Nihilism and utopia

FromPhilosopher's Zone

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Nihilism and utopia

FromPhilosopher's Zone

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Length:

29 minutes

Released:

Jul 26, 2020

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

COVID-19 has exposed a streak of nihilism in 21st century capitalist societies. How do we move forward without succumbing to despair on one hand, or utopian thinking on the other?

Released:

Jul 26, 2020

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

The simplest questions often have the most complex answers. The Philosopher's Zone is your guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics.

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African philosophy and the West: How do you articulate African philosophy in a Western academic environment? And what gets lost in the project of “translating” the former into the categories of the latter? by Philosopher's Zone
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Parental guidance recommended: The nature of Family could be more than a Christmas puzzle. by Philosopher's Zone
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Envy has its reasons: One of the seven deadly sins—which is sometimes excusable. by Philosopher's Zone
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Proof and beauty: Mathematicians routinely refer to complex proofs in aesthetic terms, citing their 'elegance' or 'beauty'. This has partly to do with the social aspect of such proofs—far from being a hermetic or exclusively cerebral practice, mathematics has never strayed by Philosopher's Zone
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Bots, bankers and big brother: Would you trust a killer robot more than a banker? This philosopher does, and has his reasons. by Philosopher's Zone
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Devotion, democracy and Duterte: Is religious language incompatible with democratic politics, as philosopher Richard Rorty believed? Not in the Philippines, where religion and democracy are working together as close allies—with troubling implications for justice and human rights. by Philosopher's Zone
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Ethics and absolutes in the classroom: The trouble with morality is that reasonable people keep disagreeing on what’s right and wrong. The science, as they say, isn’t settled. So that being the case, how can we argue for fixed moral standards to which everyone should sign up? And how should we by Philosopher's Zone
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The philosophy of parenting—part 3: Every parent knows the guilt that comes from being a ‘bad parent’—after you’ve lost your temper, given in to a tantrum and spoiled your precious little angel! It might affect how the child grows up, but how can you work that out? by Philosopher's Zone
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On the way: John Kaag is a philosopher who travelled to the Swiss Alps with the aim of putting into practice some of Nietzsche's recommendations for "becoming who you are". In his memoir Hiking With Nietzsche, what he finds is that following in the footsteps of the g by Philosopher's Zone
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Animals and the philosophy of friendship: Some of our best friends are animals. So where does that leave some humans we know? by Philosopher's Zone
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Enid Blyton—the moral of the story: She might not be in vogue these days, but for one Cambridge philosopher Enid Blyton is serious moral business. by Philosopher's Zone
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Robot dogs dream of consciousness: What makes the human mind so distinctive? Perhaps the answer is in your dreams. by Philosopher's Zone
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The Reformation: What's not to like?: Is it just a coincidence that the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation falls on the same year that Britain is trying to 'Brexit'? by Philosopher's Zone
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Getting stuck: The midlife mess: Your midlife crisis: it’s more than you think. by Philosopher's Zone
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Autonomy, self, and substances: Substance abuse lets you say ‘it wasn’t me’. Then who was it? by Philosopher's Zone
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Rock star philosopher, and rocks: Revisiting celebrity thinker Henri Bergson, and a philosopher-geologist on rocks, science and climate change. by Philosopher's Zone
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Fuelling free will: Alfred Mele spent four years and four million dollars trying to get to the bottom of free will. He learnt that it was like petrol. by Philosopher's Zone
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Thinking small: Understanding the human condition has been the province of many disciplines, but you wouldn’t necessarily expect microbiology to be among them. Think again! by Philosopher's Zone
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Awesome ethics and the art of mushroom blading: Forget the meaning of life; an ethical definition of awesome is far more important. by Philosopher's Zone
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The value of thought experiments: Drop those test tubes, take off your lab coat, pull up a comfy chair and think your way to scientific truth. by Philosopher's Zone
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A tale of two universes: Philosophy and modern physics: a case of the irrelevant versus the impractical? by Philosopher's Zone
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Existentialism and crisis: Existentialism entered the popular consciousness after World War 2, and for many it still has a mid-century ring to it. But how does it look look today, especially in an age where the unfolding environmental crisis calls for something more than radical hu by Philosopher's Zone
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Women and the Dhamma: Buddhist teaching is radically egalitarian, and yet the need for a Buddhist feminism is pressing. Is gender irrelevant to Buddhist teaching? by Philosopher's Zone
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Stones rolling and the joy of ordinary objects: The structure of the universe is written in stone—maybe. by Philosopher's Zone
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The philosophy of parenting—part 2: Brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and those weird second cousins you never talk to… how might we define family—and why it matters. by Philosopher's Zone
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The philosophy of parenting—part 1: Should you have kids? Don’t look for sage advice—part 1 of a 4-part series. by Philosopher's Zone
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Who are you?: The question of exactly what constitutes identity is an old and much-contested one. Is personhood located in a community? A culture? A race? Or is it something singular and immanent, located somewhere in the deepest recesses of the individual? by Philosopher's Zone
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The shadow of eugenics: Eugenics is a science that seems to belong back in the darkest days of the 20th century. But today, 'newgenics' has people worried, as reproductive technologies make it more possible to filter out certain genetic disorders. Does this colour our notion of what constitutes a 'desirable' or 'undesirable' human subject? by Philosopher's Zone
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Public health and the open society: Karl Popper's idea of "the open society" promoted values of inclusivity, transparency and democratic freedom. Today, some fear that the open society is under threat, with negative consequences for a lot of things we've come to take for granted - including by Philosopher's Zone
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Carlo Rovelli and his quantum problem: Carlo Rovelli on the desperate need for some conceptual engineering to dig quantum thinking out of a deep black hole. by Philosopher's Zone
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Hegel, nature and the Anthropocene: Modernity has us in a terrible bind. We know that our Western habits of growth and consumption are destroying the planet, and that we need to stop exploiting the natural world for our benefit. But at the same time, our very identity as modern humans is grounded in the notion of endless growth, self-determination and the domination of nature. The work of the 18th century German philosopher GWF Hegel provides a fascinating diagnosis of our condition. Can it also offer a cure? by Philosopher's Zone
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The phenomenology of love: There’s a venerable philosophical tradition devoted to explaining what love is, and it stretches back to the ancient Greeks. What philosophy hasn’t had so much to say about is the phenomenology of love – the question of what love feels like. This week we’re getting inside the experience. by Philosopher's Zone
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Conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and fun: You don’t have to be stupid to be a conspiracy theorist. Many people who buy into paranoid fantasies about stolen Presidential elections and sinister global Jewish cabals are perfectly sane, well-educated individuals. So why do they fall for these myths? This week we consider the possibility that the attraction is primarily aesthetic, and that the experience is fun. As for why the perennial focus on Jews: the answer can be found in a peculiar tension between philosophical monism and the worldview of the TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm. by Philosopher's Zone
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Adoption and moral obligation: There are an estimated 16.2 million documented orphans worldwide. It’s a problem of crisis proportions, which makes it perhaps strange that so many of us consider adoption as more of a last resort than a first-order obligation – to be considered only if the path to having genetically-related children is blocked. This week we’re looking at the justifications for genetic preference in families, and asking how these justifications stack up against the moral duty to adopt. by Philosopher's Zone
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Identity politics: Identity politics is grounded in the appeal to a stable, unified self and the authority of testimony. But this week we’re asking whether that foundation is solid, and if deconstructing it might allow for a more flexible approach to social justice. by Philosopher's Zone
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Rupture and hope: In a world shaken by war, pandemic and climate crisis, hope is a precious resource. It can be fragile, fleeting and hard to find. But what exactly does hope mean? It has clear Christian overtones, and a venerable theological tradition behind it. This week we're talking about the ways in which the theological informs the secular, and exploring how hope plays out in the political arena. We also hear a personal story of rupture and trauma, and a perspective on hope that accommodates the tunnel as well as the light at the end. by Philosopher's Zone
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Sex, death and chilli sauce: In order to come to terms with death, we need to come to terms with sex – but this can involve a double bind for women. Is the age-old association of women with death and sexuality helpful or harmful? And what does this all have to do with chilli sauce? by Philosopher's Zone
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China, Confucius and the courtyard: For more than three millennia, most buildings in China were configured around a central courtyard. This week’s guest believes that the courtyard helps us to understand Chinese society and culture, as well as Confucian philosophy. Today, with increasing numbers of people living in urban apartment buildings, the courtyard has become something of a period piece. What does this tell us about Chinese thought and identity in the modern world? by Philosopher's Zone
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Nihilism and utopia

Nihilism and utopia

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Philosopher's Zone

Related podcast episodes