Philosopher's Zone

ABC

The simplest questions often have the most complex answers. The Philosopher's Zone is your guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics.

Play

Open in

30 episodes
weekly
Avg 36 min
English

Episodes 30

Newest Oldest Longest

All10 Unplayed10 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

May 21 · 31 min
'Natural' disasters and climate justice
To call the effects of a fire, flood or cyclone these days a 'natural' disaster only tells part of the story, as climate change makes us realise that vulnerability to harm is often the result of factors that actually have little to do with weather events. Land theft, displacement, poverty and the legacies of colonial rule can all multiply climate harms, which means that climate justice is more than simply a matter of sustainable energy development or transitioning to a greener economy.
May 12 · 39 min
Where am I? Buddhist philosophy and the self
Behind the familiar Buddhist doctrine that "there is no self" lies a centuries-long tradition of dispute and disagreement. Reductionists believe that the self is no more than a bundle of sense impressions and mental states that add up to nothing of substance or permanence, while emergentists believe that the self is something more - something related to these impressions and mental states, but not reducible to them. We're not going to settle the argument this week, but we will be exploring the e
May 7 · 35 min
Common sense vs reason: when philosophy gets weird
There are certain things about the world that we think we know for sure, and yet philosophical reason tells us cannot be true. Can you fly? are you real? is the world a hallucination? The answers seem self-evident, but this week we're exploring philosophical thought experiments that pull the rug out from under common sense and intuitive certainty.
April 30 · 32 min
Adam Smith, economics and moral philosophy
Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) is often described as an arch capitalist, the "father of modern economics" - and at a glance it's easy to see why. His Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations provided the theoretical foundation for free market capitalism and the economic policies that prevailed throughout the Industrial Revolution. But to see Smith as an extreme free market ideologue is to get him badly wrong.
April 22 · 36 min
Can AIs be friends?
Artificial intelligence is beginning to revolutionise many aspects of human existence - but how does it rate on friendship? The question is less theoretical than it seems: media reports of people developing 'relationships' with chatbots are becoming more common, and while we may instinctively recoil from this prospect, it's not clear that AIs could never deliver at least some of the benefits of genuine friendship.
April 15 · 35 min
Kant and religion
It's often claimed that the Enlightenment was a time when Europeans awoke from their superstitious slumber, discovered rationality, got started on science and threw religion in the bin. But a surprising number of Enlightenment philosophers had religious commitments — including Immanuel Kant, whose work at the time was understood as not just a religion, but a rival to Christianity.
April 9 · 34 min
Speech acts and AI
Speech acts - utterances that have the power to make things happen in the world - are increasingly being created by AI, especially in certain workplaces where it's not uncommon to receive orders and instructions from an algorithm. The power of a speech act is often understood as emanating from the intention of its author - but if AI lacks the capacity for intention, how much authority do AI-generated workplace commands really have?
April 1 · 29 min
'Being a burden' and assisted dying
Caring for a terminally ill person can place huge pressure - financial, emotional, physical - on the caregivers, who are often family members. And it's not uncommon at the end of life for someone for feel as though they're a 'burden' to those around them. But how should perceptions of burdensomeness play into decisions around medically assisted dying?
March 25 · 38 min
Sincerity, irony and metamodernism
The supposed evils of postmodern culture have been endlessly catalogued: moral relativism, the loss of shared values, ironic detachment, a pathological aversion to sincerity, and all rooted in a philosophical worldview that casts a sceptical eye on master narratives and the concept of transcendent truth. But have we finally moved on from postmodernism? This week we explore the concept of metamodernism, a cultural disposition that seeks to reintroduce interiority and feeling to postmodern playful
March 18 · 35 min
Is it time to get rid of legal gender status?
Most of us have Male or Female registered on our birth certificates - but what does this certification mean, in terms of its effect on our lives? There are many other things about us that have at least as much significance as our gender - our sexuality, our ethnicity - but only gender has legal status. This week we're talking about the pros and cons of uncoupling gender from the law.

Showing 21–30 of 30 episodes