Episode 5, Utilitarianism (Part III)

Welcome to a special Episode 160 – a conversation / debate between Jack Symes and Philip Goff. Philip Goff and Jack Symes have known each other since 2011, when Philip taught Jack's very first philosophy lecture. In the years since, they've both arrived at views that sit awkwardl ...  Show more

This episode brings together Jack and Rowan Williams, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury and one of the world's most distinguished theologians. As they explore the intersection of faith, politics, and ethics, they confront Christian nationalism, the morality of war, the value of ...  Show more

On this episode, we track the changes in Peter Singer's ethical views throughout his career. We talk about Emotivism. R.M. Hare's Prescriptivism. Nozick's Experience Machine. Some thought experiments from Derek Parfit. Henry Sidgwick and Objectivist Hedonistic Utilitarianism. Hop ...  Show more

We talk a bit more about David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), and add some parts of A Treatise of Human Nature (1739): sec. 3 "Of the Influencing Motives of the Will" within the third part of Book II, "Of the Passions," and the first two sections of ...  Show more

Immanuel Kant is a profoundly influential figure in modern philosophy, and was one of the earliest proponents for universal democracy and international cooperation. He also thought that women have no place in civil society, that it was okay to kill illegitimate children, and that ...  Show more

On The Basis of Morality (1840), Part III: "The Founding of Ethics," Ch. 5: "Statement and Proof of the Only True Moral Incentive." Everything up to this point in the book has been negative: Morality can't be founded on pure reason as Kant thinks, or on the idea of the good life ...  Show more