Bertrand Russell

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961), who was part of the movement known as phenomenology. While less well-known than his contemporaries Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, his popularity has increased among philosophers in ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's Crito and Phaedo, his accounts of the last days of Socrates in prison in 399 BC as he waited to be executed by drinking hemlock. Both works show Socrates preparing to die in the way he had lived: doing philosophy. In the Crito, Plato shows ...  Show more

The time has come to finally get analytical on this podcast and, in order to do so, Connor and Dan head straight to the source: The father of analytic philosophy, Bertrand Russell. We're talking logic, we're talking math, and we're talking paradoxes. But we're also talking about ...  Show more

Let's relax with a listener request for more from the marvelous mind of Bertrand Russell. This time, thoughts about the nature of thought, induction versus deduction, and whether we can know anything. Spoiler alert, yes. But also, no. That's philosophy for you. Help us stay ad-fr ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss A Theory of Justice by John Rawls (1921 - 2002) which has been called the most influential book in twentieth century political philosophy. It was first published in 1971. Rawls (pictured above) drew on his own experience in WW2 and saw the chance i ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the theoretical physicist Dirac (1902-1984), whose achievements far exceed his general fame. To his peers, he was ranked with Einstein and, when he moved to America in his retirement, he was welcomed as if he were Shakespeare. Born in Bristol, he t ...  Show more