Philosophy Talk Starters

Our entire archive is now to free to listen at philosophytalk.org, so this feed will no longer be updated. You can subscribe to receive full episodes at https://philosophytalk.org/get-the-podcast.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/schopenhauer-living-your-worst-life.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is considered one of the great European philosophers of the nineteenth century. His most famous work, The World as Will and Representation, presents a pessimistic view of a world filled with endless strife and suffering, where happiness can only be but fleeting. So, how did Schopenhauer think we ought to live with one another in such a world? Did he believe there was ultimately a way to overcome the pain of the human condition? Or are we all doomed to live frustration-filled lives? Josh and Ray keep a sunny disposition with David Bather Woods from the University of Warwick, author of Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/can-money-buy-well-being.

Governments and central banks set economic policies that affect us all. But how do those policies influence our quality of life? And how can that quality even be measured? Gross Domestic Product (GDP) includes many factors that have little to do with the regular person’s happiness. What do people really need, beyond enough to live on? And how can we make sure they get it? Josh and Ray spend some quality time with Jayati Ghosh from UMass Amherst, co-author of Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity.

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/logic-everyone. 

Logic may seem like a dry, abstract discipline that only the nerdiest of philosophers study. After all, logic textbooks are full of weird symbols and proofs about abstruse entities, like "the set of all sets." On the other hand, don’t we all try to think logically, at least in some contexts? Why do we believe, for example, it’s bad to contradict yourself and good to be coherent? And what’s the connection between the abstract rules of logic and the everyday practice of poking holes in each other's arguments? Josh and Ray entail their guest, Patrick Girard from the University of Auckland, author of Logic in the Wild.

Born into slavery in the nineteenth century, Anna Julia Cooper received a classical education, attended the Sorbonne, and became the fourth African American in history to be awarded a PhD. Her first book, A Voice from the South, offered one of the first articulations of how Black women are impacted by race, gender, and socioeconomic class. She believed that uplifting Black women through higher education would improve life for all Black people. Josh and Ray explore her life and thought with Kathryn Sophia Belle, author of Beauvoir and Belle: A Black Feminist Critique of The Second Sex.

Part of our Wise Women series, generously supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/diogenes-and-the-honest-life.

Diogenes of Sinope was a famous—or infamous—4th-century BCE Greek philosopher. Reportedly, he lived in a jar, performed many bodily functions in public, and wandered public spaces with a lit lantern in broad daylight. But what was the broader social critique advanced by Diogenes and his followers? What did they believe was needed for a life of freedom and virtue? And how does Diogenes continue to serve as a symbol of defiance to authority and artificial values? Josh and Ray defer to Inger Kuin from the University of Virginia, author of Diogenes: The Rebellious Life and Revolutionary Philosophy of the Original Cynic.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/civil-disobedience/.

Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King all engaged in civil disobedience, and are widely admired for doing so.  But how can democratic society function if each person’s conscience has to be satisfied for a law to be obeyed?  When is civil disobedience justified?  When is it required?  How does the concept fit with the great ethical and political philosophies?  John and Ken discuss the ethics of protest and punishment with Kimberley Brownlee from the University of Manchester, author of Conscience and Conviction: The Case for Civil Disobedience.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/william-james. 

William James is a great figure, historically important as a philosopher (pragmatism and radical empiricism), a student of religion (author of the monumental "Varieties of Religious Experience"), and psychology. Ken and John examine the life and ideas of this towering figure with Russell Goodman, a leading scholar of Pragmatism and author of Wittgenstein and William James.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/why-world-so-weird.

Quantum mechanics, mathematics, human consciousness…. whichever way you slice it, the universe is weird. How can our conscious minds be made from unconscious atoms? What should we make of quantum entanglement, or the fact that light can be both a particle and a wave? Why is it that there are exactly as many fractions as there are whole numbers? Josh and Ray raise an eyebrow with Eric Schwitzgebel from UC Riverside, author of The Weirdness of the World.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/the-examined-year-2025.

What happened over the past year that challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in new ways? Josh and Ray talk to philosophers and others about the events and ideas that shaped the last twelve months.