Philosophy Podcasts

This unit examines the philosophical questions surrounding the mind. You will examine how beliefs have changed over the centuries and be able to contrast the views of Descartes with more modern ideas. This study unit is just one of many that can be found on LearningSpace, part of OpenLearn, a collection of open educational resources […]

What is imagination and can philosophy define it in any meaningful way? This unit will introduce you to some of the possible answers to these questions and will examine why philosophy has sometimes found it difficult to approach imagination. It will then go on to examine the relationship that imagination has to imagery and supposition, […]

A series by Matthew Flannagan dealing with critical thinking, logic, and fallacies. More from Matthew Flannagan online at www.mandm.org.nz.

A lecture series examining Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. This series looks at German Philosopher Immanuel Kant’s seminal philosophical work ‘The Critique of Pure Reason’. The lectures aim to outline and discuss some of the key philosophical issues raised in the book and to offer students and individuals thought provoking Kantian ideas surrounding metaphysics. Each […]

A series of lectures delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students at the University of Oxford. The lectures comprise of the 8-week General Philosophy course, delivered to first year undergraduates. These lectures aim to provide a thorough introduction to many philosophical topics and to get students and others interested in thinking about key areas […]

Nobel prize winning economist and philosopher, Professor Amartya Sen is widely regarded as one of the most influential public thinkers of our time, his interest and impact ranging across the key questions facing all societies: how can we promote economic well being, fairness and justice and how do we tackle deprivation and injustice. In this […]

Special Philosophy lectures and seminars from the University of Oxford. Professor Adrian Moore delivers a lecture on the concept of the infinite, a concept with deep philosophical implications. This lecture was given in St Hugh’s College as part of the St Hugh’s Special Lecture Series.

Ethical standards play a key role in the conduct of individuals and societies. This audio album contains three tracks that examine the basics of ethical theory and practice. It features interviews with leading figures in the field of ethics and examines codes of ethics, corporate businesses and copyright infringement. This material is taken from The […]

Is space just another name for nothing? What is time and how does it relate to space? Will we ever understand the relationship between consciousness and the physical brain? Welcome to the world of The Open University’s Professor Russell Stannard where the big mysteries of the universe are made comprehensible and any possibility is considered […]

This logical fallacies content is used with permission from Dr. Michael C. Labossiere (www.opifexphoenix.com), also found at www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies.

This album contains fascinating and engrossing interviews with several leading philosophers concerning, primarily, the exploration of four topics: emotion; thought and language; imagination and creativity; consciousness. The interviews contain lively debates from differing philosophical viewpoints, discussions about theoretical thought experiments and the examination of theories developed by philosophers such as Aristotle, Decartes, Galileo, and Hume […]

Ethics Bites is a fascinating and absorbing series of interviews covering topics such as animal rights, euthanasia, censorship and fertility treatment. The interviews are introduced by David Edmonds, while Open University philosopher and best-selling author, Nigel Warburton, puts the questions, rooting every subject in everyday dilemmas about how we should live. Many eminent academics have […]

Keynote speeches and special session given at the international conference ‘Nietzsche on Mind and Nature’, held at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, 11-13 September 2009, organized by the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford. Nietzsche’s objective is not to challenge the Christian non-naturalistic account of guilt but to show that Christian representation of guilt is a […]

The history and development of political philosophy has been dominated by many inspirational and radical thinkers. The tracks on this album offer both an introduction and an in-depth insight into the leading theorists in this field and their most important works. In a series of lively and invigorating discussions, leading political philosophers examine canonical texts […]

Philosophy and philosophical enquiries are relevant in some shape or form to many aspects of everyday life, for example our treatment of the environment, the rapidity of today’s technological progress, whether animals should have rights and if so how they should compare to ours. Philosophy also encompasses questions about the existence of God, how life […]

Stephen’s Guide to Logical Fallacies adapted for audio with permission from Stephen Downes. See Stephen’s Guide to Logical Fallacies at www.fallacies.ca

This podcast both examines and inspires a certain approach towards life that is based both on personal philosophies and on, more importantly, the writings of people such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. This is a biweekly five to ten minute series referencing literature, life, and nature. The host, while working in technology […]

The Making Men Moral Conference was held February 25-27, 2009 on Union University’s campus and commemorated the 15th anniversary of Making Men Moral by Robert George. The conference featured addresses by Robert George, Russell D. Moore, Gregory A. Thornbury, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Paul Kerry, James Stoner, David Novak and Christopher Tollefsen.

On this podcast we seek the foundations of a just, humane, and prosperous society, drawing upon the work of our leading philosophers, economists, psychologists, and social theorists.

Professor Onora O’Neill discusses philosophical conceptions of press freedom in historical and contemporary terms, raising some thought-provoking questions. Festival of Ideas talk recorded Wednesday 22 October 2008.

A selection of short interviews with Oxford philosophers (part of the series of ‘Interviews with Oxonians’). Adrian Moore, Professor of Philosophy at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, explores the definition and origin of metaphysics, and then discusses some of the enduring metaphysical questions.

Are you in search of answers to big questions? Path of Reason is a useful site for anyone with questions about belief, religion, philosophy, and life in general. Reason is the internal compass we use to guide us down the path of life. “Reason is that in which we are all agreed, or at least […]

Author Nigel Warburton reads from his book Philosophy: The Classics which is an introduction to 27 key works in the history of Philosophy Soren Kierkegaard’s Either/Or is an oblique but brilliant contribution to philosophy. In this episode of Philosophy: The Classics author Nigel Warburton summarises the book and considers several interpretations of it.

Topics range from philosophy to economics to art to how to achieve real freedom in the modern world. Passionate, articulate, funny and irreverent, Freedomain Radio shines a bold light on old topics – and invents a few new ones to boot! www.freedomainradio.com

A powerful and popular series introducing you to the power and challenges of philosophy.

Aristotle’s lecture notes on friendship are in Books VIII and IX of his Nichomachean Ethics. He pursues the question of what friendship is, exploring the way it works, its perils and its promise. Part transcription, part modern-day reflection, Mark Vernon takes Aristotle’s notes to ask the same question today.

The largest and most popular philosophy show on the Internet – the logic of personal, philosophical and political freedom – www.freedomainradio.com

Written in the first century b.C., On the Nature of Things (in Latin, De Rerum Natura) is a poem in six books that aims at explaining the Epicurean philosophy to the Roman audience. Among digressions about the importance of philosophy in men’s life and praises of Epicurus, Lucretius created a solid treatise on the atomic […]

After several years working on a treatise putting forth his mechanistic philosophy and physics, Descartes shelved the project when his contemporary, Galileo, was charged with heresy. That work, The World, was only published after Descartes’ death. It seems that Descartes must have had this, in part at least, in mind when writing his more famous […]

Consolation of Philosophy (Latin: Consolatio Philosophiae) is a philosophical work by Boethius written in about the year 524 AD. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West in medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great work that can be called Classical. Consolation of Philosophy […]

The Critique of Pure Reason, first published in 1781 with a second edition in 1787, has been called the most influential and important philosophical text of the modern age. Kant saw the Critique of Pure Reason as an attempt to bridge the gap between rationalism (there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge […]

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length philosophical work published by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein during his lifetime. He wrote it as a soldier and a prisoner of war during World War I. The slim volume (fewer than eighty pages) comprises a system of short statements, numbered 1, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, etc., through to 7, […]

The scene of the Dialogus de Oratoribus, as this work is commonly known, is laid in the sixth year of Vespasian, 75 a.D. The commentators are much divided in their opinions about the real author; his work they all agree is a masterpiece in the kind; written with taste and judgement; entertaining, profound, and elegant. […]

The Moralia (or The morals or Matters relating to customs and mores) is a work by the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea. It is a collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches that give an insight into Roman and Greek life. Extremely popular for centuries, Plutarch’s Morals have been read and imitated by many […]

Helping Himself, or Grant Thornton’s Ambition deals with the grit and determination of Grant, a 15 year old farmer’s boy whose father is dead and in order to pay his minister father’s debts, and to help his mother deal with their abject poverty young Grant postpones his college education to take a job as a […]

Five Essential Elements That Guide Us Towards Becoming Our Best Selves

The Apology of Socrates is Plato’s version of the speech given by Socrates as he unsuccessfully defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of “corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel” (24b). “Apology” here has its earlier meaning (now […]

The gods won’t let me delete this

Zadig, ou La Destinée, (“Zadig, or The Book of Fate”) (1747) is a famous novel written by the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. It tells the story of Zadig, a philosopher in ancient Babylonia. The author does not attempt any historical accuracy, and some of the problems Zadig faces are thinly disguised references to social and […]

This biography is actually a series of essays by prominent personalities of the time that shed light on John Stuart Mill’s life and areas of endeavor. Those areas include his experiences in India House, his moral character, certain botanical explorations, how effective he was as a critic, studies in morals and the law, and discoveries […]

Epictetus (Greek: Επίκτητος; c.55–c.135) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. The name given by his parents, if one was given, is not known – the word epiktetos in Greek simply means “acquired.” Epictetus spent his youth as a slave in Rome to Epaphroditos, a very wealthy freedman of Nero. Even as a slave, Epictetus used his […]

An exposition of Epicurus atomic theory and the ethical tenets based upon it. Drawing upon this materialist philosophy, Lucretius cites the fear of death as the cause of man’s ills, and shows the way to freedom from that fear. (Summary by bropops4)

Join Noah McKay as he explores philosophical ideas and musings about how to live a better life.

Aphorisms from the Stoic Greek.

A podcast about how to lead a full and happy life based on reason and objectivity, inspired by Ayn Rand’s ideas. Ricardo Ibáñez is an intellectual Entrepreneur, President of Ricardo’s Time. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ricardo-s-time-english–4971672/support.

As Jowett relates in his brilliant introduction, 95% of Plato’s writing is certain and his reputation rests soundly on this foundation. The Alcibiades 1 appears to be a short work by Plato with only two characters: Socrates and Alcibiades. This dialogue has little dramatic verisimilitude but centres on the question of what knowledge one needs […]

Dedicated to the Art of Transformative Inquiry

Seneca the Younger wrote the moral essay “De Brevitate Vitae” — “On the Shortness of Life” — to his friend Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that men waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives man enough time to do what […]

Aristotle’s On Interpretation (Greek Περὶ Ἑρμηνείας or Peri Hermeneias) or De Interpretatione (the Latin title) is the second of Aristotle’s six texts on logic which are collectively known as the Organon. On Interpretation is one of the earliest surviving philosophical works in the Western tradition to deal with the relationship between language and logic in […]

First published in 1886 at Nietzsche’s own expense, the book was not initially considered important. In it, Nietzsche denounced what he considered to be the moral vacuity of 19th century thinkers. He attacked philosophers for what he considered to be their lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian premises in their considerations […]

“For there is no light of justice or temperance, or any of the higher ideas which are precious to souls, in the earthly copies of them: they are seen through a glass, dimly…” Socrates and his earnest friend Phaedrus, enjoying the Athenian equivalent of a lunchtime stroll in the park, exchange views on love and […]

A fine adventure set in 10th-century England at a time when everyday life in north was made hazardous by wars and shifting alliances among Saxon, British and Norse rulers. Thorstein, like his father Swein before him, is a peaceful Norse settler but brave and ready for battle when the time comes. His adventures as child […]

Positive Perspectives

The Discourse on Method is best known as the source of the famous quotation “cogito ergo sum”, “I think, therefore I am.” …. It is a method which gives a solid platform from which all modern natural sciences could evolve. With this work, the idea of skepticism was revived from the ancients such as Sextus […]

“Our intention is, that Timaeus, who is the most of an astronomer amongst us, and has made the nature of the universe his special study, should speak first, beginning with the generation of the world and going down to the creation of man…” ‘Timaeus’ is usually regarded as one of Plato’s later dialogues, and provides […]

Plato’s Phaedo is one of the great dialogues of his middle period, along with the Republic and the Symposium. The Phaedo, which depicts the death of Socrates, is also Plato’s seventh and last dialogue to detail the philosopher’s final days (the first six being Theaetetus, Euthyphro, Sophist, Statesman, Apology, and Crito). In the dialogue, Socrates […]

Meno (Ancient Greek: Μένων) is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato. Written in the Socratic dialectic style, it attempts to determine the definition of virtue, or arete, meaning in this case virtue in general, rather than particular virtues, such as justice or temperance. The goal is a common definition that applies equally to all particular […]

The Anatomy of Melancholy is a book by Robert Burton, first published in 1621. On its surface, the book is a medical textbook in which Burton applies his large and varied learning in the scholastic manner to the subject of melancholia (which includes what is now termed clinical depression). Though presented as a medical text, […]

This dialogue brings Socrates face to face with the famous sophist Gorgias and his followers. It is a work likely completed around the time of “Republic” and illuminates many of the spiritual ideas of Plato. The spirituality, as Jowett points out in his wonderful introduction, has many ideas akin to Christianity, but is more generous […]