virtual philosopher

Free Video Lecture Courses in Philosophy

Academic Earth has two Yale Philosophy lecture courses - one on Death and one on Political Philosophy - available free from the Philosophy section of their site.

These are great times for autodidacts!

Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Rothko

There is a podcast of a talk I gave as part of last year's Tate Modern symposium on Mark Rothko available  from the Tate Modern Events podcast. Further details about how to download this mp3 here. Rothko loved Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, both of which, particularly The Birth of Tragedy, influenced him significantly (he was explicity about this in his writings) and suggest ways of approaching his late paintings.

A French 'In Our Time'?

I've just discovered the French podcast Les Vendredis de la Philosophie, a podcast on philosophy in French (also available on iTunes). Great for French speakers and those like me who would like to improve their French while listening to something they're interested in. And, of course, with a podcast you can stop and replay the bits you don't understand, or play it over and over again ad la nausée.

Thomas Hobbes's Reputation

Thomas Hobbes, the 'Beast of Malmesbury',  his reputation and legacy, is the subject of a 10-minute podcast introduced by Julian Baggini of the Philosophers' Magazine...it includes brief contributions from five philosophers who have contributed to the Philosophy Bites podcast that I make with David Edmonds: Quentin Skinner (listen to my podcast  interview with him on Hobbes on the state), Anthony Kenny (listen to him talking about his history of philosophy), Mary Warnock (listen to my interview with her about philosophy and public life) Jonathan Rée (listen to his views on philosophy as an art) and John Cottingham (listen to John Cottingham on the meaning of life).

It's nice that some other philosophers having a go at podcasting.

Oxford University interview about Philosophy Bites Podcast

Oxford University, which is launching on iTunesU on 7th October, has interviewed David Edmonds and me about our podcast Philosophy Bites and about podcasting in general for the Oxonians podcast (David is an Oxford graduate, and we have interviewed many Oxford philosophers).

Listen to Oxford University podcast about Philosophy Bites.

Philosophy Bites podcast breaks 2 million downloads

I'm delighted to announce that Philosophy Bites, the weekly podcast of interviews with philosophers that I make with David Edmonds, has now had more than 2 million downloads.

Genetic Enhancement in Sport and the Rest of Life

Watching Eusain Bolt win the 100 and 200 metres by so much in the Beijing Olympics was amazing. But what if he had had the benefit of performance-enhancing genetic manipulation on top of his exceptional natural potential and training? Why restrict what athletes can do to enhance their performance, as long as it is safe? And what about other aspects of life? If we could increase our IQs by taking drugs, would it be wrong to do so?

Questions about the ethics of genetic enhancement get to the heart of what we take a human being to be. It would be nice to think that we all line up equal, but the truth is that both genetic and environmental factors (many of which are outside our control) massively affect whether or not our lives  go well (as well as how fast we could ever run - which may in some cases amount to the same thing). Most of us see the idea of curing disease using intervention as unproblematic: if we can do it we should. But when it comes to enhancing our genetic endowment in any way, some people get edgy. Is this an irrational fear brought on by science fiction parables? Or are there genuine grounds for concern?

The Case for Enhancement
Julian Savulescu gives an admirably clear outline of the issues in a podcast of a lecture he gave in Sydney in 2007. He argues that where we can make people's lives go better, we should and that there may be great social benefits as well as individual ones from making use of the new biological and pharmaceutical possibilities that scientists have opened up for us. In discussion, he also argues that it might make sense to tolerate various drugs and processes in sport provided that they aren't dangerous, and then concentrate resources on dope testing for the dangerous ones.

Listen to Julian Savulescu on the Ethics of Genetic Enhancement

Read an interview with Julian Savulescu in The Guardian (2005)

The Case Against Enhancement
For a passionate defence of the idea that enhancement is not a good idea, listen to my podcast interview with Michael Sandel based on his book The Case Against Perfection (read my review of this book). Whilst he agrees that curing deficiencies and disease is good, he opposes enhancement. His argument turns on a notion of 'giftedness' and the consequences for humanity of boosting individual achievement by technical means. Ultimately this sounds like a religious argument, though Sandel hopes that his reasoning will appeal to the non-religious  too.

Listen to my interview with Michael Sandel on Genetic Enhancement in Sport

Public Ethics Radio podcast launches in the style of Philosophy Bites

Public Ethics Radio, a new philosophy podcast, has just launched in Australia. It's also on iTunes. Only one episode is available so far, Thomas Pogge on persuading pharmaceutical companies that it could be in their interest to make drugs available to the poor. His plan is to introduce what he calls a Health Impact Fund to reward patenters of successful drugs in proportion to their success - but the catch is that to get their reward they have to undertake to distribute the drugs at cost price and give up their monopoly. It is difficult to assess what 'cost price' is in this context, though, given the nature of research that goes down cul-de-sacs etc. which presumably has to be funded from somewhere...Also I don't believe that any pharamaceutical giant would enter into this sort of arrangement voluntarily. But I hope I'm wrong.

The format of Public Ethics Radio is very similar to Philosophy BItes and Ethics Bites: each episode will consist of an interview with a philosopher on a particular topic. The first episode is 29 minutes long - so longer than our podcasts, and they're only posting one every three weeks at the moment. But worth keeping an eye on.

I'll write a proper review of this when there are half a dozen episodes available.

Quentin Skinner Lectures on Freedom - MP3s

Listen to Quentin Skinner's Lecture on Freedom (2006) (I discovered this while browsing the Cambridge University podcast offerings). Skinner gives a genealogy of our concept of freedom from Hobbes to the present day.

Listen to Quentin Skinner on Milton on Freedom (2008) and Listen to Quentin Skinner on What is the State?

Listen to my interviews with Quentin Skinner on Philosophy Bites (on Thomas Hobbes and on Niccolo Machiavelli).

Philosophy: The Classics podcast is top of iTunes 'Society and Culture' section

My podcast of chapters from my book Philosophy: The Classics has hit the number one spot of the 'Society and Culture' section in the UK iTunes rankings today pipping 'In Our Time' and 'Start the Week'. It's at no. 30 in the list of all podcasts on iTunes too. It is very gratifying to know that so many people are interested in philosophy.

You can also get the podcast here.