Philosophers’ Corner

  • Schizophrenia and the mind

    Schizophrenia affects about one out of two hundred people.  It’s a serious mental disorder that…

  • Health Care – is it a right or a privilege

    I think when people say healthcare is a right, or ought to be a right, they don’t always have the same thing in mind. I think everyone would agree that you shouldn’t be denied healthcare on account of race or religion or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation. Well, maybe everyone wouldn’t agree, but it’s not what people usually dispute about. The question is whether you can get healthcare if you don’t have money to pay for it.

  • The State of Public Philosophy

    People sometimes worry that modern-day philosophers don’t have the same impact on the public that philosophers have traditionally had, and continue to have in some other countries. That is what our experience suggests. Lots of public radio stations and their program directors are startled to hear about a show on philosophy. They’re very skeptical that their listening public would be interested. In fact, one of our motives in doing the program is to make philosophy more a part of public life.

  • Philosophy and Everyday Life

    Sunday’s guest is Robert Rowland Smith, author if Breakfast with Socrates and Driving with Plato….

  • What Are Words Worth?

      ‘Ilunga’ means a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first…

  • Lincoln as a Philosopher

    Lincoln is revered as our greatest President; he is virtually an American Saint. The Second Inaugural Address — the one that’s carved on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial — is really quite chilling. Especially if you think it really represents the philosophy of someone who has just pursued a path that led to the death of half a million people.

  • Gay Pride and Prejudice

    Our society, taken as a whole, can’t make up its mind about Gays and Lesbians. On the one hand, many studies have documented increasing tolerance of homosexuality, especially among younger, more educated, more affluent, and more liberal Americans. On the other hand, a substantial number of Americans still don’t think gays should be allowed to marry, serve in the military, adopt or even teach children.

  • Summer Reading 2011

    Each year Ken and I together with our listeners, previous guests, and special guests, come…

  • The Prison System

    America imprisons more of her citizens, for more crimes, and for longer periods than any other nation in the world. At the beginning of 2008, nearly two and a half million people were in prison in the US. That’s one in every one hundred adults. China, with a population about four times ours, had a prison population of about one and a half million during that same period. Does this mass incarceration really serve the interest of justice? Or is it an inefficient, dysfunctional way of addressing social ills that would be better handled in other ways?

  • Beliefs Gone Wild

    The human mind is a wondrous thing.  It has uncovered the innermost secrets of the…

  • Cities, Gentrification, and Inequality

    Throughout history, cities have been major centers of commerce, creativity, and culture. They have been places where classes and races mingle and mix, places where the young go to make their dream and expand their horizons. But beginning apparently as early as the 1920’s, but certainly accelerating to a feverish pace during the social turmoil of the 60’s, many once great American cities began to empty out, as the middle class, especially, fled for the comfort and security of the sprawling suburbs.

  • Should Marriage Be Abolished?

      Our topics this week: Should Marriage Be Abolished?   That’s a pretty punchy and provocative…

  • The Extended Mind

    If you haven’t followed certain literature, you might be puzzled by today’s topic – especially if you just go on the meanings of the individual words involved. Most people are pretty clear what the mind is. It’s the seat of thought, consciousness, emotion… Stuff like that. And we know what it means to say something is extended – it’s stretched out through space or maybe over time. But I don’ think it is obvious what it means when we combine these two things, and say the mind is extended.