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PODCAST

Philosopher"s Zone

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.

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

0:40:20

Feminism and freedom

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/10/03

Is freedom the primary goal of feminism? It's popular these days to define feminism as something that frees women - from traditional gender roles, from social expectations and other restrictions. But the question remains as to whether or not "freedom feminism" is up to the task of helping - or even noticing - the most vulnerable and oppressed.

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0:28:25

Indigenous literature in Australia

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/09/25

As an academic discipline, Australian literature has been a largely white affair, with the canon of "great Australian authors" dominated by Anglo-European men. Indigenous writers are working to change this, and Australian indigenous literature is flourishing. But how comfortably does it sit within the traditional university structure?

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0:28:24

Deep ecology

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/09/18

With the climate heating up and our planetary support systems breaking down, how does an eco-philosopher manage to stay cheerful? This week's guest has been living and breathing these issues for many decades, which you'd think might make it difficult for him to get out of bed in the morning. But get out of bed he did, for a surprisingly upbeat conversation about optimism, pessimism and ecological identity.

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28:25

AI and reading

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/09/11

AI is like all new technology, insofar as many people are afraid of it. When it comes to AI and education, scare stories abound of students using ChatGPT to write their essays, and a possible future where teachers are replaced by bots. But according to this week's guest, there's much to be excited about.

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34:21

The philosophy of history in China

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/09/04

Ancient China seems like a place and a time far removed from our own - but when we look at how ancient and medieval Chinese scholars thought about the role and practice of history, we find some striking modern parallels.

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28:25

Extremism, gender and science

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/08/28

Extremists used to be easy to spot: they were seen as irrational, unstable and... well, extreme. But in recent years, we've seen extremists on the political right laying claim to traditional Enlightenment values - reason, free speech, autonomy, human rights - that were traditionally used as bulwarks against extremism.

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28:36

Orwellian equality: What can this philosophical...

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/08/23

Few English language writers enjoy the position of authority, even reverence, that the journalist, essayist, novelist George Orwell does.While Orwell is best known for his novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, he can also be read as developing a provocative moral sensibility — perhaps even an ethical system — in dialogue with the exigencies of war that framed his life, as well as the philosophical traditions that were “in the air” in English culture in the first half of the twentieth

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28:37

Can philosophy save us from the tyranny of toxic...

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/08/16

Ever since Plato’s cave, the darkness has been considered something to be left behind. This is the founding myth of philosophy, the beginning of the Western philosophical tradition.But how might philosophy be different if it had, from the beginning, learned to see in the dark? If it had embraced, rather than sought to tame, the emotions that sometimes overwhelm us when we experience the too-muchness of life?

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28:36

Why liberalism needs fewer defenders, and more devotees

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/08/09

Over the last decade, liberalism has found itself on the ropes. Even many liberals seem to regard it as too soft a political disposition for hard times. This has led some of its most passionate advocates to make the case for its importance with a degree of desperation commensurate with their sense of the existential threat it faces from resurgent forms of authoritarianism, intolerance, populism and political violence.But there is another way of making the case for liberalism — and

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28:36

What is AI doing to our humanity?

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/08/02

Whatever else artificial intelligence is, according to Professor Shannon Vallor, it is first and foremost a projection of the human. And so whatever threat it poses, is a threat from within our humanity.

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28:24

De-extinction, pt 2

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/07/24

The project of bringing extinct animals back into being is sexy, hi-tech and could confer significant environmental benefits - but at what cost? Some argue that resurrecting extinct species could actually work against the conservation of threatened species that currently exist. Why worry about their possible extinction, if we can just bring them back?

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28:25

De-extinction, pt 1

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/07/17

Gene technology has brought us to the point where it's theoretically possible to bring back extinct animals from the "species grave". But the science is not straightforward - and neither is the philosophy.

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28:24

What's your story? Life narrative and "main...

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/07/09

If you're like most people, you probably think about your life as a story - it has a beginning, a middle and an end, and the main character in the story is... you. But this seemingly "natural" main character thinking is deeply culturally determined, and it can limit us in the ways that we evaluate our own lives and the lives of others.

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33:49

History and narrative

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/07/02

Historians are commonly thought of as being a little like archaeologists or scientists - they're in the business of uncovering facts, and then presenting those facts to the public as accurately as possible. But this week we're considering history as a species of narrative, and the historian as someone who doesn't "discover" the meaning of the past but constructs it.

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28:37

The ancient key to modern happiness

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/06/27

Most of us aspire to achieve happiness in life, but is our understanding of happiness somewhat misguided? Could the wisdom of the ancient philosophers hold the key to modern happiness?

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28:37

Fighting fatphobia with Kate Manne

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/06/21

What moral judgements are made in philosophical thinking about fat bodies, and how does that culturally impact how we move through the world?

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28:36

The philosophy of emotions

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/06/14

We all experience emotions, but can we actually pinpoint where they come from?

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28:36

Civil Disobedience with Noëlle McAfee

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/06/07

How should we engage with politics and protest? We explore the history of political engagement and ask what role civil disobedience plays in our lives today.

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28:34

Why time doesn't pass

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/05/30

Most of us experience time as something that passes, or flows like a river - or at least we think we do. Could it be that the sense of time passing is just an illusion? This week we're getting to grips with a theory of time that denies the reality of "flow" - and we're asking why time seems to speed up or slow down in certain situations.Guest: Heather Dyke, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Otago NZProducer: David RutledgeExperience of Passage in a Static World -

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28:38

Philosophy for tough times

Philosopher"s Zone ·

2024/05/24

Life is hard — disappointment, regret and suffering come with the territory — and if the projections of climate scientists and epidemiologists are correct, it's not going to get easier any time soon. But then, life has always been hard. What do philosophical traditions have to say about the incurable toughness of human existence?

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353 results

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