Philosophy Overdose

The nature of well-being is discussed in this introductory lecture from a 2023 course on Ethics and Society by Professor Samuel Zincke Elgin at UCSD, the University of California (UC San Diego).

Uploaded 28-12-25

#philosophy #ethics #moralphilosophy #utilitarianism #hedonism



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Professor Dan Robinson gives the final lecture in a series of 8 lectures on Thomas Reid's critique of David Hume at Oxford in 2014. “Like all other sciences, morals must have first principles, and all moral reasoning is based on them... In all rational belief, the thing believed is either a first principle or something inferred by valid reasoning from first principles”. As for utility, “Suppose that mice rescue the distressed person by chewing through the cords that bound him. Is there moral goodness in this act of the mice?” Beyond the armchair and other precincts of untrammeled speculation, one finds that, there is little purchase on a morality of pleasure and utility. Indded, “If what we call ‘moral judgment’ isn’t really a judgment but merely a feeling, it follows that the moral principles that we have been taught to consider as an immutable law to all intelligent beings have no basis except an arbitrary structure and fabric in the constitution of the human mind…Thus, by a change in our structure immoral things could become moral…There are beings who can’t perceive mathematical truths; but no defect, no error of understanding, can make what is true to be false”.

Uploaded 20-06-21

Under “David Hume”, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy begins with, “The most important philosopher ever to write in English”. His most formidable contemporary critic was the fellow Scot, Thomas Reid, the major architect of so-called Scottish Common Sense Philosophy. The most significant features of Hume’s work, as understood by Reid, are the representive theory of perception, the nature of causation and causal concepts, the nature of personal identity and the foundations of morality. Each of these topics is presented in a pair of lectures, the first summarizing Hume’s position and the second Reid’s critique of that position.

All Lectures: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP9EhPApKE9nki7CXFPi7PMOi5W2g2-q

#philosophy #davidhume #ethics #moralphilosophy #historyofphilosophy



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Audio recording of a 1979 lecture by Hans-Georg Gadamer on tradition and education that was delivered in English at the University of Dallas.

Uploaded 29-04-26

#philosophy #gadamer #historyofphilosophy



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A short, somewhat random clip of Ray Monk discussing the distinction between concepts and percepts (or "intuitions" in the Kantian jargon), as well as some of the possible implications for modern science and beyond. More Short Clips: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP9EhPApKE8v8UVlc7JuuNHwvhkaOvzc

Uploaded 21-06-21

This is from a talk given by Ray Monk a few years back on the philosophical landscape of 1905, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yfwFoVlcMk

#philosophy #epistemology #kant #historyofphilosophy



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Frances Kamm gives a talk called "How Was the Trolley Turned?" which is the second in a series of lectures on the Trolley Problem called "The Trolley Problem Mysteries: May We Harm Some to Save Others?". This was part of the Tanner Lecture Series given at Berkeley in 2013 with commentary by Thomas Hurka and Shelly Kagan.

Uploaded 05-03-24

Note, the introductions for all the speakers have been edited out. Frances Kamm is a distinguished philosopher whose work focuses on normative and applied ethics. More particularly, her research has taken up issues in nonconsequentialist ethical theory and the moral problems of mortality, bioethics, torture and war. Her writings deftly engage both the theoretical aspects of morality and their practical applications, probing the structure of the moral realm through rigorous reflection on ingenious hypothetical cases and thought experiments.

00:00 Frances Kamm's Lecture
1:00:01 Tom Hurka
1:17:08 Shelly Kagan
1:34:45 Response
1:42:26 Q and A

#philosophy #ethics #moralphilosophy #utilitarianism



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Ted Honderich pushes Sir Roger Penrose about his view about consciousness and whether it involves a relation of identity, presenting something of a dilemma in the process. These clips come from a 1999 exchange on consciousness in an episode of the In Our Time podcast with Melvyn Brαgg. For more information and full episodes of In Our Time, go to: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl

Uploaded 05-04-26

#philosophy #philosophyofmind #consciousness #metaphysics #materialism



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Adam Toon gives the second lecture in a series of six on the nature of the mind called "The Story of the Mind: Cartesianism, Behaviourism and Fictionalism". These lectures were part of the 2023 Gottlob Frege lectures in theoretical philosophy given at the University of Tartu in December of 2023.

Uploaded 23-01-24

We often talk about the mind as an inner world. Cartesianism takes such talk seriously. Once, our inner world was taken to be a strange, immaterial substance. Today, we are told it will be found in the brain. Over the years, some have tried to do without this inner world, most notably behaviourists. But their efforts have largely been in vain. These lectures propose a new approach to the mind, known as mental fictionalism. According to this approach, our concept of mind is a metaphorical one: we project the “outer world” of human culture, especially language, onto the “inner world” of the mind. This inner world is a useful fiction: it does not exist—and yet we cannot avoid talking about it. The lectures introduce this idea and explore its implications for key questions concerning the origins, boundaries, and history of the mind. The lectures are based on Adam Toon’s recent book "Mind as Metaphor: A Defence of Mental Fictionalism" (Oxford University Press, 2023).

Adam Toon is an Associate Professor at the University of Exeter and Deputy Director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge and the London School of Economics. After his PhD, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Bielefeld and holder of a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship. He works in philosophy of science and philosophy of mind and is also interested in the sociology of scientific knowledge. He is the author of "Mind as Metaphor: A Defence of Mental Fictionalism" (Oxford University Press, 2023) and "Models as Make-Believe: Imagination, Fiction and Scientific Representation" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). He is also co-editor (with Tamás Demeter and Ted Parent) of "Mental Fictionalism: Philosophical Explorations" (Routledge, 2022).

00:00 Intro
01:42 Talk
1:08:23 Q and A

#philosophy #metaphysics #philosophyofmind #mind #psychology



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Audio recording of a lecture by Professor Jonathan Wolff (University of Oxford) on Equality and Hierarchy in 2018 as part of the Aristotelian Society lectures. For more information about the Aristotelian Society: www.aristoteliansociety.org.uk

Uploaded 21-07-21

#philosophy #politicalphilosophy #politicaltheory #ethics #moralphilosophy #socialequality #historyofphilosophy



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Audio recording of a 1973 lecture by Ernest Nagel on the supremacy of method at Columbia University.

Uploaded 19-03-26

#philosophy #science #epistemology #philosophyofscience #skepticism #relativism #historyofphilosophy



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Audio recording of a short program in which Anthony Quinton discusses the life and thought of the great 17th-century rationalist philosopher, Baruch Spinoza. This comes from a 1977 series of programs on the moulders of western philosophy.

Uploaded 22-10-24

#philosophy #spinoza #metaphysics #philosopher #historyofphilosophy



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