Philosophy Talk Starters

280: What Is Love?

14 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/what-love. It may seem doubtful that philosophers have much to tell us about love (beyond their love of wisdo...

455: Trolling, Bullying, and Flame Wars - Humility and Online Discourse

24 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/trolling-bullying-and-flame-wars. Open up any online comments section and you’ll find them: internet t...

502: Comforting Conversations (Part 2)

10 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/comforting-conversations-pt2. In troubling, uncertain times, the arts and humanities are more important than eve...

501: Comforting Coversations (Part 1)

03 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/comforting-conversations-pt1. In troubling, uncertain times, the arts and humanities are more important than eve...

516: The Examined Year – 2020

26 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/examined-year-2020.

457: Faith and Humiity

20 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/faith-and-humility. Some would argue that faith requires that one blindly—rather than rationally— be...

456: Are We Alone?

06 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/are-we-alone. News that life might exist or have existed on Mars or somewhere else in our universe excit...

454: Monstrous Technologies?

01 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/monstrous-technologies. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein raises powerful questions about the responsibiliti...

164: Hannah Arendt

11 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/hannah-arendt. Hannah Arendt was one of the most original and influential philosophers of the 20th century. H...

452: How to Humbly Disagree

26 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/how-humbly-disagree. People like to argue, especially Philosophy Talk listeners! But no matter how hard ...

500: Time for Summer Reading

21 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/time-summer-reading. When John and Ken began shopping around their idea for a philosophy-on-the-radio sh...

448: Frantz Fanon and the Violence of Colonialism

19 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/frantz-fanon. Frantz Fanon is a thinker who has inspired radical liberation movements in places ranging ...

397: White Privilege and Racial Injustice

06 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/white-privilege-and-racial-injustice. “White privilege” has become a buzzword in discussions about racial in...

354: Machiavelli

03 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/machiavelli. Niccolò Machiavelli is best known for arguing that people in power should use deception, force, an...

278: Poetry as a Way of Knowing

19 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/poetry-way-knowing. What is poetry? Mere word play? A pretty, or at any rate striking, way of expressing thought...

447: Fractured Identities

05 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/fractured-identities. Despite tremendous strides made towards civil and political rights in the United States, d...

446: Philosophy of Retirement

29 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-retirement. Many of us look forward to retirement, that time in life when we stop working for a livin...

444: Can Speech Kill?

22 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/can-speech-kill. Free speech is one of the core tenets of our democracy. We’re inclined to think that more spe...

497: The 2020 Dionysus Awards

16 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/2020-dionysus-awards. What movies of the past year challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in ...

443: Midlife and Meaning

08 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/midlife-and-meaning. At some point or another, the midlife crisis comes for us all. But what is it really about?...

442: Philosophy of Trash

29 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-trash. "One man's trash is another man's treasure," or so the saying goes. But what makes something t...

440: The Internet of Things

16 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/internet-things. Smart TVs, refrigerators, cars, and houses—the internet of things refers to the networking of...

439: A World Without Work

09 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/world-without-work. Work: a lot lot of people do it, and a lot of people don’t seem to like it very much. But ...

441: Race Matters

02 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/race-matters. Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, the #Blac...

438: Post-Truth Politics

18 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/post-truth-politics. You've probably heard about the dangerous effects of fake news, and the spread of sensation...

493: Ken Taylor Tribute

30 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/ken-taylor-tribute. The Philosophy Talk team was deeply saddened by Ken Taylor's untimely passing earlier this m...

436: Could the Laws of Physics Ever Change?

20 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/could-laws-physics-change. From airplanes flying overhead to the cellular activity inside us, all events...

434: Cognitive Bias

14 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/cognitive-bias. Aristotle thought that rationality was the faculty that distinguished humans from other animals....

435: Driverless Cars at the Moral Crossroads

07 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/driverless-cars-moral-crossroads. Autonomous vehicles are quickly emerging as the next innovation that will chan...

432: Habermas and Democracy

01 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/habermas-and-democracy. Jürgen Habermas is regarded as one of the last great public intellectuals of Eu...

431: Nonhuman Rights

24 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/nonhuman-rights. Human rights—like freedom from discrimination and slavery— are fundamental rights and freed...

430: Should Beliefs Aim at Truth?

10 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/should-beliefs-aim-truth. If beliefs can be described as having a goal or purpose, then surely that is something...

429: The Limits of Medical Consent

28 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/limits-medical-consent. In our healthcare system, parents normally make medical decisions for their kids...

427: The Space-Time Continuum

11 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/space-time-continuum. Strange things are said about time: that it's illusory, that it has no direction. But ...

426: Knowing What We Know (And What We Don't)

23 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/knowing-what-we-know. It seems like we know many facts about ourselves and the world around us, even if ther...

425: Queerness

16 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual… it is safe to say that new ideas of gender and sexuality have broken into mainstream consciousness...

483: Summer Reading (and Misreading)

01 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-and-misreading. What should you be reading this summer—and how should you be reading it...

424: Freedom of Speech on Campus

26 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/freedom-speech-campus. In the last few years, conservatives and liberals alike have accused activists on...

423: Philosophy Behind Bars

19 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-behind-bars. In 1994, Congress eliminated federal funding for college education in prisons. I...

419: The Mystery of the Multiverse

29 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mystery-multiverse. At the foundation of modern theoretical physics lie the equations that define our universe, ...

416: Magical Thinking

22 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/magical-thinking. Have you ever avoided stepping on a crack, just in case you might break your mother’...

422: Reparations

30 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/reparations. The United States brutally enslaved African Americans for its first hundred or so years of ...

421: The Value of a College Education

17 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/value-college-education. With 43.3 million Americans burdened with a total of $1.3 trillion in student l...

418: Matter and Energy: The Dark Side

03 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/matter-and-energy-dark-side. All the matter we have ever observed accounts for less than 5% of the unive...

414: This Is Your Brain on Art

20 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at philosophytalk.org/shows/your-brain-art. Humans actively seek to create and consume art, and the philosophical branch of aesthetics has long ...

413: The Big Bang – Before and After

13 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/big-bang-before-and-after. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing theory about the “birth” of the uni...

412: More Than Pun and Games

08 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/more-pun-and-games. Puns have been called both the highest and lowest form of humor. There is something ...

409: Radical Democracy

01 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/radical-democracy. Liberal democracy has its problems, including the fact that in trying to build consen...

411: The Mystery of Music

25 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mystery-music-0.

407: Philosophy of Sleep

18 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-sleep. "Blessed are the sleepy ones," writes Nietzsche, "for they shall soon drop off." Sleep...

406: Altered States

04 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/altered-states. Aldous Huxley explains his conception of the brain as a "reducing valve" of consciousnes...

408: The Philanthropy Trap

25 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philanthropy-trap. Many of us generally admire people who donate large sums of money to charity. Yet peo...

475: The 2019 Dionysus Awards

18 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/2019-dionysus-awards. What movies of the past year challenged our assumptions and made us think about th...

410: Identity Politics

04 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/identity-politics-0. The notion of identity has become so hugely important in contemporary political dis...

405: Affirmative Action – Too Little or Too Much?

21 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/affirmative-action-too-little-or-too-much. Addressing our nation’s history of racial injustice can be ...

404: One Child Too Many

14 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/one-child-too-many. The United Nations predicts human population growth will surpass 9 billion around 2050. We k...

403: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

07 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/why-something. The old metaphysical question – why anything exists at all – has perplexed and intrig...

472: The Examined Year – 2018

31 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/examined-year-2018. A new year offers an opportunity to reflect on the significant events of the previou...

399: The Ancient Cosmos – When the Earth Stood Still

24 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/ancient-cosmos. Even in ancient Greek society, philosopher-scientists engaged in heated debate about the...

402: Extreme Altruism

10 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/extreme-altruism. We can all agree that helping others is great, a deed worth doing. But devoting too mu...

400: The Science of Happiness

19 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/science-happiness. Positive psychology is an emerging science that investigates the qualities, attitudes...

401: Gun Control

05 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/gun-control. The right to bear arms, as guaranteed by the Second Amendment, is at once both distinctly A...

415: Election Special

29 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/election-special. In this re-broadcast of our special episode ahead of the 2016 election, John and Ken l...

398: The Ethics of Debt

15 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/ethics-debt. According to a report from the Jubilee Debt Campaign, there are currently 24 countries faci...

466: The New Golden Age of Television

01 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/new-golden-age-television. They called it a “vast wasteland” in the 1960s, but TV is very different ...

391: Your Lying Eyes - Perception, Memory, and justice

10 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/your-lying-eyes. The criminal justice system often relies on the testimony of eyewitnesses to get convic...

460: Summer Reading List 2018

20 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-list-2018. Summer is here – what philosophers, philosophies, or philosophical issues do...

390: Will Innovation Kill Us?

06 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/will-innovation-kill-us. Innovation, be it social, economic, or technological, is often hailed as the pa...

450: The 2018 Dionysus Awards

30 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

more at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/dionysus-2018. Josh and Ken talk to philosophers, film critics, and listeners in presenting their fifth ...

388: Living On Through Others

25 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/living-through-others. Imagine that the world will end in thirty days. Would your life have meaning anymore? Wou...

386: The Logic of Regret

18 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/logic-regret. A teenager decides, on a whim, to conceive a child. Even though we might say that this dec...

383: The Ethics of Drone Warfare

28 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/ethics-drone-warfare. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, aka ‘drone,’ is increasingly the weapon of choice...

380: Neuroscience and Free Will

18 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at philosophytalk.org/shows/neuroscience-and-free-will. We like to think of ourselves as rational agents who exercise conscious control over mos...

387: In Praise of Love – Plato's Symposium Meets Bernstein's Serenade

14 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/praise-love-platos-symposium-meets-bernsteins-serenade. Plato’s Symposium is arguably the most memorab...

445: The Examined Year - 2017

27 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/examined-year-2017. What ideas and events took shape over the past twelve months that challenged our ass...

363: What's Next? Death and the Afterlife

25 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/whats-next-death-and-afterlife. The question of what happens to us after we die remains as mysterious no...

368: Diseases of the Mind - Philosophy of Psychiatry

20 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/diseases-mind-philosophy-psychiatry. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is the primary reference catalog...

369: Democracy in Crisis

13 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/democracy-crisis. Democratic systems of government are supposed to reflect the interests of ordinary cit...

433: Summer Reading List 2017

05 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-list-2017. Summer is the perfect time to dig in to deep reading. Hannah Arendt’s The Or...

356: Racial Profiling and Implicit Bias

19 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/racial-profiling-and-implicit-bias. Whether for counterterrorism measures, street level crime, or immigr...

353: Babies and the Birth of Morality

22 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/babies-and-birth-morality. Doing the right thing is often an extremely difficult task. Yet psychological...

428: The Phenomenology of Lived Experience

24 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/phenomenology-lived-experience. Phenomenology is the philosophical study of experience and consciousness...

351: Remixing Reality – Art & Literature for the 21st Century

17 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/remixing-reality. For decades, literary critics have been questioning the relevance of the novel as a li...

350: Captivity

10 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/captivity. Whether it's people incarcerated in prisons, or animals confined in zoos, aquariums, laboratories...

420: The Examined Year - 2016

09 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/examined-year-2016. The annus horrbilis that was 2016 is over. But what ideas and events took shape over the...

343: The Reality of Time

01 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More at philosophytalk.org/shows/reality-time. St. Augustine suggested that when we try to grasp the idea of time, it seems to evade us: "What then i...

342: What Is Color?

16 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/what-color. Is the red you see indeed the very same red that anyone else does? What is the redness of red ev...

336: Science and Gender

29 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/science-and-gender. What does gender have to do with science? The obvious answer is ‘nothing.’ Science i...

334: Memory and the Self

31 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/memory-and-self. Ever since John Locke, philosophers have wondered about memory and its connection to the sel...

329: Dangerous Demographics - The Challenges of an Aging Population

29 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/dangerous-demographics. All over the world, people are living longer and having fewer children than ever befo...

326: An Eye for an Eye - The Morality of Revenge

11 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/eye-eye-morality-revenge-1. We are often taught that vengeance is a reprehensible or unworthy motivation and ...

325: The Limits of Self-Knowledge

27 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at philosophytalk.org/shows/limits-self-knowledge. Descartes considered the mind to be fully self-transparent; that is, he thought that we need ...

320: Life as a Work of Art

06 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/life-work-art. We know what it means for a painting to be beautiful. But what about a life? Like great works ...

323: The Moral Lives of Animals

31 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/moral-lives-animals. From Aristotle and Kant to Hume and Darwin, philosophers and scientists have long denied...

327: When Is It Wrong to Save a Life? Lessons from the Trolley Problem

16 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/when-it-wrong-save-life-lessons-trolley-problem. A trolley is approaching a track junction, and you happen to...

321: Memes - Viruses of the Mind?

26 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/memes-viruses-mind. Gangnam style, Lolcats, and Chuck Norris’ superhuman feats are all memes – units of c...

317: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times

18 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/ancient-wisdom-modern-times. If the Ancients found themselves transported to the modern world, they woul...

319: Finding Meaning in a Material World

22 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/finding-meaning-material-world. All there is in the world is physical stuff. That is the fundamental assumpti...

318: Freedom and Free Enterprise

09 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/freedom-and-free-enterprise “Freedom” means the human capacity to choose among options, based on one’s ...

312: Faith, Reason, and the Art of Living

02 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/faith-reason-and-art-living. It sounds plausible to require that all our beliefs be based on evidence and sou...