Philosopher's Zone

Japanese animation is not just for children. It can be dark, incredibly violent and sexually explicit. But does it represent a distinctly Japanese worldview? And is it philosophical? Yes and yes, according to Jane Goodall from the University of Western Sydney.

They are among the most loved, or most feared, villains in science fiction. But what is it that makes Daleks such great baddies? What constitutes evil and why do the Daleks represent a very specific idea about rationality and morality? This week, we talk to a philosopher about what the Daleks have to tell us—in their mechanical, screechy voices—about who we are.

This week, we follow the journey of the classics as they spread from Greece to the Arab world and beyond. At a time when Europe still hadn't got its act together philosophically speaking, Arabs were busily translating and debating the ideas of Aristotle and others. We're joined by Professor Peter Adamson from King's College, London, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.

Just a few centuries after their deaths, Plato was thought questionable while his pupil Aristotle was all but canonised: there was almost a fear of criticising him. Everybody used his logic and Christians were drawn to him by his arguments about a first cause of all things. This week Han Baltussen from the University of Adelaide looks at the legacy of Aristotle and at why that legacy was worth preserving.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca popularised the philosophy of the Stoics, the Greek Hellenistic school. This week, Rick Benitez from the University of Sydney examines Seneca's teaching that contentedness is achieved by a simple, unperturbed life in accordance with nature and that human suffering should be accepted. He looks at Seneca as a writer of tragedies, and at the tragedy of Seneca's own life: he was tutor and later adviser to the Emperor Nero, who eventually ordered him to take his own life.

Greek Philosophy series to celebrate the work of the late Alan Saunders. Can philosophy be practical and compassionate? This week Martha Nussbaum, from the University of Chicago, talks about desire and Hellenistic ethics.

To mark the sad passing of Alan Saunders we bring you tributes from key thinkers and highlights from Alan’s rich Philosopher's Zone archive.

Lecture three in the ‘Thinking out loud’ series of lectures on philosophy and society presented by the University of Western Sydney in collaboration with the State Library of New South Wales, Fordham University Press and ABC RN.

‘Thinking Out Loud’ is a series of three lectures on Philosophy & Society, presented by the University of Western Sydney in collaboration with the State Library of NSW, Fordham University Press in the States and ABC RN.

What is the ideology that propels scientists to go to so much trouble? Think, for example, of the hazards involved in a voyage from Europe to our part of the world in the 18th century. Why would you go to all that effort just to observe the transit of Venus? This week, with the next transit just a few days away, we explore the philosophy of northern astronomy in the southern hemisphere with Simon Schaffer, professor of the history of science at the University of Cambridge.