Capital Punishment
April 26, 2009
The death penalty: An effective deterrent? A just retribution for horrendous crimes? Or a racist,…
The Scandalous Truth about Memoir
May 24, 2026
A memoir is a personal narrative written about a pivotal time in the author’s life. While the story is told from a particular perspective, the events recounted are supposed to be fact, not fiction. But what exactly counts as truth in memoir? Is the distinction…
Can Science Explain Consciousness?
April 19, 2009
Humans are conscious, billiard balls are not, and computers aren’t either. But all three are…
Where Does Morality Come From?
March 29, 2009
Time is the most familiar thing in the world, and yet philosophically one of the…
The Root of All Evil?
March 29, 2009
Money makes the world go around. But what sort of thing is money? Bits of…
Science, Ethics, and Censorship
March 22, 2009
Science is, on the one hand, a huge enterprise funded to a great extent by…
The Copyright Wars
March 22, 2009
Today there is an entire generation of people who have never paid for music. From…
Skepticism
March 15, 2009
Various forms of skepticism play important roles in the history of philosophy. Do we really…
Immortality and the Afterlife
February 15, 2009
Many religions contemplate some form of personal continued existence after death: reincarnation in another body,…
The Movie Show
February 8, 2009
Movies play a large role in modern life. We enjoy watching them; we idolize the…
The Judiciary in Democracy
February 1, 2009
In many democracies, the judiciary is protected, to one degree or another, from the voters. …
Mental Imagery
December 28, 2008
In the Early Modern period many philosophers took ideas to be mental images of the…
Animal Minds
December 21, 2008
People have strong but divergent opinions about the nature of animals’ minds. Do dogs make…
Legal Ethics
November 30, 2008
Lawyers are often thought to be hardly better than hired guns, who, in the words…
Giving and Keeping
October 26, 2008
How should people allocate their assets – however modest or grand – ethically and effectively? …
The Promise and Perils of the New Genomics
October 5, 2008
John and Ken welcome their special guest, noted scientist and entrepreneur, Craig Venter. From the…
Philosophy and Neuroscience
September 21, 2008
Philosophers have always been concerned with the mind. What is consciousness? Representation? Emotion? Now that…
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