Philosophy Talk Starters

Nov 26 2024 500 ep. 10 mins 2.8k

Philosophy Talk Starters Podcast artwork

Bite-size episodes from the program that questions everything... except your intelligence. Learn more and access complete episodes at www.philosophytalk.org.

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

601: What's So Special About Humans?

Nov 26 2024 12 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/whats-so-special-about-humans. Human beings share the planet with many different organisms with vastly diverse ways of life. We like to think we're a higher form of intelligence. But are we really that unique? How different are we as a species when it comes to language, thought, and culture? Where does our specifically human form of con

389: Spinoza

Nov 23 2024 11 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/spinoza. Baruch Spinoza was a 17th century Dutch philosopher who laid the foundations for the Enlightenment. He made the controversial claim that there is only one substance in the universe, which led him to the pantheistic belief in an abstract, impersonal God. What effect did Spinoza have on Enlightenment thinkers? What are the philos

600: Emma Goldman

Nov 10 2024 11 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/emma-goldman. Activist and anarchist philosopher Emma Goldman fought for human liberation in every realm of life. While she opposed the women's suffrage movement, she was a staunch advocate for women’s rights. So why did she think the right to vote was so unimportant? What did she think was required to achieve her anarchist goals? And

580: American Futures (Ken Taylor Memorial Episode)

Nov 02 2024 17 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/american-futures. When Philosophy Talk co-founder Ken Taylor passed away in 2019, he was working on a manuscript titled Farewell to the Republic We Once Dreamed of. Was Ken right to think the American experiment is on the verge of collapse? Are we heading for authoritarian rule, a national divorce, or even a civil war? Or could better d

599: Simone Weil

Oct 22 2024 11 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/simone-weil. French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil was also an activist whose goal was to elevate the lower classes. But she was opposed to the kind of revolution where the oppressed overthrow their oppressors. So, how did she think we could achieve peace and justice? Is it enough to pay the right kind of attention to each other's s

417: John Dewey and the Ideal of Democracy

Oct 19 2024 12 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/john-dewey. John Dewey is regarded by some as the American philosopher. In the first half of the 20th century, he stood as the most prominent public intellectual whose influence reached into intellectual movements in China, Japan, and India. Although we hear less of Dewey nowadays, his pragmatic political philosophy has influenced the l

545: What Is Ideology?

Oct 12 2024 10 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/what-ideology. Political polarization seems to be deepening, both in the U.S. and around the globe. Some believe that the rise of ideology is to blame for growing polarization. But can increased polarization really be attributed to ideology? What is exactly is ideology, and how is it different from dogma? Is ideology a kind of political

598: Anna Julia Cooper

Oct 06 2024 10 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/anna-julia-cooper. Born into slavery in the nineteenth century, Anna Julia Cooper received a classical education, attended the Sorbonne, and became the fourth African American in history to be awarded a PhD. Her first book, A Voice from the South, offered one of the first articulations of how Black women are impacted by race, gender, an

560: Cancel Culture

Sep 28 2024 10 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/cancel-culture. Revoking support or a platform from someone who is perceived to have behaved badly has recently been dubbed “cancel culture.” Many complain that this pervasive practice promotes mob mentality and stifles free speech. But is "cancel culture" a real phenomenon, or has it become an overused and meaningless concept? Is p

597: Marx and Morality

Sep 17 2024 10 mins

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/marx-and-morality. Karl Marx famously attempted to explain our social, political, and economic systems in terms of class conflict. While he never explicitly states that capitalism is unjust, some scholars suggest that there is an implicit moral critique of it in his work. So, does Marx reject capitalism for its moral failures, or is his