virtual philosopher

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.

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.

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.

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.

Philosophy Bites Podcast: Links to the Most Downloaded Interviews

The Philosophy Bites podcast interviews with philosophers which have been downloaded the most over the last year or so are listed below as links. You can listen to these on your computer or download them as mp3s. They are also all available on iTunes. We have had nearly 1.8 million downloads since we launched this podcast.

1. Simon Blackburn on Plato's Cave
2. John Cottingham on the Meaning of Life
3. Stephen Law on the Problem of Evil
4. Anthony Grayling on Atheism
5. Mary Warnock on Sartre's Existentialism
6. Roger Crisp on Utlitarianism
7. Adrian Moore on Infinity
8. Tim Crane on Mind and Body
9. Anne Phillips on Multiculturalism
10. Barry Smith on Wine
11. Simon Blackburn on Moral Relativism
12. Angie Hobbs on Plato on Erotic Love
13. Alain de Botton on the Aesthetics of Architecture
14. Myles Buryneat on Aristotle on Happiness
15. David Papineau on Physicalism
16. Miranda Fricker on Epistemic Injustice
17. Edward Craig on What is Philosophy?
18. Richard Norman on Humanism
19. Mary Warnock on Philosophy in Public Life
20. Brad Hooker on Consequentialism
21. Hugh Mellor on Time
22. Stewart Sutherland on Hume on Design
23. Quentin Skinner on Hobbes on the State
24. Timothy Williamson on Vagueness
25. Anthony Kenny on his New History of Philosophy

Philosophy Bites One Year Old Today!

We have just posted the 52nd episode of our Philosophy Bites podcast series:

Listen to Chandran Kukathas on Hayek's Liberalism

A year into the series and the download figures are amazing - beyond anything we expected. And we are currently at no. 15 of the US iTunes top 100 podcasts.

Readership of leading UK political magazine, The New Statesman, 26,000
Attendance at today's Liverpool v Manchester City, 43,074
Last week's downloads for Philosophy Bites, 56,633

Podcast on Mill's On Liberty

Richard Reeves, author of a recent biography of John Stuart Mill, is the interviewee on this episode of Philosophy Bites:

Listen to Richard Reeves on Mill's On Liberty

Read 'Mill is Dead White Male with Something to Say'

Philosophy Bites Podcast - Half Century!

We have now posted 50 episodes of Philosophy Bites the series of podcast interviews with top philosophers (also available on iTunes)...if you include the interviews we've released on the Open University sponsored Ethics Bites, the total is 60.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed of Philosophy Bites here.

The 50th episode of Philosophy Bites, posted today, is David Miller on National Responsibility.

The total number of downloads to date is 1,192,071. Thank you to our subscribers and thank you for all the messages of support and encouragement. Thanks too to our excellent contributors.

Another episode of Philosophy: The Classics podcast - Mill's Utilitarianism

Listen to my podcast on John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism (12 mins 58 sec). This is part of my ongoing podcast of my book Philosophy: The Classics (3rd ed.).

Listen to Roger Crisp on Philosophy Bites on Mill's Utilitarianism

The best books on utilitarianism that I know are shown below:

Richard Posner on Plagiarism and Copyright

I interviewed Judge Richard Posner, author of an interesting book on Plagiarism (read my review here) for the Open University's Ethics Bites podcast. Unfortunately the ISDN line to Chicago was a bit crackly...There is also a transcript available.

Listen to Richard Posner on Plagiarism and Copyright