Philosophy Talk Starters

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/global-poverty-and-international-aid Does a hungry child in a far away land have any less of a demand on your good will and aid than a hungry child from your own family or neighborhood? Does each individual have the duty to give to the worldwide alleviation of poverty up to the point at which further giving would cause his or her own family more harm than it would do good for others? Or is responsibility for others a mostly local affair: take care of your family, look out for those in your community, and the rest of the world will take care of itself? John and Ken welcome Peter Singer to discuss Global Poverty and International Aid.

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/ethics-identity What makes me who I am? Is it fair of me, or others, to take my race or ethnicity as part of whom I am? How does the age-old virtue of standing up for kith and kin comport with the demands of fairness as cosmopolitanism? Join John and Ken and Philosophy Talk regular Anthony Appiah from Princeton.

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/intergenerational-obligations Parents have duties to their children. But do grown up children have obligations to their parents? More generally, do the younger members of a society have obligations to their elders? Where would such obligations come from? What are their limits? John and Ken investigate the moral ties that bind the generations together with Norm Daniels from Harvard University, author of "From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice."

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/evolution-human-mind Is the human mind a relatively inflexible program bequeathed to us by evolution, and culture just a veneer that gives age-old urges a respectable cover? Or our minds largely the product of language, culture, and civilization, with evolution having supplied only the most basic hardware and operating system? John and Ken welcome Leda Cosmides to shed some light on the human mind.

More at wwwphilosophytalk.org/shows/prostitution. Is prostitution morally objectionable? Should it be illegal? Or is it simply a market transaction, where one party sells a service for a price that another party is willing to pay, and no third party is harmed? Philosophy Talk favorite Debra Satz joins John and Ken.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/confucius. Confucius laid down a pattern of thinking followed by more people for more generations than any other human being on the face of the earth. No matter what religion, no matter what form of government, the Chinese (and most other East Asian civilizations) and their way of thinking can in some way be shown to have Confucian elements about them. John and Ken discuss the ancient wisdom of Confucius with Paul Kjellberg from Whittier College.

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/forgiveness Justice is a virtue and so, many claim, is forgiveness. But they seem inconsistent. Is forgiveness really a virtue? Philosopher Charles Griswold discusses the South African reconciliation process, truly evil people, and the virtue of forgiveness.

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/propaganda Allegedly independent radio commentators taking money to spout the government line! Fake news reports being produced and distributed by the Administration to promote a partisan agenda! Journalists abandoning neutrality and objectivity to become cheerleaders for a political doctrine! Where can this happen? Right here in the good old U.S. of A. propaganda is all around us! But what exactly is propaganda? How can it be distinguished from legitimate news and information? Can democracy survive where propaganda flourishes? John and Ken take a fresh look at propaganda with Orville Schell, Orville Schell, Dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/genetic-determinism. Are there genes for practically everything? For being gay? For being mean? For being a philosopher? Does modern science show that we are largely the product of our genes --- or not? Join Ken and John and famed philosopher of biology John Dupré to see how trapped you are by your genes.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/schopenhauer. Arthur Schopenhauer, the great Nineteenth Century philosopher, had a pessimistic vision of the world as "will and idea.” Our will to survive serves no high purpose; the world is at best a shared illusion. Schopenhauer influenced Nietzsche and Wittgenstein and inspired our guest, prominent psychiatrist Irv Yalom, to write the novel "The Schopenhauer Cure." What truths, metaphysical or psychological, can we wrest from Schopenhauer's gloomy vision?