Philosophy Bites
Episodes
Chike Jeffers on Douglas and Du Bois
20 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Frederick Douglas and W.E.B Du Bois were two prominent African-Americans who made a significant impact on the civil rights movement in the US. Douglas...
Alexander Guerrero on Lottocracy
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Democracy isn't working so well, so why not use a lottery system to choose representatives instead? Alexander Guerrero discusses his version of this o...
Tarun Khaitan on Decolonising Institutions
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Narendra Modi has spoken of "decolonising" India including its post-colonial constitution Are philosophical criticisms of this constitution well-found...
Janet Radcliffe Richards on What is Philosophy?
24 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Philosophers argue endlessly about what philosophy is. Janet Radcliffe Richards suggests that a simple way to approach this question is to examine wha...
Chike Jeffers on Africana Philosphy
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
David Edmonds talks to Chike Jeffers of Dalhousie University about Africana Philosophy. This episode was supported by the Ideas Workshop, part of the ...
Angie Hobbs on Plato on Power
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Samuel Scheffler on Grief and Time
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Grief is affected by the passage of time in a way that some attitudes and emotions aren't. Samuel Scheffler explores why this might be so in this epis...
Edouard Machery on Variations in Responses to Thought Experiments
02 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Philosophers who use thought experiments often believe their own intutions in response to them are unviersal. But that's not always so. In this episod...
Lewis Gordon on Frantz Fanon
17 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Frantz Fanon, who was born in Martinique, died aged 36. He nevertheless made very significant contributions to the discussion of racism and colonialis...
David Edmonds on Peter Singer's Shallow Pond Thought Experiment
05 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this interview of the Philosophy Bites podcast Nigel Warburton interviews David Edmonds about Peter Singer's famous thought experient about what yo...
Carlos Alberto Sánchez on Mexican Philosophy
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What is distinctive about Mexican philosophy? How much is it linked to its geopolitical context? Carlos Alberto Sanchez, author of Blooming in the R...
Ellie Robson on Mary Midgley on Animals
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Midgley didn't begin publishing until she was 59 years old, but nevertheless made a significant impact and had a distinctive approach. In this ep...
Sari Nusseibeh on Philosophy and Conflict
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many people think philosophical discucssion is a luxury in times of conflict, but the Palestinian philosopher Sari Nusseibeh is more optimistic. In th...
Robert Talisse on Civic Solitude
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Democracy is about acting as a group, but, surprisingly, Robert Talisse argues that what it needs to function well is a degree of solitude for citizen...
Hanno Sauer on The World History of Morality
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did morality evolve? Why do different cultures have such a similar set of moral norms and values? Hanno Sauer gives an evolutionary story that exp...
Takeshi Morisato on Japanese Philosophy
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most Western philosophers are deeply ignorant of Japanese philosophy. Takeshi Morisato who was brought up in Japan, and who has studied both continent...
Melissa Lane on Plato, Rule, and Office
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melissa Lane, a classics scholar as well as a philosopher, discusses some key features of Plato's political philosophy and shows its continuing rel...
Agnes Callard on Lessons from Socrates
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Does Socrates still have something to teach us? Agnes Callard thinks he has. Here she discusses the great Athenian and his continuing relevance with D...
Emily Herring on Henri Bergson
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Henri Bergson was once one of the most living famous philosophers. Now he is less well known. Emily Herring, his biographer, discusses this and some o...
Lyndsey Stonebridge on the Life and Mind of Hannah Arendt
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode in the Bio Bites strand of the Philosphy Bites podcast Nigel Warburton interviews Lyndsey Stonebridge, author of a recent book about ...
Ofra Magidor on Epistemicism and Moral Vagueness
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, there is vagueness about whether it is morally permissible (or even in some situations required) to perform a certain act—moral vaguen...
Robert Williams on Decision Making Under Indeterminacy
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How can we make decisions under conditions of indeterminacy? Robert Williams discusses this challenging issue with Nigel Warburton. This episode of ...
Peter Godfrey Smith on Understanding Minds
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Godfrey Smith is famous for his work on understanding the minds of other animals, particularly octopuses. In this episode of the Philosophy Bite...
Richard Bourke on Hegel's Philosophy of History
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hegel is a notoriously difficult philosopher to understand. Here Richard Bourke gives a clear route through his key ideas about history and how it unf...
Jonathan Birch on the Edge of Sentience
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Recent zoological research has shown us that a wide range of animals are likely to have sentience. We don't know for sure. There is sufficient evidenc...
Cheryl Misak on Frank Ramsey's Life and Thought
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Cambridge philosopher Frank Ramsey died aged 26, but in a short brilliant life he made significant contributions to philosphy and economics. Here ...
Elizabeth Harman on Moral Heroes
04 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Moral heroes are usually thought of as people who go beyond what is obligatory. Elizabeth Harman discusses whether sometimes we ought to act as moral ...
Walter Sinnott Armstrong on AI and Morality
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Can AI help us make difficult moral decisions? Walter Sinnott Armstrong explores this idea in conversation with David Edmonds in this episode of the P...
David Edmonds on the Life and Philosophy of Derek Parfit
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Edmonds discusses the life and work of Derek Parfit who died in 2017 in this episode of the Bio Bites strand of Philosophy. David is the author ...
Yascha Mounk on the Identity Trap
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Yascha Mounk discusses some of the ways in which focussing on gender, racial, and sexual identities can distort political argument and be counterprodu...
Mark Rowe on J.L.Austin
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
J.L.Austin was the best known exponent of what came to be known as Ordinary Language Philosophy. He was also a war hero. In this episode of the Bio Bi...
James Klagge on Wittgenstein
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode James Klagge discusses the life and times of Ludwig Wittgenstein with David Edmonds. This is part of our mini series on the biographie...
David Chalmers on Technophiloosphy and the Extended Mind
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Agnes Callard on Sex
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when people have sexual desires for one another? Agnes Callard from the University of Chicago discusses sex, eroticism, and much more in ...
Michael Lamb on Augustine on Hope
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Augustine is usually described as a pessimist with a bleak view of human evil and corruption. Michael Lamb thinks that is a simplistic reading. August...
Seth Lazar on Political Philosophy in the Age of AI
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
AI has changed our lives already and looks set to have a huge impact. How should we adapt our thinking about political philosophy in the light of this...
Hannah Dawson on Mary Wollstonecraft
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Nigel Warburton interviews Hannah Dawson (editor of The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing) on Mary Woll...
Scott Hershovitz on Law and Morality
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is the relationship between law and morality? How do they differ? Scott Hershovitz discusses these questions with Nigel Warburton in this episode...
Carissa Veliz on Digital Ethics
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Digital ethics is a new field. But what is it, what is its scope? In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Carissa Véliz, author of Privacy is...
Theron Pummer on the Rules of Rescue
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You might not have an obligation to risk your life saving other people, but if you do, you should go for saving the greatest number. That's more or le...
William MacAskill on Longtermism
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast David Edmonds interviews Will MacAskill on the controversial idea that we ought to give the interests ...
Kieran Setiya on Loneliness
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is loneliness and why is it harmful? How does it differ from just being on your own? In the latest episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, Kiera...
Edith Hall on Aristotle's Way
27 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How should we live? This is the basic question for all of us. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Edith Hall, author of the book Aristotle...
L.A. Paul on Transformative Experience
08 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We have all had transformative experiences. But do they have philosophical relevance? Laurie Paul believes they do. In this episode of the Philosophy ...
Josiah Ober on the Civic Bargain
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How do you solve the question of collective self-government by citizens? Josiah Ober discusses a fundamental problem of democratic societies: how we ...
Skye Cleary on Authenticity
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Skye Cleary approaches questions of human authenticity throught he lens of French Existentialism, and particularly through Simone de Beauvoir's though...
Peter Railton on AI and Ethics
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Developments in AI are coming very quickly. But it's not easy to work out how to deal with the ethical questions that AI generates. Peter Railton disc...
Clare Chambers on the Unmodified Body
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We all make some modifications to our bodies. But often this is in response to social pressures. So is there something to say for the largely unmodifi...
Peter Singer on Consequentialism
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Singer is probably the most famous living philosopher. He recently won the million-dollar Berggruen Prize and promptly gave all that money to ch...
Cecile Fabre on the Ethics of Spying
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Spying raises many ethical issues, but these are rarely discussed - at least by philosophers. Cécile Fabre, author of a recent book on the topic, Spy...
Ro Khanna on Digital Dignity
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this digital age, how can we organise society and the public sphere in ways that will preserve the sense of individual dignity? Ro Khanna, Congress...
Benjamin Lipscomb on 4 Women Philosophers
22 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Oxford during the Second World War four women philosophers came to prominence. Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, and Mary Midgley we...
Paul Bloom on Psychological Hedonism,
19 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do we seek pleasure and avoid pain? The moral psychologist Paul Bloom believes psychological hedonism gives an inaccurate picture of what motivates us...
Myisha Cherry on Rage
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stoic philosophers described anger as a temporary madness and argued that we should eliminate it wherever possible. More recently Martha Nussbaum has ...
Agnes Callard on Complaint
09 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We all do it. But is there anything philosophically interesting about complaining? Agnes Callard thinks there is. In this episode of the Philosophy Bi...
Arash Abizadeh on Thomas Hobbes' Ethics
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Hobbes is best known as author of Leviathan which is usually read today for its theory of political authority. Here Arash Abizadeh discusses Ho...
Steven Nadler on Spinoza on Free Speech
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Spinoza was famously heretical in his views. No surprise then that he defended free expression. Here Steven Nadler discusses Spinoza's views on this t...
Suki Finn on the Metaphysics of Nothing
08 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is the status of something that is an absence, like a hole? Suki Finn explores the metaphysics of nothing in this episode of the Philosophy Bite...
Peter Salmon on Derrida on Deconstruction
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jacques Derrida was a controversial philosopher whose writing could be fiendishly difficult to read. Nevertheless he had many followers. Here Pete Sal...
David Bather Woods on Schopenhauer on Compassion
10 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur Schopenhauer is best known for the deep pessimism of his book The World as Will and Representation. Here we focus on a slightly less pessimisti...
Samantha Rose Hill on Hannah Arendt on Pluralism
06 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hannah Arendt's experience of the Eichmann trial in 1961 led her to reflect on the nature of politics, truth, and plurality. Samantha Rose Hill, autho...
David Edmonds on Undercover Robot
28 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Edmonds has co-authored a children's book, Undercover Robot. Here in this bonus episode (originally released on the Thinking Books podcast) he d...
Steven Nadler on Spinoza on Death
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Baruch Spinoza was perhaps most famous for his equation of God with Nature - a view that his contemporaries, probably correctly, took to be atheist. B...
Kate Manne on Misogyny and Male Entitlement
04 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Cornell philosopher Kate Manne discusses the notions of misogyny, male entitlement, and the term that ...
Liam Bright on Verificationism
16 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Verificationists believe that every meaningful statement is either true by definition or else empirically verifiable (or falsifiable). Anything which ...
David Edmonds on Wittgenstein's Poker
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For this special episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast (produced under lockdown) Nigel Warburton interviews David Edmonds about his bestselling book...
Nigel Warburton on A Little History of Philosophy
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For this first of two special lockdown episodes of Philosophy Bites we interviewed each other. Here David Edmonds interviews Nigel Warburton about his...
Cheryl Misak on Frank Ramsey and Ludwig Wittgenstein
30 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cheryl Misak has recently published a biography of F.P. Ramsey, the great Cambridge thinker who died at the age of only 26, but who nevertheless made ...
Philip Goff on Galileo and Consciousness
09 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Goff discusses some of Galileo's insights into the nature of matter. He then goes on to discuss his own view about consciousness, panpsychism. ...
Elizabeth Anderson on 'Let's Talk'
19 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, recorded before the Covid-19 lockdowns, the political philosopher Elizabeth Anderson explains why we ...
Christian List on Free Will
05 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What is free will? Do we have it? These are difficult questions. Neuroscience seems to point in the direction of determinism. But Christian List sugge...
Emily Thomas on Wildly Implausible Metaphysics
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Some philosophers have drawn very strange conclusions about the nature of reality. Despite this Emily Thomas believes that their work may still be wor...
James Wilson on Real World Ethics
21 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Are thought experiments the best way of doing practical ethics? Not according to James Wilson. He thinks we need the rich detail of real cases or com...
Kate Kirkpatrick on the life and work of Simone de Beauvoir
08 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, Kate Kirkpatrick, author of a new biography of Beauvoir, Becoming Beauvoir, discusses the relationshi...
Kathleen Stock on What is a Woman?
21 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'What is a woman?' has become a contentious question with practical implications. The philosopher Kathleen Stock gives an account of the category 'wom...
Christian Miller on the Character Gap
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Christian Miller believes that there is a character gap, a gap between what we think we are like morally and how we actually behave. In this episode o...
Philip Pettit on the Birth of Ethics
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Where did ethics come from? Philip Pettit tells an 'as if' story about the birth of ethics that is designed to illuminate what ethics is and why it ev...
Helen Beebee on Possible Worlds
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Philosophers often talk about possible worlds. Is this just a way of describing counterfactual situations? As Helen Beebee explains, some of them beli...
Paul Sagar on Scepticism about Philosophy
27 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout its history there have been challenges to the status of philosophy. Paul Sagar discusses some of these in this episode of the Philosophy Bi...
Katherine Hawley on Trustworthiness
07 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Is it always good to be trustworthy? Can trustworthiness come into conflict with other values, such as generosity? Katherine Hawley discusses these a...
Teresa Bejan on Civility
20 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Civility is a conversational virtue that governs how people talk to each other. How important is it in political life? In this episode of the Philosop...
Robert B. Talisse on Overdoing Democracy
23 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You can overdo most things, but can you overdo democracy? Political philosopher Robert B. Talisse thinks you can. He explains why in this episode of t...
Robert Wright on Why Buddhism is True
07 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Wright believes that there are a number of key tenets of Buddhism which are both compatible with present day evolutionary theory, and accurate ...
Larry Temkin on Obligations to the Needy
02 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How can we best help other people? Peter Singer has argued that we should give aid. Despite a lifetime spent believing this, Larry Temkin has started ...
Sarah Fine on the Right to Exclude
14 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Do states have a moral right to exclude people from their territory? It might seem obvious that states do have such a right, but Sarah Fine questions...
Eric Schwitzgebel on Scepticism
11 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How do I know I'm not dreaming? This sort of question has puzzled philosophers for thousands of years. Eric Schwitzgebel discusses scepticism and its ...
Philip Pettit on Robustly Demanding Goods
10 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What is a robustly demanding good, and what has that got to do with friendship and love? Find out in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast in w...
Katalin Farkas on Knowing a Person
06 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Philosophers talk about 'knowing how' and 'knowing what'. But what is involved in knowing a person? Katalin Farkas discusses this question with David ...
Roger Scruton on Human Nature
29 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Are human beings fundamentally different from the rest of the animal world? Can what we essentially are be captured in a biological or evolutionary de...
Anil Seth on the Real Problem of Consciousness
19 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Hard Problem of consciousness is the difficulty of reconciling experience with materialism. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, in co...
Michael Puett on Ritual in Chinese Philosophy
26 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Why does apparently trivial ritual play such an important part in some ancient Chinese philosophy? Michael Puett, co-author of The Path, explains in t...
Aaron Meskin on the Definition of Art
30 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What is Art? That's not an easy question to answer. Some philosophers even think it can't be answered. Aaron Meskin discusses this question on this ep...
Shelly Kagan on Death and Deprivation
18 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The process of dying can be horrible for many, but is there anything bad about death itself? The obvious answer is that deprives us of something that...
Elisabeth Schellekens Dammann on Disagreement About Taste
18 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We certainly disagree about aesthetic judgments in a range of cases. But is anyone right? Is there no disputing about taste? Are all tastes equal? E...
Andy Clark on The Extended Mind
18 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Andy Clark, who with David Chalmers proposed the theory of the extended mind, explains what he means by this idea in this episode of the Philosophy Bi...
Stephen Davies on Art and Evolution
01 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we have art at all? There must be some evolutionary explanation. In this episode of the Aesthetics Bites podcast series, Stephen Davies discuss...
Eileen John on Art and Morality
01 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Aesthetics Bites, Eileen John discusses some of the ways that art explores moral questions. Nigel Warburton is the interviewer. A...
Chris Frith on The Point of Consciousness
03 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we have consciousness at all? Neuroscientist Chris Frith discusses this question with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Mind Bites which is pa...
Keith Frankish on Conscious Thought
14 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
One distinctive feature of human beings is that we can represent aspects of the world to ourselves, and also counterfactual situations. We do this thr...
Amia Srinivasan on What is a Woman?
01 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
'What is a woman?' may seem a straightforward question, but it isn't. Feminist philosophers from Simone de Beauvoir onwards have had a great deal to ...