Philosophy For Our Times

Latest Episodes:

A Politics of Hope | Owen Jones Apr 13, 2017

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Where are the alternatives to injustice and uncertainty? Author of The Establishment Owen Jones makes the case for an end to despair and a new era of politics.

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Gravity | Laura Mersini-Houghton, Erik Verlinde, Frank Wilczek Apr 06, 2017

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We all think we know what gravity is. But where gravity comes from stumped Newton, and 300 years later we are no closer to an explanation. We don't even have a mathematical account of gravity that applies in all situations. Why is a force so central to the universe so elusive in its character?

Theoretical physicist Laura Mersini Houghton, Nobel Prize-winner Frank Wilczek and string theorist Eric Verlinde examine the enigma of gravity.

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Beyond Experience | Tara Shears, Hilary Lawson, Alison Milbank Mar 28, 2017

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We think we know what is real and what is not. Yet strangely we can't even agree what reality is made of - everyday things, particles and energy, or language and thought. Is reality essentially incomprehensible because it is beyond us? Or do we just need time and patience to uncover the truth?

CERN physicist Tara Shears, author of Closure and post-postmodern metaphysician Hilary Lawson, and theologian Alison Milbank question reality beyond experience.

In association with Philosophy Now.

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The Emperor's New Genes | Dennis Noble, Anne Bowcock, Rupert Sheldrake Mar 21, 2017

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The $3bn Human Genome project to uncover the genetic cause of disease was billed as ground breaking. Despite frequent positive newspaper headlines, critics argue we have uncovered almost nothing about disease. Will it eventually prove useful or are genes not the blueprint for life we had imagined?

Author of The Science Delusion, Rupert Sheldrake, Imperial College geneticist Anne Bowcock, and author of The Music Of Life, Denis Noble, look beyond the genome.

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The Limits of Freedom | Claire Fox, Julian Le Grand, Theodore Dalrymple Mar 14, 2017

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Freedom is a goal we all endorse. Yes as neuroscience shows and history suggests, we are less content when we have more choice. Is too much freedom paradoxically debilitating? Do we need constraints to thrive, and might our chains be key to our freedom? Or is this a dangerous conceit of the privileged and free?

Psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple, Blair's former Senior Policy Advisor Julian Le Grand and author of I Find That Offensive Claire Fox interrogate choice.

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The Illusion of Sense | Hilary Lawson, Rupert Read, Ophelia Deroy Mar 07, 2017

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From bats to beetles, animals sense the world differently in order to survive. Yet we think seeing and feeling tell us how things really are. Might our senses be radically limited? Are science and logic routes to escape our sensory limitations, or is feeling the rain on our skin the closest we get to truth?

Cognitive neuroscientist Ophelia Deroy, philosopher and author of Philosophy for Life Rupert Read, and closure theorist Hilary Lawson confront the limits of perception.

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A Tribal World | Julie Bindel, Brendan O'Neill, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Simon Glendinning Feb 28, 2017

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We see community and society as good. Yet communities are also fortresses of privilege and conformity, as migrants know only too well. Is the tribe, from the football team to the nation, to be feared and contained? Or is finding our place in a larger group the core of what it is to be human?

Author of Exotic England Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, editor of Spiked Brendan O'Neill, journalist Julie Bindel and director of the Forum for European Philosophy, Simon Glendinning, seek the truth about the tribe.

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Madness and Wisdom | Richard Bentall, Patricia Casey, Robert-Rowland Smith Feb 21, 2017

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Madness is understood as the opposite of reason. Yet as Van Gogh and Nietzsche attest, madness can also be an inexplicable source of insight. Might madness be a strange form of wisdom rather than its diseased opposite? Or is this to make light of a condition that requires treatment?

Author of Madness Explained Richard Bentall, psychiatrist Patricia Casey, and philosopher and author of Death Drive Robert-Rowland Smith dispute meaning and madness.

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Love Story | Helen Croydon, Naomi Goulder and Anders Sandberg Feb 14, 2017

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We want "I love you" to mean forever. But neuroscientists claim three years into a relationship and romantic activity in the brain has ceased. Can love only be known in short doses? Should we accept romance as fleeting and abandon long term commitments, or can we outwit evolution and make love last?

Screw the Fairytale author Helen Croydon joins Oxford transhumanist Anders Sandberg and Philosopher Naomi Goulder.

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The Known, The Strange And The New | John Ellis, Robert Rowland-Smith, Janne Teller Feb 07, 2017

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From Aristotle to Einstein humans have tried to make sense of the world. Yet despite huge advances a final explanation looks ever distant. What makes our lives and the world so puzzling and inexplicable? Is it the limitation of the human brain or is language not able to describe reality? Or is it too soon to give up on finding light in the darkness?

Eminent CERN physicist John Ellis joins philosopher Robert Rowland-Smith and existential novelist of Why? Janne Tellar to confront the strangeness of reality.

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