Philosophy Talk

The Reality of Time

18 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

St. Augustine suggested that when we try to grasp the idea of time, it seems to evade us: “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it ...

Seeing Red: The World in Color

04 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Is the red you see indeed the very same red that anyone else does? What is the redness of red even like? These sorts of questions are not just amusing...

Risky Business: The Business of Risk

27 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

There is an element of risk – either to ourselves or to others – in almost everything we do. By deciding to go to the grocery store, for example, ...

Conspiracy Theories

20 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Some claim that the collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 was actually caused by a controlled demolition orchestrated by the U.S. governme...

Weapons of Mass Destruction

30 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

The United States recently threatened military action against Syria in response to the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons. Similar ...

Acting Together

16 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Many goals are too complex for one person to accomplish alone. Every day, we pool together our planning abilities with those around us to get things d...

Simone de Beauvoir

09 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Simone de Beauvoir is often cast as only a novelist or a mere echo of Jean-Paul Sartre. But she authored many philosophical texts beyond The Second S...

Science and Gender

02 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

What does gender have to do with science? The obvious answer is ‘nothing.’ Science is the epitome of an objective, rational, and disinterested ent...

The Legacy of Freud

09 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Did you really want to eat that last piece of cake, or were you secretly thinking about your mother? Sigmund Freud, who might have suggested the latte...

Memory and the Self

26 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Ever since John Locke, philosophers have wondered about memory and its connection to the self. Locke believed that a continuity of consciousness and m...

Moral Luck

12 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

It seems reasonable to believe that we can only be blamed or praised for actions that are under our control. Nevertheless, in many concrete scenarios,...

The Examined Year – 2013

05 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

A new year offers an opportunity to reflect on the significant events of the previous year.  But what ideas and events took shape over the past twelv...

Trust and Mistrust

29 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

If we couldn’t trust each other, our lives would be very different. We trust strangers not to harm us, we trust our friends to take care of our ...

Do Religions Deserve Special Status?

15 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In most Western democracies, religions are exempt from certain rules and regulations that most other organizations have to follow. For example, in the...

Dangerous Demographics: The Challenges of an Aging Population

24 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

All over the world, people are living longer and having fewer children than ever before. In less than two decades, one fifth of the US population will...

The Dark Side of Science

27 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Science aims tell us something about nearly everything, from the atoms in our cells to the motions of the stars. It assumes that knowledge is good for...

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

20 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

A trolley is approaching a track junction, and you happen to be standing by the switch. If you do nothing, the trolley will kill a number of innocent ...

An Eye for an Eye: The Morality of Revenge

13 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

We are often taught that vengeance is a reprehensible or unworthy motivation and that, as a result, pursuing revenge should not be the method of choic...

The Limits of Self-Knowledge

06 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Descartes considered the mind to be fully self-transparent; that is, he thought that we need only introspect to know what goes on inside our own minds...

Ancient Cynicism

22 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Today, the term ‘cynic’ brings to mind a person who has little or no faith in the goodness of the human race. In ancient Athens, however, it meant...

The Moral Lives of Animals

15 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

From Aristotle and Kant to Hume and Darwin, philosophers and scientists have long denied the idea that animals are capable of acting for moral reasons...

Tenth Anniversary Special

01 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Philosophy Talk debuted on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco in August 2003, with regular broadcasts beginning in early 2004. Over the course of a decad...

Memes: Viruses of the Mind?

25 Aug 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Gangnam style, Lolcats, and Chuck Norris’ superhuman feats are all memes – units of cultural transmission – that spread through the internet. Bu...

Life as a Work of Art

18 Aug 2013

Contributed by Lukas

We know what it means for a painting to be beautiful. But what about a life? Like great works of art, great people exhibit style, originality, and cre...

Finding Meaning in a Material World

04 Aug 2013

Contributed by Lukas

All there is in the world is physical stuff. That is the fundamental assumption of the materialist standpoint, and the picture given to us by science....

Freedom and Free Enterprise

21 Jul 2013

Contributed by Lukas

“Freedom” means the human capacity to choose among options, based on one’s own preferences and reasoning. It also stands for the political statu...

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times

07 Jul 2013

Contributed by Lukas

If the Ancients found themselves transported to the modern world, they would have much to learn about science, technology, and human thinking. But is ...

Nations and Borders

23 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

One’s country of birth has a profound effect on life prospects. It’s often best to go elsewhere. But moving is not always so easy. Borders and...

Education and the Culture Wars

16 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In contemporary democracies, the state is responsible for providing children with an education. But parents surely have both the right and responsibil...

Physics, Philosophy, and Theology

09 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

The world disclosed by the physical sciences can seem depressing. Modern physics, for example, has undermined the religious idea that the universe has...

Summer Reading List 2013

26 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Summer is the perfect time to dig in to deep reading. Heidegger’s Being and Time may be a bit much to take to the beach, but there are lots of r...

Faith, Reason, and the Art of Living

19 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

It sounds plausible to require that all our beliefs be based on evidence and sound reasoning. Yet some people’s most cherished beliefs, like the...

Good, Evil, and the Divine Plan

05 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

A theodicy is an explanation by a philosopher or theologian about why a world created by a kind and all-powerful God contains so much suffering. It fo...

The Demands of Morality

28 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

We all want to lead a moral life. But even if we all agreed on what that would mean, we still have to balance our own self-interest with the competing...

Dance as a Way of Knowing

14 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Be it rhythmic or shuffling, athletic or pedestrian, erotic or just social, dance is an art form that utilizes movement of the body through space. Cou...

Truth and Other Fictions

31 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us think we know the truth when we see it. But what exactly is truth, anyway? Philosophers have offered a blizzard of different answers, rangi...

God and the Fine-Tuned Universe

17 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

If the precise value of many physical constants had been different, the universe would not have supported life, human life, consciousness, philosophy ...

The Psychology of Partisan Politics

10 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Are you a tax-raising, soy latte-drinking, Prius-driving, New York Times-reading, Daily Show-watching, corporation-hating liberal? Or a gun-toting, Bi...

The Self

24 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

What is a self? Merely a human being? Or perhaps a soul? Hume claimed he could not find a self when he looked within, only a succession of impressions...

Bioethics: Myths and Realities

10 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Recent advances in mapping the human genome suggest a vision of the future that might fill us with equal parts hope and dread. On the one hand, the po...

The Linguistics of Name-Calling

20 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Sticks and bones may break your bones, but names can also hurt you. And language gives us surprisingly many ways to deride, hurt and demean – from a...

The Examined Year – 2012

06 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

A new year offers an opportunity to reflect on the significant events of the previous year.  But what ideas and events took shape over the past t...

Turbo-Charging the Mind

30 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The rapid advance of computer technology in recent decades has produced a vast array of intelligent machines that far outstrip the human mind in speed...

Has Science Replaced Philosophy?

16 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Modern science has made astounding progress in our understanding of ourselves and the universe. Physics, neuroscience, and psychology now tackle quest...

Unconditional Love

09 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

According to Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind and envies no one.” But is love always unconditional? Should it be? If unconditional l...

Are Some People Better Than Others?

02 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Egalitarian principles play an important role in our moral and political discourse. Yet there’s no doubt that some people are smarter, stronger, or ...

How Fiction Shapes Us

25 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

A good novel can do many things. It can distract us from the humdrum of daily existence, stimulate our imaginations, and delight us with its creative ...

Economics – Science or Cult?

18 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

With the recent global economic crisis, many people wonder if our economic policies are built on sound principles or on dubious, unscientific claims. ...

The Evolution of Storytelling

04 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Humans are unique as the only creatures on this planet who tell stories. Whether it be fiction, history, mythology, gossip, daydreams, news, or person...

Forbidden Words

21 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Some words, like n****r, ch*nk, and c*nt, are so forbidden that we won’t even spell them out here. Decent people simply don’t use these wo...

Prostitution and the Sex Trade

14 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Some consider the commodification of sexual services inherently wrong, something that ought to be abolished outright. Others claim that prostitution i...

Regulating Bodies

30 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Most countries allow their citizens to smoke cigarettes, get intoxicated, and eat unhealthy food – despite the harms that such behaviors may bring t...

Why Be Moral?

16 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Morality tells us how we ought to behave, if we want to do the right thing. But is there a reason why we ought to be moral in the first place? Both Pl...

The Nature of Wilderness

26 Aug 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Nowadays we think of wilderness as a fully natural environment that contrasts sharply with the designed and constructed environments in which we ...

The Moral Costs of Climate Change

19 Aug 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Global climate change confronts us not only with well-known pragmatic challenges, but also with less commonly acknowledged moral challenges. Who is re...

Neuroscience and the Law

12 Aug 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Recent advances in neuroscience have revealed that certain neurological disorders, like a brain tumor, can cause an otherwise normal person to behave ...

Gut Feelings and the Art of Decision-Making

22 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

We may think of ourselves as rational decision-makers, but we often base even high-stakes decisions on intuitions or “gut feelings” rather...

Hypocrisy

08 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Hypocrites believe one thing, but do another. Jefferson opposed slavery, but owned slaves. Jesus professed universal love, but cursed an innocent fig ...

Identities Lost & Found in a Global Age

01 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout human history, people have tended to live and die in the place they’re born. Place is an important part of identity. But what happens...

Corporations and the Future of Democracy

24 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The US prides itself on the strength of its democratic institutions and considers itself a leader in the promotion of democratic values around the glo...

What Might Have Been

10 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

When we make claims about things that could have been—what philosophers call counterfactual statements—we are, in some sense, sliding between diff...

Summer Reading List 2012

27 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Summer is the perfect time to dig in to deep reading. Plato’s Collected Dialogues may be a bit much to take on vacation, but there are lots of r...

Freedom, Blame, and Resentment

13 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

When someone acts without regard for our feelings or needs, a natural response is to feel resentment toward that person. But is that a rational respon...

What Is Love?

22 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

It may seem doubtful that philosophers have much to tell us about love (beyond their love of wisdom). Surely it is the poets who have the market corne...

What Are Leaders Made of?

15 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

There seems to be a paradox in leadership: the qualities of ruthlessness and opportunism necessary to attain power and become a leader are not necessa...

Poetry as a Way of Knowing

01 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

What is poetry? Mere word play? A pretty, or at any rate striking, way of expressing thought and emotion? Or does great poetry involve an approach to ...

Epicurus and the Good Life

04 Mar 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Though his name is often misleadingly associated with indulgence in sensual pleasures, the Greek philosopher Epicurus developed a far-reaching system ...

Pantheism

26 Feb 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Pantheism is the doctrine that the world is either identical with God or an expression of His nature. Pantheistic ideas appear in many schools of Budd...

The 2012 Dionysus Awards

12 Feb 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Movies play a large role in modern life. We enjoy watching them; we idolize the actors and actresses who appear in them; we analyze the directors. But...

Black Solidarity

05 Feb 2012

Contributed by Lukas

From the abolition of slavery to the Black Power movement, African-American unity has been considered a powerful method to achieve freedom and equalit...

The Right to Privacy

29 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Is the right to privacy – the right to be left alone and to control one’s personal information – really a right? Is privacy just a privilege tha...

Is Democracy a Universal Value?

15 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Americans value democracy, and expect others to value it. But is it a universal value? Does God, or rationality, or something very basic about human s...

The Examined Year: 2011

08 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

A new year offers an opportunity to reflect on the significant events of the previous year. But what ideas and events took shape over the past twelve ...

Forgive and Forget

11 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

At least forgive OR forget.  Get things behind you.  All good advice for those who don’t want their life dominated by the bad things that have...

The Military: What Is It Good For?

27 Nov 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Is the military draft a natural expression of democratic values, or a challenge to our most basic concepts of individual rights and liberties?  Are t...

Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?

13 Nov 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Tribal societies lived in a world of the sacred and profane, ritual and taboo. Is there anything left of this structure in the modern world? Is anythi...

Miracles

06 Nov 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Religions rely on miracles to demonstrate the authenticity of figures thought to have supernatural powers.  Many people feel that key events in their...

Thinking Inside the Box

23 Oct 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Speaking to the National Association of Broadcasters in May 1961, FCC Chairman Newton Minow famously introduced the characterization of television as ...

Cooperation and Conflict

16 Oct 2011

Contributed by Lukas

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a problem studied in game theory that shows how two people might not cooperate even if it’s in both their best inter...

Morality and the Self

02 Oct 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Social psychologists have discovered that our self-images play a surprising role in our thinking about everyday moral matters. People who feel they ha...

Wisdom

25 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Philosophy is the love of wisdom – or is it? Is this traditional definition outmoded? Is wisdom an anachronism, an elitist concept deployed by old...

Latin-American Philosophy

18 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Latin American Philosophy began centuries before anything of much philosophical consequence happened in North America.  Yet in our own time, Latin Am...

Deconstructing the College Admissions Rat Race

04 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

America’s elite colleges and universities spend millions of dollars to generate thousands of applicants, the vast majority of whom they reject. ...

Time, Space, and Quantum Mechanics

14 Aug 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Quantum physics is regarded by many as the most powerful predictive theory science has produced.  But there is no interpretation of what the theory m...

The State of Public Philosophy

07 Aug 2011

Contributed by Lukas

In the 18th and 19th Century, philosophers and intellectuals were immersed in politics and popular culture.  Even in the early 20th Century some of t...

Philosophy and Everyday Life

31 Jul 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Philosophy isn’t just about cosmic issues.  Every day is full of events that raise philosophical questions: why do we eat the things we eat...

The Psychology of Evil

17 Jul 2011

Contributed by Lukas

True evil seems easy to recognize: the killing of innocent children; assigning whole populations to death by gassing, or napalm, or aerial bombing. Th...

Atheism and the Well-Lived Life

10 Jul 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Atheists don’t believe in God – does that mean they don’t find life meaningful?  Are atheists doomed to be grouchy nihilists, finding m...

Whodunit: The Language of Responsibility

12 Jun 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Who is responsible for the broken vase in the foyer? How harshly should criminals be punished for their crimes? Did Justin Timberlake mean to disrobe ...

Gay Pride & Prejudice

05 Jun 2011

Contributed by Lukas

The question of gay rights has become a hot button issue, with opposition taking on the air of a moral panic and support taking on the air of a righte...

Summer Reading List 2011

29 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Summer’s just around the corner – what philosophers, philosophies, or philosophical issues do you want to read up on?  Kant’s Criti...

Cities, Gentrification, and Inequality

08 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s, as many American cities burst and burned, the upper and middle classes fled to the suburbs, leaving behind a decaying infrastructure and...

Should Marriage Be Abolished?

01 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

State-sanctioned marriage has long been regarded as one of the bedrocks of a stable society.  But in recent times, this venerable institution has...

The Extended Mind

17 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

The question of gay rights has become a hot button issue, with opposition taking on the air of a moral panic and support taking on the air of a righte...

What is an Adult?

10 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

In the Middle Ages, people married, had children, went off to war and took on all the traditional trappings of adulthood by their early teens.  B...

Is It All Relative?

20 Mar 2011

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve all heard a disenchanted teenager claim that everything is relative and that there is no absolute morality or truth.  Of course, ther...

John Locke

27 Feb 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Jefferson identified John Locke as one of “the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception.” Many debates in modern poli...

The 2011 Dionysus Awards

13 Feb 2011

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the third annual Philosophy Talk Dionysus Awards show!  With the help of listeners and special guests, John and Ken turn a philosophical e...

Procrastination

30 Jan 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone procrastinates – academics are especially prone to it.  But why do we procrastinate?  Is it lack of will-power?  Or is procr...

Derrida and Deconstruction

16 Jan 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Jacques Derrida was one of the most influential and also one of the most polarizing philosophers of the twentieth century.  With his method of &#...