Humanism

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

Marcus Tullius Cicero is one of the most famous orators in ancient history, and a central figure during the final years of the Roman Republic.

To explore his life and career, Tristan is joined by Dr Henriette van der Blom from the University of Birmingham. Together t ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man who, according to Machiavelli, was the last of the Five Good Emperors. Marcus Aurelius, 121 to 180 AD, has long been known as a model of the philosopher king, a Stoic who, while on military campaigns, compiled ideas on how best to live his ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man who, according to Machiavelli, was the last of the Five Good Emperors. Marcus Aurelius, 121 to 180 AD, has long been known as a model of the philosopher king, a Stoic who, while on military campaigns, compiled ideas on how best to live his ...  Show more

Historian and author Rutger Bregman joins Trevor and Christiana to debate ethics and the possibility of a better world. Are human beings innately good? Innately selfish? Which is better to move the human race forward? Which sows the seeds of our own demise?

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