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Philosophy For Our Times


Philosophy For Our Times

Sartre vs Baldwin | Joanna Kavenna, Jonathan Webber, and Marie-Elsa Bragg

Tue, 01 Apr 2025

We take it for granted that through language and communication we can learn about the experience of others. But it remains unknown whether we can fully know what it is like to be another human being. James Baldwin and Jean-Paul Sartre take radically different approaches. For Sartre, the experience of others is unknown to us. Fundamentally, we are alone with our own subjectivity. While for Baldwin, "to encounter oneself is to encounter the other; and this is love". Summing up his disagreement with Sartre he remarked: "it has always seemed to me that ideas were somewhat more real to him than people.”

Was Baldwin right that to be alive is to be socially connected to others? Or is Sartre's insight that the only thing we can know is our own experience more telling? Should we conclude that we cannot understand the experience of another unless we have had the same experience? Or is language capable of bridging the seemingly impossible gap between us? 


Jonathan Webber is a professor at Cardiff University specializing in moral philosophy and the philosophy of psychology. Marie-Elsa Roche Bragg is an author, teacher, and priest. Her first novel, Towards Mellbreak is about four generations of a quiet hill farming family on the North Western fells of Cumbria. Joanna Kavenna is an award-winning writer. She was born in the UK but as a seasoned traveller, she was led to her first book, The Ice Museum, which details her experience travelling in the remote North. Hosted by presenter, writer and professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at Oxford, Rana Mitter


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The philosophy of geopolitics SPECIAL | Donald Trump, Homer's Odyssey, and Korean Web Novels

Fri, 28 Mar 2025

What do Friedrich Nietzsche, the Korean War, and Homer's Odyssey have in common?

Join the team at the IAI for four articles about the history and philosophy of geopolitics, ranging from Nietzsche's impact on Russia's imperialist strategies to the importance of Ancient Greek tragedies during the decline of the West. Written by Slavoj Žižek, John Milbank, Stathis Kalyvas, and Andy Owen, these four articles offer a deep and wide-ranging analysis of the philosophies that are shaping the modern world of politics.

Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist. He is the author of 'Christian Atheism: How to Be a Real Materialist'. John Milbank is a theologian and founder of Radical Orthodoxy. His books include 'The Monstrosity of Christ', co-authored with Slavoj Žižek. Stathis Kalyvas is Gladstone Professor of government and fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford. Andy Owen is an author and former intelligence officer in the British Army.

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The philosophy of dehumanisation | David Livingstone Smith

Tue, 25 Mar 2025

The philosophy of dehumanisation with David Livingstone Smith

In this exclusive interview, philosopher David Livingstone Smith explores the history, nature, and evolution of dehumanisation. As what is 'acceptable' in society changes, so do the tactics of undercover dehumanisation. How can we identify these, and how might we progress? Smith's solutions vary from holding up the mirror to reveal there are no 'monsters', to his more radical suggestion: getting rid of dehumanisation's prelude, racialisation. Smith presents us with a candid but unique outlook on this topic, touching on everything from deferring to the expert and symbols of hate, to having hope without optimism.

David Livingstone Smith is a philosopher and author, most recently of Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization. His research interests include self-deception, dehumanization, human nature, ideology, race and moral psychology. His book Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. 

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And don't hesitate to email us at podcast@iai.tv with your thoughts or questions on the episode! Do you agree with David Livingstone Smith's analysis? Where do you think dehumanisation comes from?

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Consciousness is quantum mechanical | Stuart Hameroff

Tue, 18 Mar 2025

Consciousness is one of the most fundamental aspects of our existence, but it remains barely understood, even defined. Across the world scholars of many disciplines - philosophy, science, social science, theology - are joined on a quest to understand this phenomenon.

Tune into one of the more original and controversial thinkers at the forefront of consciousness research, Stuart Hameroff, as he presents his ideas. Hameroff is an anaesthesiologist who, alongside Roger Penrose, proposes that the source of consciousness is structural, produced from a certain shape in our brain. He expands on this, and much more (such as evolution), in this talk. Have a listen!


To witness such topics discussed live buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/

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You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes


And don't hesitate to email us at podcast@iai.tv with your thoughts or questions on the episode! Do you agree with Stuart Hameroff's approach? What are your doubts?

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Defending panpsychism | Philosophers Philip Goff and Hilary Lawson

Fri, 14 Mar 2025

Metaphysics vs consciousness

Panpsychism has recently become something of a household term in philosophical and scientific conversations alike. Deceivingly simple, it defends the view that consciousness is the primary 'stuff' of reality, and that all things have mind-like qualities.

Join philosopher Philip Goff, one of the world's leading defenders of panpsychism, in this conversation with philosopher Hilary Lawson, a post-realist. Goff is humble in his approach, open to scientific progress and discovery, but also philosophically committed to finding purpose and meaning in the world around him.


To witness such topics discussed live buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/

And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/

You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes


And don't hesitate to email us at podcast@iai.tv with your thoughts or questions on the episode! Does panpsychism grasp at some fundamental truth about reality?

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