Philosophy Talk

Philosophy usually suggests a striving for rationality and objectivity. But the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard advocated subjectivity and the leap of faith—his conception of how an individual would believe in God or act in love. Kierkegaard, whose best-known work is Fear and Trembling, is often considered the father of Existentialism. Ken and John explore the life and thought of this passionate philosopher with Lanier Anderson from Stanford University.

There are too many people, doing too much damage to the ecosystem, essentially guaranteeing that future generations will have a damaged Earth, and will have to invest incredible amounts of time, money and labor to repairing what can be repaired. But future generations are made up of people who don’t yet exist – what obligations do we have to them? And what obligations, if any, do we have to our fellow fauna and the flora we all depend on? Ken and John welcome environmental ethicist and celebrated author Kathleen Moore for a program recorded live at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Some people think Jesus was the son of God, though many who are skeptical about that still think he was a great moral teacher. But if we really knew what Jesus would think about moral issues that he didn’t confront while he lived – abortion, terrorism, euthanasia, gay marriage or the destruction of old-growth redwoods – would it be that helpful? Would his moral vision have any implications for these issues? John and Ken question the moral philosophy of Jesus and its contemporary relevance with Andrew Fiala, Director of the Ethics Center at Fresno State University and author of What Would Jesus Really Do? The Power and Limits of Jesus’ Moral Teachings. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California.

More than a century and a half after On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution continues to shape our thinking, not only in biology, but also in psychology, economics, and all other attempts to understand human beings including philosophy. Ken and John delve into Darwin’s theory and its implications for philosophy with Daniel Dennett from Tufts University, author of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life.

Consciousness, morality, meaning and truth have perplexed and puzzled generations upon generations of philosophers. But could it be that we have been looking in all the wrong places to solve these imponderable mysteries? Could the minds of babies hold the key to philosophical progress? John and Ken are joined by renowned developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik, author of The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell us about Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life, for a program recorded in front of a live audience at the Marsh theatre in San Francisco.

The program that questions everything – except your intelligence – started off questioning the conventional wisdom that there would be no audience for a radio show about philosophy.  One hundred and ninety-nine programs later, Ken and John are hanging in there with large loyal audiences in the Bay Area and Oregon, outposts at over fifty stations across North America, and a huge internet following.  In their 200th program Ken and John compile a list of the Top 10 most pressing philosophical issues for the 21st century with help from you, their listeners, and three past guests: Jenann Ismael, Brian Leiter, and Martha Nussbaum.

Do we have a right to healthcare, and to good high quality healthcare, in any precise and defensible sense?  Or is the “right to healthcare” just a nice way to say it would be very nice if everyone had healthcare?  John and Ken take a philosophical lens to the alleged right to healthcare and health insurance with Laurence Baker from the Center for Health Policy at Stanford University.

To be human, philosophers have often said, is to be rational. But many people, for biological reasons, are clearly not rational. Schizophrenia is not only a malady, it is also a window on how the human mind works, and what it means to be human. Ken and John examine schizophrenia and its lessons for philosophers with John Campbell from UC Berkeley, author of Reference and Consciousness.

The media often present a sanitized and one sided narrative of war, torture and other forms of violence that blots out the faces and silences the voices of many of the main victims: the refugees, the victims of unjust imprisonment and torture, and the immigrants virtually enslaved by their starvation and legal disenfranchisement.  John and Ken probe the limits of the media representations of war and other forms of violence with renowned UC Berkeley professor Judith Butler, author of Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?  This program was recorded in front of a live audience at the Marsh Theatre in San Francisco.

How do words shape our minds?  Do the French suffer because they have no word for berry or cozy?  Do we suffer because we have no word for schadenfreude?  Why do we adopt new words, or give old words new meaning?  Can we eliminate a concept by renaming it, or eliminating the word for it?  Ken and John welcome back Geoff Nunberg, author of The Years of Talking Dangerously, for a program recorded in front of a live audience at the Marsh theatre in San Francisco.