Philosophers’ Corner

  • The Moral Lives of Animals

    This week our show is about The Moral Lives of Animals. We’re asking whether non-human…

  • Altered States of Consciousness

    It’s not that difficult to alter your consciousness. You might start your day with a stimulating cup of coffee, or end it with a relaxing cocktail. Even without imbibing any substances, you can alter your consciousness by doing various activities, like yoga, meditation, or with a simple walk in the woods. But if you really want a powerful, fast, and direct way to get into a radically altered state, try taking a mind-altering drug, like LSD, peyote, or ayahuasca.

  • Lessons from the Trolley Problem

    There is nothing morally special about trolleys, except the historical accident that around thirty years ago the great philosophers Philippa Foot and Judith Jarvis Thomson used trolleys in a series of examples, originally to help us think about moral aspects of abortion. Since that time a zillion articles have been written about the trolley problem, applying it to all sorts of moral issues.

  • How Many Children?

      The world already has too many people.  7.3 billion.  It’ll probably hit over 11…

  • Why Does Anything Exist?

    Why is there something rather than nothing? That’s the big question we’re asking in this week’s show. It’s an odd question that could be thought of as either supremely profound, or supremely silly. It’s hard to know what an answer might even look like.

  • Oneness is a Mystery

    Concepts such as infinity and oneness are problematic in terms of our capability to describe…

  • Extreme Altruism

      Altruists are people willing to do good things for others at a cost to…

  • People with Guns

    What do August 8, July 23, July 16, and June 17 have in common? Answer:…

  • Gun Control

      We usually think of the Bill of Rights as recognizing and guaranteeing to Americans…

  • The Science of Happiness

      Psychology used to be mostly concerned with unhappiness, treating the wounded, the traumatized, or the…

  • The Ancient Cosmos

    Cosmology—the study of the universe, how it was formed, and what laws govern its evolution—has exploded in the last few decades. But it’s not a new area of human inquiry. In fact, theories about the origin, nature, and structure of the cosmos go back thousands of years.

  • Simone de Beauvoir

    Simone de Beauvoir was probably best known as a novelist, and a feminist thinker and writer, but she was also an existentialist philosopher in her own right and, like her lover Sartre, thought a lot about the human struggle to be free.