Philosophy Corner
The program that questions everything
...except your intelligence.

Stations that Broadcast the Show
Archive
Upcoming Topics The Blog
News


Would you like to be a caller on Philosophy Talk...?

Send an email to ideas@philosophytalk.org if you have an angle to add to any of the upcoming topics on Philosophy Talk, or if you have suggestions for topics you'd like to see John & Ken take up in the future. You could be a guest caller on the air!


August 29: Self-Deception

Self-deception sounds like a contradiction: intentionally convincing yourself of something you know to be untrue.  But it is a pervasive aspect of human nature.  What is the nature of self-deception, and what are its main patterns?  Does it serve any purpose?  Ken and John confront the truths of self-deception with Neil Van Leeuwen from the University of Johannesburg.

September 5: Philosophy for the Young: Corrupting or Empowering?

Socrates was executed for corrupting the youth.  In America, youth below college age are usually not exposed to philosophy in the classroom.  Is philosophy all that dangerous?  Should it be taught to teenagers?  Or would this lead to a generation of self-absorbed and skeptical young people, shirking their duties in order to worry about the meaning of life?  Ken and John are joined by Jack Bowen, author of The Dream Weaver and If You Can Read This: The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers, for a program recorded with a live audience of young philosophers at Palo Alto High School.

September 12: Meaning and the Revolution

The American Revolution was saturated with meaning and ambiguity, from the words of the Declaration of Independence, to the beliefs of the founding fathers, to the vagueness, hedges, and contradictions of the Constitution on which the possibility of union between slave and free states rested.  Ken and John examine the personalities, philosophies, and documents of the American Revolution with Pulitzer Prize winning Stanford historian Jack Rakove, author of Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America.

September 19: Dualism

What is the relationship between the mind and the brain?  Monists believe that there is only one substance or property in the Universe, be it physical (Materialists) or mental (Idealists).  But Dualists, like the 17th Century French philosopher Rene Descartes, hold that mental stuff exists side by side with physical stuff.  Can this view be defended, in light of modern science?  John and Ken probe the mind-body with David Rosenthal from City University of New York, author of Consciousness and Mind.  (First broadcast 8/10/2008).

September 26: Gandhi

Gandhi is famous as the leader of the movement for Indian independence, which he based on his philosophy of non-violence, an important influence on Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi's ideas and the effects of his leadership continue to influence the world and its leaders.  What was the philosophical foundation of these ideas?  Is non-violence a strategy for a certain purpose, or the basis for a way of life?  Ken and John welcome Akeel Bilgrami, Director of the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University and author of "Gandhi, the Philosopher."  (First broadcast 11/16/2008).


© 2004-2007 Stanford University