Genocide is, at first glance, a straightforward term. We understand what it is and why it is such an evil. But, as  Chandran Kukathas of the London School of Economics argues in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, perhaps the received definition of this term needs refinement.
Direct download: Chandran_Kukathas_on_Genocide.mp3
Category:Chandran Kukathas -- posted at: 5:57pm GMT

How do we learn anything? This isn't a puzzle until you start thinking hard about it. In his dialogue The Meno, Plato presented an apparent paradox about inquiry. M.M. McCabe discusses this paradox and its continuing relevance.
Direct download: MM_McCabe_on_the_Paradox_of_Inquiry.mp3
Category:M.M. McCabe -- posted at: 8:17pm GMT

Parmenides was one of the most important pre-Socratic philosophers. Raymond Tallis discusses his ideas and influence in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.
Direct download: Raymond_Tallis_on_Parmenides.mp3
Category:Raymond Tallis -- posted at: 6:08pm GMT

Don Cupitt, a controversial theologian and philosopher, whose BBC television series and book The Sea of Faith was extremely influential, giving birth to a theological movement, believes that most religion is too anthropomorphic. In this interview for the  Philosophy Bites podcast he  explains his non-realist approach to God.
Direct download: Don_Cupitt_on_Non-Realism_About_God.mp3
Category:Don Cupitt -- posted at: 5:09pm GMT

Tolerance is usually thought of as the great virtue of democratic societies. Wendy Brown of UC Berkeley asks some sceptical questions about the concept of tolerance and how it can be used to express power relationships in this interview for Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Wendy_Brown_on_Tolerance.mp3
Category:Wendy Brown -- posted at: 6:16pm GMT

Political representation in a democracy doesn't necessarily reflect the variety of people within a society. Most noticeably, there is a much lower percentage of women acting as representatives than there is in the wider population. Does this matter? Anne Phillips believes it does. She explains why in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.
Direct download: Anne_Phillips_on_Political_Representation.mp3
Category:Anne Phillips -- posted at: 10:42pm GMT

Anthony Grayling argues that bombing civilians in Dresden and other German cities in the Second World War was morally wrong.
Direct download: Anthony_Grayling_on_Bombing_Civilians_in_Wartime.mp3
Category:Anthony Grayling -- posted at: 11:23pm GMT

What makes anyone the same person over time? In this interview for Philosophy Bites Christopher Shields addresses this question of personal identity, one which, as he points out, has perplexed philosophers since antiquity.
Direct download: Christopher_Shields_on_Personal_Identity.mp3
Category:Christopher Shields -- posted at: 6:48am GMT

Alexander Nehamas explores the value of friendship in this interview with Nigel Warburton for the Philosophy Bites podcast.
Direct download: Alexander_Nehamas_on_Friendship.mp3
Category:Alexander Nehamas -- posted at: 10:24pm GMT

Raymond Geuss wants political philosophers to focus on real politics rather than abstract notions. In this interview with Nigel Warburton for Philosophy Bites he explains why he believes philosophers such as Robert Nozick and John Rawls were fundamentally misguided in the way they approached political philosophy.
Direct download: Raymond_Geuss_on_Real_Politics.mp3
Category:Raymond Geuss -- posted at: 10:12pm GMT

Roger Crisp discusses the nature of virtue in this interview with Nigel Warburton for  the Philosophy Bites podcast.
Direct download: Roger_Crisp_on_the_Virtues.mp3
Category:Roger Crisp -- posted at: 9:30pm GMT

Anthony Appiah makes the case for the relevance of psychological experiments to our ethical reasoning in this interview for the Philosophy Bites podcast.
Direct download: Anthony_Appiah_on_Experiments_in_Ethics.mp3
Category:Anthony Appiah -- posted at: 7:54pm GMT

Friedrich Nietzsche's The Genealogy of Morality provides a radical view of the origins of our values. Nigel Warburton interviews Christopher Janaway about this important book in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.
Direct download: Christopher_Janaway_on_Nietzsche_on_Morality.mp3
Category:Christopher Janaway -- posted at: 10:05am GMT

Philosophers have been fascinated by paradoxes since ancient times. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Nigel Warburton interviews Peter Cave about paradoxes and their relevance to philosophy.
Direct download: Peter_Cave_on_Paradoxes.mp3
Category:Peter Cave -- posted at: 11:15am GMT

Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is a notoriously difficult work. In this interview for Philosophy Bites A.W. Moore of Oxford University gives a succinct account of this complex and influential attempt to clarify the limits of human understanding.
Direct download: Adrian_Moore_on_Kants_Metaphysics.mp3
Category:Adrian Moore -- posted at: 7:45pm GMT

Philosophers of mind have traditionally introspected sitting alone in their rooms. Now new developments in neuroscience are producing surprising results, some of which are relevant to philosophy. Phenomena such as blind sight and mirror neurones suggest that we would be foolish to decide what is possible a priori. Barry C. Smith gives an insight in to this intriguing area in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Barry_Smith_on_Neuroscience_1.mp3
Category:Barry Smith -- posted at: 2:16pm GMT

Ray Monk discusses the relationship between philosophy and biography in this interview with Nigel Warburton for the Philosophy Bites podcast. Can an understanding the life of a philosopher help us understand that philosopher's work? Is there anything that philosophers can learn from biography? Monk as author of biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, two very different personalities, is well-placed to address these questions.
Direct download: Ray_Monk_on_Philosophy_and_Biography.mp3
Category:Ray Monk -- posted at: 6:46pm GMT

Philosophy began in earnest with Socrates. He asked impertinent questions. In this interview with M.M. McCabe, Philosophy Bites explores the nature of Socratic Method and Socrates' claim that the unexamined life is not worth living.
Direct download: M.M._McCabe_on_Socratic_Method.mp3
Category:M.M. McCabe -- posted at: 4:39pm GMT

Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas about art and truth run through much of his philosophical writing, but are most apparent in his first book, The Birth of Tragedy. In this episode of Philosophy Bites Nigel Warburton interviews Aaron Ridley about this topic.
Direct download: Aaron_Ridley_on_Nietzsche_on_Art_and_Truth.mp3
Category:Aaron Ridley -- posted at: 11:16pm GMT

Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling retells and interprets the story of Abraham and Isaac. In Kierkegaard's hands the story becomes a model for the human predicament. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Clare Carlisle provides an interesting overview of some of Kierkegaard's themes in this book.
Direct download: Clare_Carlisle_on_Kierkegaards_Fear_And_Trembling.mp3
Category:Clare Carlisle -- posted at: 5:48pm GMT

How can we enjoy watching tragedy when it is a genre that deals with suffering and pain? In this episode of  the Philosophy Bites podcast Alex Neill explains what the paradox of tragedy is, and shows how he thinks it can be dissolved. He also relates this discussion to related questions about our experience of horror movies.
Direct download: Alex_Neill_The_Paradox_of_Tragedy.mp3
Category:Alex Neill -- posted at: 7:47pm GMT

Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince is one of the most notorious works of political philosophy ever written. Quentin Skinner sets it in its historical context and explains its key themes in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Quentin_Skinner_on_Machiavellis_The_Prince.mp3
Category:Quentin Skinner -- posted at: 11:00pm GMT

Plotinus, who lived in the 3rd Century A.D., was the founder of neo-platonism. In this episode of Philosophy Bites Peter Adamson explains what Plotinus had to say about evil.
Direct download: Peter_Adamson_on_Plotinus_on_Evil.mp3
Category:Peter Adamson -- posted at: 10:18pm GMT

What precisely is a legal right? Matthew Kramer discusses this question with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Mathew_Kramer_on_Legal_Rights.mp3
Category:Mathew Kramer -- posted at: 11:17pm GMT

Modern society is for most people synonymous with progress. Not for the eighteenth century thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau believed that civilization corrupts us in certain ways. Melissa Lane explains Rousseau's views on progress in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

Direct download: Melissa_Lane_on_Rousseau_on_Civilization.mp3
Category:Melissa Lane -- posted at: 10:34pm GMT

How do we weigh lives one against another? Governments frequently have to make life and death decisions that take in to account such issues as the quality of life compared to the length of a life. In this episode of Philosophy Bites John Broome presents his view of how such decisions should be taken.
Direct download: John_Broome_on_Weighing_Lives.mp3
Category:John Broome -- posted at: 11:10pm GMT

Jacques Derrida, father of deconstructionism, divided philosophers. For some he was a genius; for others a charlatan. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites Robert Rowland Smith defends Derrida's views about the concept of forgiveness.
Direct download: Robert_Rowland_Smith_on_Derrida_on_Forgiveness_1.mp3
Category:Robert Roland Smith -- posted at: 10:37pm GMT

John Locke, writing in the Seventeenth Century, argued for religious toleration, though stopped short of toleration of atheists. In this episode of the podcast Philosophy Bites, Nigel Warburton interviews Locke expert John Dunn on this topic.
Direct download: John_Dunn_on_Locke_on_Toleration.mp3
Category:John Dunn -- posted at: 12:17am GMT

Should minority groups such as recent immigrants or those who have suffered historic injustice be given rights that other citizens don't have? Will Kymlicka believes they should. Listen to his arguments in defence of this position in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Will_Kymlicka_on_Minority_Rights.mp3
Category:Will Kymlicka -- posted at: 1:52pm GMT

What goes on when someone does something deliberately? Jennifer Hornsby discusses this difficult philosophical question with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Jennifer_Hornsby_on_Human_Agency.mp3
Category:Jennifer Hornsby -- posted at: 8:28pm GMT

In this bonus episode produced in association with the Open University, Tim Scanlon discusses the limits of free speech with Nigel Warburton. A transcript of this episode is available from www.open2.net/ethicsbites/
Direct download: Tim_Scanlon_on_Free_Speech.mp3
Category:Tim Scanlon -- posted at: 11:23am GMT

Do you own your body? If not, who does? These are important questions in an age in which there is extensive trade in body parts. Donna Dickenson, author of Body Shopping, discusses this issue with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Donna_Dickenson.mp3
Category:Donna Dickenson -- posted at: 8:36pm GMT

In this bonus episode produced in association with The Open University, Mary Warnock, a philosopher who also sits in the House of Lords, addresses the question 'Do we have a right to have babies?' A transcript of this episode is available at http://www.open2.net/ethicsbites/right-have-babies.html
Direct download: Mary_Warnock.mp3
Category:Mary Warnock -- posted at: 9:37am GMT

Thomas Aquinas, the thirteenth century Dominican is the subject of this episode of Philosophy Bites. Anthony Kenny explains the key features of Aquinas'  ethics in conversation with Nigel Warburton.
Direct download: KennyAquinas.mp3
Category:Anthony Kenny -- posted at: 10:08am GMT

In this bonus episode of Philosophy Bites made in association with the Open University, Michael Sandel addresses the question of whether we should allow genetic enhancement of athletes. Drawing on themes from his recent book, The Case Against Perfection, he discusses the ethical issues at stake. A transcript of this episode is available at www.open2.net/ethicsbites/
Direct download: Michael_Sandel_on_Genetic_Enhancement_in_Sports.mp3
Category:Michael Sandel -- posted at: 11:37pm GMT

Karl Marx's theory of alienated labour is the topic of this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Jonathan Wolff, author of Why Read Marx Today? explains what Marx meant by alienation. He also sheds light on Marx's controversial description of what non-alienated labour would be like.
Direct download: Johnathan_Wolff_on_Marx_on_Alienation_1.mp3
Category:Jonathan Wolff -- posted at: 12:07pm GMT

In this bonus episode produced in association with the Open University as part of the Ethics Bites series, Peter Singer, perhaps the world's best known living philosopher, discusses how we treat animals. A transcript of this episode is available from www.open2.net/ethicsbites/

Direct download: Peter_Singer.mp3
Category:Peter Singer -- posted at: 10:48am GMT

Friedrich Hayek was a major figure in Twentieth Century economics and political philosophy, but his ideas are sometimes caricatured, not least because Margaret Thatcher approved of his work. Chandran Kukathas explains the key features of his liberalism in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Kukathasmix.mp3
Category:Chandran Kukathas -- posted at: 5:56pm GMT

In this episode of Philosophy Bites Richard Reeves, author of a recent biography of John Stuart Mill sheds light on Mill's classic defence of individual freedom, On Liberty.
Direct download: Reevesmix1.mp3
Category:Richard Reeves -- posted at: 11:29am GMT

Can a nation be collectively responsible for actions? And how should apologies and reparations be handled when the perpetrators of injustice may be dead? David Miller, author of a recent book on this topic, explores the kinds of responsibility that nations can have.
Direct download: MillerMixSes.MP3
Category:David Miller -- posted at: 7:24pm GMT

David Hume is probably the greatest English-speaking philosopher to date. In this interview for Philosophy Bites. Peter Millican, a Hume specialist, explains why his philosophy was so important.
Direct download: Peter_Millican_on_Humes_Significance.mp3
Category:Peter Millican -- posted at: 5:20pm GMT

Are men and women different by nature? And if so, what follows? Janet Radcliffe Richards, author of The Sceptical Feminist and Human Nature After Darwin, examines questions about human nature, focusing on John Stuart Mill's important book The Subjection of Women. David Edmonds is the interviewer for this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: JRRMixSes.mp3
Category:Janet Radcliffe Richards -- posted at: 6:37pm GMT

Is it immoral even to consider the use of torture in some circumstances? If the State is threatened, should we be prepared to shelve human rights for an end we consider worthwhile? Raimond Gaita discusses a range of arguments about torture in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: GaitaMixSes.MP3
Category:Raimond Gaita -- posted at: 8:36pm GMT

What is art? Can anything be a work of art? Derek Matravers, author of Art and Emotion, explores these questions in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites (www.philosophybites.com).
Direct download: MatraversMixSes.MP3
Category:Derek Matravers -- posted at: 7:17pm GMT

Was Plato's ideal state a totalitarian one? Karl Popper, thought so, and made his case in The Open Society and Its Enemies. Melissa Lane, author of Plato's Progeny, reassesses Popper's critique of Plato in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: LaneMixSes.MP3
Category:Melissa Lane -- posted at: 12:54pm GMT

We often blame people for what they do or fail to do. But that implies that they were free to choose whether or not to act in the way they did. At the same time science seems to reveal prior causes of all our actions. There seems little or no room for free will.  In this episode of Philosophy Bites Thomas Pink, author of Free Will: A Very Short Introduction, discusses the Free Will Problem and outlines his own approach to it.
Direct download: PinkMixSes.mp3
Category:Thomas Pink -- posted at: 11:19am GMT

Is it possible to be a citizen of the world while maintaining your own distinctive identity? Anthony Appiah defends the ethical position he dubs cosmopolitanism (which for him is universalism combined with a recognition and celebration of diversity) in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: Appiah1MixSes.MP3
Category:Anthony Appiah -- posted at: 9:41pm GMT

A.C. Grayling, author of a recent biography of René Descartes, explores Descartes' Cogito argument, the pivotal argument of the Meditations, in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this episode of Philosophy Bites.

Direct download: GraylingDesMixSes.MP3
Category:Anthony Grayling -- posted at: 1:57pm GMT

Events happen in time. And time is essentially tensed: there is past, present, future. D.H. Mellor, author of Real Time (and Real Time 2) suggests otherwise. In this podcast for Philosophy Bites he explains why time isn't tensed.
Direct download: MellorMixSes.MP3
Category:Hugh Mellor -- posted at: 11:32am GMT

If what I do has only a negligible impact on events, why should I bother doing it at all? Why not 'free ride' on other people's contributions? Richard Tuck explores these questions in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: TuckMixSess.MP3
Category:Richard Tuck -- posted at: 2:19pm GMT

Most philosophers who consider the movies focus on the nature of the cinematic medium. Stephen Mulhall argues for a different approach. He thinks that a film such as Bladerunner can actually be philosophy.
Direct download: MulhallMixSes.MP3
Category:Stephen Mulhall -- posted at: 10:42am GMT

How can non-believers make sense of the world? How can there be morality without God? In this episode of Philosophy Bites philosopher Richard Norman explains how it is possible to lead a good life without religion.
Direct download: NormanHumMixSes.mp3
Category:Richard Norman -- posted at: 11:25am GMT

The eighteenth century thinker and politician Edmund Burke was one of the founders of modern conservativism. In his Reflections on the Revolution in France he attacked the revolution. For this episode of Philosophy Bites Richard Bourke of Queen Mary, London,  puts Edmund Burke in his historical context and outlines his key ideas. 
Direct download: BurkeMixSess.mp3
Category:Richard Bourke -- posted at: 5:32pm GMT

What causes human agression? For Plato's Socrates it comes from innate tendencies nurtured in the wrong way. And that's where war comes from. Angie Hobbs gives a fascinating introduction to this aspect of Plato's Republic in this episode of Philosophy Bites.
Direct download: HobbsWarMixSes.mp3
Category:Angie Hobbs -- posted at: 10:49am GMT

Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the great figures of Twentieth Century Philosophy. Part of his originality lay in his view of what Philosophy was and how it ought to be done. For this episode of Philosophy Bites Barry Smith of Birkbeck College London gives a lucid account of Wittgenstein's conception of Philosophy. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy (www.philosophy.sas.ac.uk).

Direct download: SmithWittMixSess.MP3
Category:Barry Smith -- posted at: 9:13pm GMT



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