Philosophy
by University of Hertfordshire
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Description
Philosophy does not offer simple solutions - instead, it often raises difficult questions about simple solutions on offer. The problems that philosophers ponder may be paradoxical or profound and the positions they defend may be controversial and subtle. But paradox, profundity and controversy can all be viewed as wholesome constituents of what Socrates called "the examined life" - perhaps the only life worth living.
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| 1 | VideoThe 2012 Francis Bacon Lecture | Neuromania is based on the incorrect notion that human consciousness is identical with activity in the brain, that people are their brains, and that societies are best understood as collections of brains. While the brain is a necessary condition of every aspect of human consciousness, it is not a sufficient condition – which is why neuroscience, and the materialist philosophy upon which it is based, fails to capture the human person. Since the brain is an evolved organism, Neuromania leads to Darwinitis, the assumption that, since Darwin demonstrated the biological origins of the organism Homo sapiens, we should look to evolutionary theory to understand what we are now; that our biological roots explain our cultural leaves. In fact, we belong to a community of minds that has developed over the hundreds of thousands of years since we parted company from other primates. | 13 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Intersubjective engagements without Theory of Mind | This talk was delivered at a closed roundtable at the Desmund Tutu Centre in New York City, August 2011. The event - involving speakers from various disciplines - focused on the species interface, with special attention to great apes. A printed version of this talk will appear in "Humans and Other Animals: Rethinking the Species Interface", Lanjouw, A. and Corbey, R. (eds). Cambridge University Press. | 13 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Arts and Us | At a time when anxiety about how public money is spent is at its peak, the stage is set to question if the arts have any special place in human life. Are they just for our entertainment or does our relationship with them go deeper? Professor Daniel Hutto delivered a public lecture on this topic to open the Tough Questions on the Menu (for those who don't expect easy answers) Autumn Series which focuses on the theme ‘Are the Arts Optional Extras?' The lecture took place at the Trinity United Reformed Church, St Albans on the 14 October to a full house - 97 people attended. The organisers were pleased at the depth and breadth that Professor Hutto brought to the question and thought it was an excellent introduction to the series. | 20 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 4 | VideoThe Inaugural Lecture of the Francis Bacon Lecture Series | Professor Elliot Sober is Hans Reichenbach Professor of Philosophy and William F. Vilas Research Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. | 12 7 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Do The Dead Live On In Facebook? | The boundaries between online life and offline death are becoming increasingly blurry, with the dead persisting online in the form of social network profiles and other avenues of online presence. Drawing on a phenomenological account of our dealings with the dead, and important distinctions in recent personal identity theory, I argue that persons do, to a limited extent, survive their deaths via these online presences. But selves - the subjects of experience whose extinction we fear in death - cannot live on in this way. The dead do dwell on Facebook, but no-one can expect to survive their own death in that way. | 29 6 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Philosophical Psychology 1 | This is the first part of an interview between Professor Dann Hutto and Ronnie Barbour of BBC Three Counties Radio, given in July 2010. It considers the area of Philosophical Psychology and how we as a society label our theories. | 11 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Philosophical Psychology 2 | This is the second part of an interview between Professor Dann Hutto and Ronnie Barbour of BBC Three Counties Radio, given in July 2010. It considers the area of Philosophical Psychology and how we as a society label our theories. | 7 9 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Narrative Practice Hypothesis 1 | This lecture was given in November 2009 at the University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands. What is narrative practice hypothesis? Dan Hutto goes through folk psychology, theory of mind and scientific theory. | 17 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Narrative Practice Hypothesis 2 | This podcast followed the lecture (Narrative Practice Hypothesis 1) given by Professor Hutto at the University of Nijmegen in November 2009. | 18 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Enactive Emotional Engagement | This talk examines Prinz's (2004) attempt to understand emotions as embodied appraisals by appeal to teleosemantics to account for their world-directed content. I argue that, although on the right lines, this approach requires a crucial technical tweak. As a naturalized account of semantic content teleosemantics fails. But Prinz's idea can be defended if we switch to a content-free teleosemiotics, as offered by Radical Enactivsm. After having made this adjustment I defend the view, against critics, that a modified embodied appraisal theory can be supplemented to adequately account for the intentionality and phenomenality of emotional engagements. | 18 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 11 | VideoDevelopments in Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Philosophy of Mind and Social Neuroscience. | Professor Daniel Hutto gives a lecture on Developments in Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Philosophy of Mind and Social Neuroscience at Berkley University. | 18 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 12 | VideoConsidering Consciousness | The problem of understanding the place of consciousness in the natural world continues to confound scientists and philosophers. Daniel C. Dennett, Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University and one of the true giants of contemporary philosophy of mind, updates and reflects on his extremely influential theory of consciousness in discussion with Daniel D. Hutto. | 1 11 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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13 |
Pigs on Trial | In medieval and early modern Europe, animals were sometimes put on trial as if they were humans, with lawyers appointed and all due process. Understanding what was going on leads to general questions about the nature of rationality and philosophical method. | 16 11 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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14 |
Understanding Synesthesia Radically Enactively | Synesthesia literally means ‘joined sensing’. The most typical forms – involving experiences of coloured hearing and coloured symbols – are not easy to characterize, let alone explain. In philosophy, the phenomenon has been used to try to promote certain theories of phenomenal consciousness above others. For example, friends of Relational approaches appeal to the idea that synesthetic experiences introduce extra perceptual qualia into the mix in order to upset those who defend Representationalism about the phenomenal character of experience. This talk reviews reasons why objections based on the existence of ‘extra qualia’ are not decisive. In fact, there seems to be no argument from the special features of synesthesia that would settle the debate between Relationalists and Representationalists about the phenomenal character of experience. Instead of pursuing this sort of line, I supply some general reasons for preferring a Responsive – Radically Enactive – approach for understanding the phenomenal character of experience. With this in hand, I return to the question of how Radically Enactivism could accommodate synesthesia. In considering this, the reasons for thinking that it might be an imaginative and not a purely perceptual phenomenon are reviewed. | 25 11 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 15 | VideoMaking Sense of Ourselves and Others: Narratives not Theories | This lecture discusses human reasoning and how it involves attributing beliefs, desires and hopes - in complex ways. Our capacity to do this is unique: we do not share it with animals or very young children. It is so deeply ingrained in the warp and weft of our daily existence that we tend only to notice it, and its critical importance, when it is absent or impaired - as is the case for severely autistic individuals. | 13 4 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 15 Episodes |
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