hobbs asks if the key to harmonious living could be found in Plato's Republic where he proposes that the ideal state be run by philosophers and not by those who seek power for their own ends. Producer: Maggie...

  
• 07.22.2015

  Economist Kate Barker on the Free Market

  Is a Free Market the vital foundation of a fair, dynamic and creative society? The father of economics, Adam Smith certainly thought so. Since the publication of 'The Wealth of Nations' in 1776 Smith's thoughts on trade and money-making have...

  
• 07.21.2015

  Historian Justin Champion on Toleration

  Professor Justin Champion examines Locke's theory of Toleration through the inhabitants of Spitalfields past and present. He goes to Brick Lane whose famous mosque was built as a Huguenot Church and became a synagogue before becoming the centre of Bengali...

  
• 04.17.2015

  Philosopher Barry Smith on Descartes and Consciousness

  Rene Descartes, one of the most influential philosophers ever, thought the mind was like an open book that could be read by the light of reason. So there was nothing that we could not access or examine in our own...

  
• 04.16.2015

  Philosopher Jules Evans on Jung and the Mind

  Philosopher Jules Evans explores Jung and the shadow inside all of us. With archive contributions from Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud; plus fantasy writer Juliet McKenna and Mark Vernon, author of Carl Jung: How to Believe.

  
• 04.15.2015

  Writer AL Kennedy on Sartre and the Individual

  Writer AL Kennedy on Existentialist ideas about the individual. Jean Paul Sartre argued that, for humans, 'existence preceded essence'. This means that there is no blueprint or template from which to work - humans are free to make themselves up...

  
• 04.14.2015

  Paul Broks on John Locke and Personal Identity

  Neuropsychologist Paul Broks asks how we can be sure we're the same person as we were yesterday. The philosopher John Locke thought it depended on what we could remember: if we could remember something happening to us, then we were...

  
• 04.13.2015

  What Does It Mean to Be Me?

  A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Each week Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking 'What does it mean...

  
• 04.10.2015

  Historian Alice Taylor on Habeas Corpus

  Historian Alice Taylor explores the idea of justice through history, through the lens of power. Who holds the power? Who SHOULD hold the power? Who does that power serve? And who should it protect? One way in which the justice...

  
• 04.09.2015

  Thomas Hobbes and Civil Disobedience

  Criminologist David Wilson looks at 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes and his "social contract" theory. Hobbes argued that the only way to secure peace was for everyone to give up their personal freedom and agree to be ruled by a...

  
• 04.08.2015

  Philosopher Angie Hobbs on the Veil of Ignorance

  Angie Hobbs with Leif Wenar and David Runciman debate and explore one of the most searching ideas of twentieth century legal thought: John Rawls' assertion of the value of a veil of ignorance. John Rawls was a prolific American philosopher...

  
• 04.07.2015

  Barrister Harry Potter on Deterrence

  All this week Melvyn Bragg and guests are discussing ideas of Justice. Today lawyer Harry Potter uses the ideas of the philosopher Kant to ask whether deterrent prison sentences are just. He takes us back to the 1700s, when...

  
• 04.06.2015

  What Is Justice?

  A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Each week Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking 'What is Justice'? ...

  
• 04.03.2015

  Ayn Rand and Selfishness

  The Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand believed that behaving rationally meant putting your own interests first: you actually have a moral duty to be selfish. Altruism or self-sacrifice are immoral, she claimed, as is asking for help from others. Clearly this...

  
• 04.02.2015

  Naomi Appleton on the Buddha's Four Noble Truths

  Naomi Appleton explores the Buddha's Four Noble Truths in a week of programmes asking how do I live a good life. She speaks to a buddhist nun in Edinburgh who used to be a model, and investigates the link between...

  
• 04.01.2015

  Justin Champion on Max Weber and the Protestant Ethic

  Hardworking families, alarm clock Britain, shirkers and strivers...there's no doubt that ideas about the moral power and value of hard work are embedded in our culture. But where did these ideas come from? The historian, Justin Champion, explores the ideas...

  
• 03.31.2015

  Philosopher Jules Evans on Aristotle and Flourishing

  Philosopher Jules Evans wants to prove there's been a revival of Aristotle's ideas about flourishing and how to live a good life. "These ideas, which many of you might think are a bit dusty, they are central to modern politics,...

  
• 03.30.2015

  How Do I Live a Good Life?

  A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Each week Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking 'How do I live...

  
• 01.30.2015

  Archaeologist Matt Pope on tools and human evolution

  There's a tiny bone needle at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire. For archaeologist Matt Pope it's hugely significant. 13,000 years ago local people used it to construct tailored clothing which allowed them to survive and thrive at the very limits of...

  
• 01.29.2015

  Surgeon Gabriel Weston on medical technology

  Surgeons of the distant past were little more than skilled butchers, trying to minimise the agony of their bone-sawing craft. Surgery itself was a last-resort and one you might not survive, and if you did, one of many brutal contagious...

  
• 01.28.2015

  Historian Justin Champion on Francis Bacon

  Historian Justin Champion on Francis Bacon's anxieties about the fallibility of technological innovators. The 17th century polymath Francis Bacon blew a fanfare for the new scientific age: where man would dominate, understand and improve the world and use technology to...

  
• 01.27.2015

  Writer Tom Chatfield: Has technology rewired our brains?

  Is technology making us less human? Writer, Tom Chatfield is an enthusiastic downloader of the latest apps, an early adopter of anything small and shiny that promises to smooth his path through life. But Tom can't help feeling a little...

  
• 01.26.2015

  How Has Technology Changed Us?

  A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking how has technology changed us? Helping him...

  
• 01.23.2015

  Giles Fraser on Wittgenstein and Blade Runner

  Giles Fraser thinks being human isn't a matter of biology or some unique attribute like language. It's not to do with what we are but about how we treat each other. Taking the work of the philosopher Wittgenstein he argues...

  
• 01.22.2015

  Barry Smith on Noam Chomsky and Human Language

  Barry Smith argues that language is our most important uniquely human attribute. It doesn't just help us communicate, it helps us to think. He makes the case for the distinctiveness of human language against the limited signalling systems of other...

  
• 01.21.2015

  Catharine Edwards on Seneca and facing death.

  Catharine Edwards wants to introduce you to the Roman Philosopher Seneca. But he's dying. Towards the end of his life Seneca became interested in the idea that only human beings had foreknowledge of their own death. Animals didn't know and...

  
• 01.20.2015

  Simon Schaffer on humans, apes and Carl Linnaeus

  Simon Schaffer is interested in the human species in general and one member of it in particular. Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist and zoologist who set out the basic structure of how we name and understand life on earth....

  
• 01.19.2015

  What Makes Us Human?

  A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking What makes us human? Helping him answer...

  
• 01.16.2015

  Historian Justin Champion on William Whiston's Comet Theory

  Historian Justin Champion on Early Modern Comet Theory Those who watched in awe as the space craft Philae bounced its way onto a comet last November should hold a candle for William Whiston. Back in 1696 this British theologian, mathematician...

  
• 01.15.2015

  Theologian Giles Fraser on Thomas Aquinas

  If the universe exists what caused it to be? Theologian Giles Fraser examines the brilliant medieval scholar St. Thomas Aquinas' and his argument for God as the first cause of everything. It's part of a powerful body of ideas arguing for...

  
• 01.14.2015

  Astronomer Carole Mundell on the Big Bang

  What put the Bang in the Big Bang? On the 7th of November 1919 an announcement was made to the great and good of the Royal Society. Photographs from the observations of a solar eclipse had just arrived in London....

  
• 01.13.2015

  Jessica Frazier on Creation Myths

  How did the world begin? In the Old Testament it all starts with an act of God, but where did God come from? Dr Jessica Frazier, lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and fellow of the Oxford...

  
• 01.12.2015

  How Did Everything Begin?

  A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Each week Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking 'How did everything begin'? Helping...

  
• 11.28.2014

  Philosopher Angie Hobbs on the Value of Conscience

  Philosopher Angie Hobbs examines the concept of conscience or moral intuition and asks whether it stands up to rational scrutiny. In his Novel 'The Brothers Karamazov' the 19th century Russian writer Dostoevsky posed a moral dilemma – would it be...

  
• 11.27.2014

  Lawyer Harry Potter on Morality and the Law

  Criminal Barrister Harry Potter asks whether the law should enforce morals, and if so, which morals? Should the law tell us what we can and can't do? Or should it go further and tell us what is right, and what...

  
• 11.26.2014

  Neuro-psychologist Paul Broks on Morality and the Brain

  The eighteenth century writer Jeremy Bentham thought that telling right from wrong as simple: morally right things were the ones that increased the total of human happiness. Wrong things were the ones that increased the stock of suffering. His principle...

  
• 11.25.2014

  Theologian Giles Fraser on Moral character

  How do you make good moral decisions when you have no time to make them? This is a question that troubled Giles Fraser after he met soldiers who had served in Afghantistan. The moral codes Giles had studied required a...

  
• 11.24.2014

  How Can I Tell Right From Wrong?

  A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices. Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week the question is 'How do I tell...

  
• 11.21.2014

  Philosopher Angie Hobbs on Beauty and Morality

  Philosopher Angie Hobbs is interested in Plato's idea that there is a relationship between beauty and morality. The idea that goodness is beautiful and evil things are ugly is written deep into our culture. But Plato's ideas also suggest that...