The Philosopher's Zone - Program podcast
By ABC Radio National
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Podcast Description
The Philosopher's Zone with Alan Saunders looks at the world of philosophy and at the world through philosophy. The program addresses the big philosophical questions and arguments. It also explores what philosophical analysis can contribute to our understanding of some of the fundamental and perplexing issues that face the world today.
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1 |
Buddhism and science: Talking past each other? | This week, we look at the convergence – or perhaps not – of two philosophies: Buddhism and modern science. Buddhism has attempted to redefine itself in relation to neuroscience . A case in point is the ‘dialogue’ between Buddhism and neuroscienc | 5/27/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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2 |
Who owns your genes? | You might think that, if anybody owns your genes, it’s you, but if you know anything about your genes it will be because of professional gene testing. And in cases of a genetically transmitted disorder, should genetic counsellors breach patient confide | 5/20/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 |
Shakespeare, Identity and Religion | What was Shakespeare’s religion and what did he think about personal identity? Did he believe that the personal identity we have is had because we are this living body rather than that? How does commitment to religious faith or to marriage affect yo | 5/13/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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4 |
Reflections on cultural identity | Ethnic groups across the planet are beginning to act like corporations that own a 'natural' copyright in their 'culture' and 'cultural products' which they protect, often by recourse to the law, and on which they capitalise | 5/6/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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5 |
The Problem of Evil | The Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik argues that he killed to do good for his country. Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organisers of the Holocaust, displayed neither guilt nor hatred, claiming he bore no responsibility because he was simply | 4/29/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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6 |
The Worst Argument in the World | Philosophy is all about arguing, but some arguments are worse than others. In fact, some are so awful that only really intelligent people can believe them: The Chinese room argument, Pascal's wager and the ontological argument for the existence of Go | 4/22/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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7 |
A Dangerous Method | This week on the Philosopher’s Zone, we’re looking at a couple of people you might not think of as philosophers at all. One of them aspired to be a scientist of the mind. The other, though, was something of a philosopher, something of a mystic and | 4/15/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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8 |
Honourable intentions | Human consciousness is intentional – it’s about something – but what is the relationship between my consciousness and the objects of which I’m conscious? And, in particular, how does this work when the objects don’t even exist, like Santa Clau | 4/8/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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9 |
Philosophy for Representationalists | Over four decades, the Gavin David Young Lectures in Philosophy at the University of Adelaide have become a very significant series with many distinguished contributors from across the globe.. This year, the speaker was Frank Jackson, Professor of Philo | 4/1/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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10 |
Extending the mind | Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? Some philosophers are now arguing that thoughts are not all in the head. The environment has an active role in driving cognition; cognition is sometimes made up of neural, bodily, and environmental | 3/24/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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11 |
Thomas Pogge and global fairness | In a world in which many humans do not have all their human rights fulfilled, who has what obligations to help bring a better world about? This is a question that, for many years, has exercised the mind of Thomas Pogge, Professor of Philosophy and Interna | 3/17/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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12 |
The Myth of Plato and Plato the Myth-maker | There’s been a change in the interpretation of Plato. For centuries, he was admired for his inspiration and vision, rather than for his theories and argumentation. Then the pendulum swung hard in the other direction. | 3/10/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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13 |
Kafka and Philosophy | Franz Kafka—author of The Trial, in which a man is unjustly accused and tried, and Metamorphosis, in which a man becomes a giant insect—is perhaps the modernist author most often discussed by philosophers. What has been so alluring about Kafka that ph | 3/3/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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14 |
Group agents | On this Philosopher’s Zone we’re looking at agents. Not secret agents but rather public agents: an agent is just somebody who does something for a purpose and an agent is distinguished from a patient. The agent is the person who does things and the | 2/25/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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15 |
Beating and nothingness: Philosophy and the Martial Arts | There are many areas of human endeavour with which philosophy can be connected: the law, religion, science, mathematics -- but martial arts? This week we talk to Damon Young, Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, who is both a philosopher | 2/18/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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16 |
Michael Dummett: a philosopher's philosopher | Michael Dummett, one of the greatest English philosophers of the twentieth century, died late in December at the age of 86. He was a logician and a metaphysician, and also, incidentally, an expert on Tarot cards, which, he insisted, were for playing games | 2/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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17 |
Philosophy and the Environment | In a world of environmental crisis, what can philosophy tell us? Who is qualified to pronounce on the subject and how do the institutions of science (peer-reviewed journals the like) help? How do we model the situation in which we find ourselves and h | 2/4/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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18 |
The inconsistency of Hannah Arendt | Hannah Arendt’s life describes a tragically typical twentieth century trajectory. Born in Germany and, fleeing the Nazis, she ended up in the United States, where she died in 1975. As a philosopher – a title she disclaimed – she insisted on the | 1/28/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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19 |
The ethics of Kevin Rudd's heart | This program was first broadcast on 6 August 2011. | 1/20/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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20 |
The evil of the Daleks | This program was first broadcast on 18 June 2011. | 1/13/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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21 |
Meeting Martha Nussbaum | This program was first broadcast on 20 August 2011. | 1/6/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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22 |
How do octopuses think? | This program was first broadcast on 9 April 2011. | 12/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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23 |
An atheist's God: the paradox of Spinoza | THIS PROGRAM WAS FIRST BROADCAST ON 4 June 2011. | 12/23/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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24 |
On authenticity - Beate Roessler | Strangers, people from other countries immigrating to our territory, endangering our authentic culture, destroying what is valuable, good and familiar. But do they and does that idea make any sort of sense at all? And if we can’t talk about the authe | 12/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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25 |
The trials and tribulations of private Bradley Manning | We’ve heard a lot in recent times about the legal wrangles of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange but there is another Wikileaker facing life in prison who has been given much less attention: Private Bradley Manning. Bradley Manning is accused of leaking t | 12/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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26 |
The morality of robo-wars: PW Singer | These days, you can go to war without shouldering a pack and carrying a rifle: you can take out the enemy’s installations (and, indeed, take out the enemy) just sitting in an office not far from home. But what are the ethics of a war fought for us by | 12/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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27 |
Daniel Dennett on human consciousness and free will | This week on The Philosopher's Zone we meet one of the foremost thinkers of our time. | 11/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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28 |
The artist and the philosopher - Gustav Klimt and Ludwig Wittgenstein | In the last decades of the Hapsburg empire, from 1895 to 194, the city of Vienna was opulent, elegant and daring. | 11/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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29 |
Pascal's Wager - betting on God | This week on The Philosopher's Zone we're wagering on God. | 11/11/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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30 |
Jewish philosophy: Martin Buber | Martin Buber was born in pre-Nazi Austria and emigrated to Israel in 1938 where he spent much of the rest of his life. | 11/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 30 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Not Enough Podcasts
Alan and Co. do an excellent job of introducing philosophy to neophytes while providing more advanced listeners with new perspectives. The guests are both experts in their field and wonderful speakers. I only wish that there were more shows to listen to.
Incredibly well done
This podcast is always thoughtful, balanced, and cleanly done. The guests are also of a very high caliber and the host directs the converstations beautifully in order to achive a level of clarity that is unmatched in podcasts about philosophy.
Think twice about what Mr. Dropmeoff and others say, even me! A rebuke to his review
Mr. Dropmeoff must be an amazing character; he begins his review citing a book - by a certain John A. Hobson - to make some argument that this is a nescient Podcast. Mr. Dropmeoff, the book is by John ***M.**** Hobson (the great-grandson of the aforementioned Hobson), and it was published by Cambridge. I have not read the “august” John M. Hobson’s book, yet I think that one would do better to not derive their entire historical conception from a single book. Before I begin my own “tirade” (which I promise will be more factual than Mr. Dropmeoff’s), I want to preface that I have only listened to two of these discussions and find them interesting, intelligible and – yes – slightly “Eurocentric.” Though Mr. Dropmeoff does not like this “Eurocentricity,” he may have forgotten that he wrote in English, chose to listen to an Australian Podcast, and last but not least, missed the other Podcasts and iTunes U lectures that deal with “Eastern” topics. Please, if you are looking for Middle Eastern, African, Far Eastern or any other non-European Podcast, by all means search for that instead. I am only galled by a few of Mr. Dropmeoff’s assertions, namely that “Germanics” did not influence the development of Europe or European history. As a student of German history, who is pursuing academia, I hear many anti-Western claims; fine. Nevertheless, this claim sounds entirely pseudo-intellectual, or “Modern Jackass” if you listen to This American Life. Because I am not a Greek historian, I will not speak of it. Roman interaction with “Germanic peoples” began in the second century BCE! And that is just recorded interaction. That means Rome was troubled – and helped! – by “Germanic peoples” for seven centuries or so. If this is not influential in shaping Europe, what is? Most of these peoples came from Jütland, Mr. Dropmeoff, which is the area where Denmark currently lies. Have you heard of the Gallic Wars Mr. D? Well let’s see now, if Gaius Julius Caesar was fighting these SAME “Germanic peoples,” and Gaius Julius was the “destroyer of the Republic and founder of the Empire,” one could infer that because of his success against “Germanic peoples” the Roman Empire was founded. Influential? I’d say so. Read Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) and one can see that major problems caused by the peoples of Germania. So anyway, there are myriad examples I could spout off, but this has already become trite. No historian rebuts the great significance of Eastern philosophy and technology. In my history department we jokingly tease mathematicians, “try Calculus in Roman Numerals.” Nevertheless, because the East was significant does not mean that Europe’s success is some kind of by-product that is inextricably linked to the East. Remember: History is the ebb and flow of cultures, philosophies, technologies and more; everything that has ever happened is significant in shaping WORLD HISTORY. East influences West, and vice versa. One last note and I will shut up; Mr. D, I am not trying to denigrate you too much, because most people obtain their notions from something they hear and then use it every chance they can, without really knowing anything about it. Now, I do not know if you used a thesaurus or heard it somewhere else, but your use of “hermetically-sealed vacuum” is redundant. Vacuum in itself means lacking everything, including air. Weather-stripping can be hermetic, or maybe a water bottle, but vacuums are hermetic in essence. And who ever suggested that Europe was “hermetic?” Though this was pedantic in nature, I hope this review helped people see that Mr. D has good intention to be “open minded,” yet he is bigoted and “revisionist” himself because he so ardently decries others. Oh, and the Podcast is not half-bad, either.
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