Philosophy: The Classics

Informações:

Sinopsis

Nigel Warburton reads from his book Philosophy: The Classics

Episodios

  • Soren Kierkegaard - Either/Or

    21/07/2008 Duración: 16min

    Soren Kierkegaard's Either/Or is an oblique but brilliant contribution to philosophy. In this episode of Philosophy: The Classics  author Nigel Warburton summarises the book and considers several interpretations of it.

  • John Stuart Mill - Utilitarianism

    17/04/2008 Duración: 13min

    Is it better to be a happy pig or a sad Socrates? John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism is the topic of this episode of Philosophy: The Classics.

  • John Stuart Mill On Liberty

    04/04/2008 Duración: 17min

    Published in 1859, the same year as Darwin's Origin of Species, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty remains the classic statement of individual freedom. Here I summarise some of its main themes and outline some criticisms that have been made of it.

  • Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Idea

    03/11/2007 Duración: 12min

    What is the nature of reality? Why can music be so profound? Are we doomed to suffer or is extended happiness possible? Should we choose a life of asceticism? These are some of the questions that Arthur Schopenhauer addressed in The World as Will and Idea. In this episode of Philosophy: The Classics Nigel Warburton outlines and criticizes Schopenhauer's great book.

  • Kant - Groundwork of Metaphysic of Morals

    01/10/2007 Duración: 14min

    Immanuel Kant's ethical stance is uncompromising: you must do your moral duty whatever the consequences. In this reading from his book Philosophy: The Classics, Nigel Warburton outlines the main features of Kant's approach and sketches some criticisms of it.

  • Kant - Critique of Pure Reason

    10/09/2007 Duración: 13min

    What is our relation to reality? Are some features of our experience conditions of our having any experience at all? In this reading from his book Philosophy: The Classics Nigel Warburton attempts to summarise Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, a notoriously difficult yet important book.

  • Rousseau - Social Contract

    20/08/2007 Duración: 12min

    How should society be organised? Can you force someone to be free? Jean-Jacques Rousseau's controversial The Social Contract is the subject of this podcast chapter of Nigel Warburton's book Philosophy: The Classics.

  • Hume - Dialogues

    11/08/2007 Duración: 15min

    Does the apparent design in the natural world point to the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent God? In his posthumous Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, perhaps his finest work, David Hume put some devastating criticisms of the Design Argument in the mouths of his characters. Listen to Nigel Warburton reading this summary of the book.

  • Hume - Enquiry

    22/07/2007 Duración: 18min

    How do we learn about the world? David Hume's answer, like Locke's, was via experience. In this podcast, based on Nigel Warburton's Philosophy: The Classics, outlines Hume's views on a number of issues such as induction, causation, and miracles.

  • Locke - 2nd Treatise

    16/07/2007 Duración: 14min

    What are the legitimate powers of the State? This is the fundamental question John Locke addressed in his Second Treatise of Civil Government. Nigel Warburton sketches the main features of this work and outlines some criticisms of it in this podcast of a chapter from his book Philosophy: The Classics (3rd ed.)

  • Locke - Essay

    19/06/2007 Duración: 20min

    Is a newborn's mind a blank slate? What makes you the same person that you were several years ago despite bodily changes? These are two central questions that John Locke addressed in his classic work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Nigel Warburton outlines the key ideas from this book.

  • Spinoza - Ethics

    10/06/2007 Duración: 10min

    What kind of freedom can human beings achieve? Is the mind distinct from the body? Are we and everything in the universe part of God? In this episode of Philosophy: The Classics, Nigel Warburton outlines the key features of Spinoza's great book Ethics.

  • Hobbes - Leviathan

    06/06/2007 Duración: 17min

    Why would anyone give up their freedom to become part of an organised state? In this reading from his book Philosophy: The Classics, Nigel Warburton outlines Thomas Hobbes' central arguments from  Leviathan.

  • Descartes - Meditations

    30/05/2007 Duración: 22min

    Can I know anything for certain? Can I even be sure that I exist? Descartes pushed scepticism to its limits in his Meditations. Nigel Warburton explains Descartes' key ideas and some of the criticisms that can be levelled against them.

  • Machiavelli - The Prince

    24/05/2007 Duración: 13min

    Is this just a handbook for psychopaths, or a satirical attack on his contemporaries, or did Machiavelli have a moral message? In this reading from his book Philosophy: The Classics, Nigel Warburton explains the central themes from Machiavelli's great work The Prince and explores different interpretations of the book.

  • Boethius - The Consolation of Philosophy

    19/05/2007 Duración: 11min

    What consolation can Philosophy provide to a condemned man? Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy while awaiting torture and execution. He imagines Philosophy visiting him personified as a woman. Philosophy explains to him how the Wheel of Fortune turns, but yet happiness remains within human control.  Nigel Warburton reads Chapter 3 from this book Philosophy: The Classics which gives a critical summary of Boethius' book.

  • Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics

    15/05/2007 Duración: 24min

    'How should we live?' This is a fundamental question for all of us. In his Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle attempted to answer it. Listen to author Nigel Warburton's summary of the main themes of the book in this reading from his book Philosophy: The Classics.

  • Plato - The Republic

    11/05/2007 Duración: 26min

    Plato's Republic is one of the great works in philosophy. Hear how Plato thought society should be organised and why he wanted to ban representational art. Nigel Warburton reads the first chapter of his book Philosophy: The Classics.