Philosophy in the News
- A Thing and Its Matter Are Soon Parted
An interview with philosopher Mahrad Almotahari.
- Violence in the Age of Spectacle
From Sophocles to soccer, we are all players on history's bloody stage.
- Awe and Wonder in Outer Space
Socrates reckoned that philosophy began with wonder. It seems a pretty good place to start; but what of the actual state of wonder—what is it, and how does it relate to awe, humility and curiosity? It seems that astronauts can help with the bigger picture and their star logs from celestial journeys might impart some clues. A team of researchers led by a philosopher has closely analysed the felt experience of being in space through the lens of phenomenology. (audio)
- The Power of Pondering
More than 3,000 kids in 48 schools across England participated in weekly discussions about concepts such as truth, justice, friendship, and knowledge, with time carved out for silent reflection, question making, question airing, and building on one another's thoughts and ideas. The result which surprised many was that those in the test group significantly boosted their math and literacy skills, with disadvantaged students showing the most significant gains, according to a large and well-designed study. And the test group continued to outperform the control group long after the philosophy class had finished.
- Philosophy’s True Home
The idea that philosophy was and still is isolated from other disciplines ignores much of its history. It has influenced Einstein's physics, Turing's computation and human flourishing, all from its place in the university. In just the last 200 years, it has played foundational roles in the development of logic, decision theory, linguistics, psychology, political science and economics. Far from fostering isolation, specialization in philosophy makes communication and cooperation among disciplines possible. This has always been so.
- Friends with Moral Benefits
What justifies being partial to your child, lover, parent or friend? It seems intuitive that the closer the person is to you the greater the consideration you should give them. But it does fall foul, strictly speaking, of moral theories—where we should all be equal from the standpoint of the universe. So, what's to be done: abandon the theories, prune them a little, or just turn a blind eye? (audio)
- Transcendental Idealism
In the Critique of Pure Reason Kant argues that space and time are merely formal features of how we perceive objects, not things in themselves that exist independently of us. Objects in space and time are said to be “appearances”, and he argues that we know nothing of substance about the things in themselves of which they are appearances. Kant calls this doctrine (or set of doctrines) “transcendental idealism.” What is transcndental idealism exactly and what should we think of it?... There is probably no major interpretive question in Kant's philosophy on which there is so little consensus.
- Super-Sensible Being Clocks In
Philosopher Alva Noë discusses Carlo Rovelli's "readable bestseller" Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, newly translated into English from its original Italian. The discussion leads to a question about consciousness and the reality of time. Pretty sure its going to have to be super-sensible beings all the way down.
- On the Body
Maurice Merleau-Ponty was one of the most interesting of the French phenomenologists, but his reputation has been eclipsed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir's. Philosopher Katherine Morris discusses some of his ideas about the body. (audio)
- Son of Saul’ as Philosophy
The winner of the Oscar for best foreign language film delivers a moral imperative as well as an aesthetic choice. Art is often the subject of philosophy. But every now and then, a work of art — something other than a lecture or words on a page — can function as philosophy. “Son of Saul,” a film set in Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Holocaust, is such a work of art.
- Spooky Action: Now Spookier Than Physics
Entanglement, in quantum mechanics, sets up a strange state of physical affairs. Two seemingly distant particles can tango, so to speak. Einstein called it spooky action at a distance; he didn't like it much. So, all very well for the arcane world of contemporary physics—where it should stay… or should it? We talk with a theorist who has no doubts about this curious sub-atomic oddity and its its wider implications—from the arts to terrorism. (audio)
- Philosopher Assists World Bank on Mind, Society and Behavior
According to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, "The challenges of tackling the great human problems of economic development and eliminating poverty are too complicated for a single background or a single discipline." This is one of the reasons that the World Bank asked for the assistance of philosopher Ryan Muldoon to work on their most recent report World Development Report, Mind, Society and Behavior. Muldoon's work is on the social organization and dynamics of political, cultural, and scientific communities and the emergence of social norms.
- Your Virtual Reality Is Already in Progress
An interview with philosopher Thomas Metzinger.
- The Philosopher’s Guide to the Universe
Those Philosophy Talk guys, philosophers John Perry and Ken Taylor, have won a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to produce an eight-episode series called “A Philosophical Guide to the Cosmos.” The series takes listeners on a grand philosophical journey through the cosmos, tackling deeply puzzling questions about the nature of the universe, and our knowledge of it. The series is in part motivated by some recent philosophy bashing by some well-known scientists, like Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson. "Why does philosophy get these scientists so bent out of shape...? I suspect that neither of them ever had a serious philosophy course or read a serious work of philosophy,” says Taylor. “So they are just spouting off.” “Tyson, in particular, seems like an upbeat kind of guy who could find something nice to say if he put his mind to it,” Perry says. “Maybe he got bit by a philosopher once.” (audio)
- Bringing Philosophy to Life
I don't want to do what I want to do,' the student told his professor. 'I want to do what I ought to do.' Philosopher Nakul Krishna tells his own tale of how moral philosophy was brought to life for him by one professor, Bernard Williams.
- Rescuing the Beautiful
Would you do something simply because it was ‘beautiful'? As a reason for action it's fallen on hard times—the aesthetic and the ethical don't seem to mingle much in our world—but leading moral philosopher Sophie Grace Chappell won't let it go without a fight. Fond of old fashioned words like noble and honourable, Professor Chappell believes that beauty is as good a motivation as any, and is determined to rescue it from a world more interested in calculation than contemplation. (audio)
- In the Digital Afterlife
An interview with philosopher Eric Steinhart.
- Can Neuroscience Help Us Understand Art?
Neuroaesthetics — as the application of the concepts and methods of neuroscience to the study of art is sometimes known — is a booming enterprise. What should we think about it? What can neuroscience tell us about art?
- Disability: Health, Well-being, and Personal Relationships
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a new entry discussing disability's relevance to health, well-being, and personal relationships.
- Preconditions for the Very Possibility of Science
Are there kinds of a priori scientific knowledge — knowledge not based in sense experience? What is the status of mathematical claims in science? In his recent book, Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science, philosopher David J. Stump argues that the a priori in science is best understood as truths that must be presupposed for empirical inquiry to take place, but without implying that these truths are universal and fixed as Kant held. (audio)