Philosophy Bites

Blaise Pascal's Pensées is the subject of this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Few philosophers know the Pensées well, apart from the passage in which Pascal set forth his famous 'wager' - the idea that agnostics should gamble on God existing. Here Ben Rogers explains who Pascal was, and why his book is worth reading.

The Problem of Evil is usually presented as a problem for believers. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Marilyn McCord Adams suggests that it is a problem for optimistic non-believers.

New technology is changing our relationship to reality and in the process what we are, argues Luciano Floridi, in this episode of the philosophy podcast Philosophy Bites. This is the fourth revolution.

What is a person and what makes me the same person over time despite change? John Locke emphasized that continuity of memory makes us the same person over time. In contrast Paul Snowdon argues that we should see persons as animals.

Michael Sandel. 2009 Reith Lecturer, discusses the moral limits of markets. You can follow Nigel Warburton discussing Sandel's first Reith lecture on Twitter on www.twitter.com/philosophybites from 10.15 p.m UK time on the 13th June as this lecture is broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Add '#goodradio' or '#Reith2009' to any comments you make on Twitter.

Philosophy Bites looks at ethical questions raised by enhancement. Technological developments have opened up many new opportunities for intervening in biological processes to improve ourselves. Allen Buchanan of Duke University discusses some of these and their implications in conversation with Nigel Warburton.

Moral psychology is the empirical study of how people make moral judgements. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Walter Sinnott-Armstrong discusses the relevance of psychological research to moral philosophy.

Pleasure is something we all want. But is it, and should it be the only thing that we want? Is pleasure all the same kind of thing? Philosopher Thomas Hurka explores the concept of pleasure in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the podcast Philosophy Bites.

This episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast focuses on Aristotle's Ethics. In conversation with Nigel Warburton, Terence Irwin of Oxford University explains the key features of this influential work.

Assisted dying, providing a patient with the means to kill themselves, is a highly controversial issue. For this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Raymond Tallis, who is both an eminent gerontologist and philosopher, discusses this topic and some of the moral issues surrounding it with interviewer Nigel Warburton.