Philosophy For Our Times

Can humans ever be inherently good or evil?

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Whether we see humans as essentially good or essentially selfish and violent has been central to our politics, our account of society, and our vision for social progress. But is this very distinction itself a mistake? Recently, Harvard scientists have shown humans to be both the kindest and most malevolent species on the planet. While figures like Hitler and Stalin though responsible for tens of millions of deaths were also remarkably empathetic in aspects of their private lives.

Should we give up the idea therefore that humans are either inherently good or bad and conclude that all of us are both at the same time with potentially profound consequences for our political beliefs? Or is it vital to retain the distinction to alert us to danger and to drive personal and social change? Or more profoundly, are the categories of good and bad themselves the underlying error and unhelpful, and even dangerous, ways of categorising human behaviour?

Anthropologist and Harvard University Professor Richard Wrangham, renowened philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek, University of Hertfordshire professor Maria Balaska and the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams join Myriam François to discuss the nature of good and evil.

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Have you heard of Descartes' 'demon'? How can a mythical creature inform scientific progress? What is real?

Listen in to find out!

Join award-winning science historian Jimena Canales in this studio interview as she discusses the process of discovery and the nature of the unknown in science.

Jimena Canales is a pioneering historian of science and an expert in 19th and 20th century history of the physical sciences. She is currently Vice-President of the Board of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

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Is 'energy' as a concept suited to the 21st century? Or is it a simplification of processes we do not understand, whose nature may be more mystical rather than purely rational?

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Join leading minds in the world of physics - Priyamvada Natarajan, Avshalom Elitzur, and Bernard Carr - as they face head on the necessity, or lack thereof, of one of the most essential building blocks of contemporary physics: energy. It underlies our universe, and yet its versatile nature is still not entirely understood, for example in its mysterious manifestation as 'dark energy'. In this honest talk, three leading scientists discuss this and other issues, as well as their embrace of mysticism in the search for an underlying physical truth.

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PART 3 of Does life have meaning Series: How do we find meaning (and happiness) in the contemporary age?

Nihilism, the abandonment of all fundamental beliefs, may appear a hopeless outlook. Yet perhaps it also has potential. Join philosopher Nolen Gertz as he explores the history of nihilism to give us a complex image of it as something we can learn to live with in our technological age.

Nolen Gertz is Associate Professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Twente, the Coordinator of the Human Condition Research Line of ESDIT, and a Senior Researcher of the 4TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology. His research focuses primarily on the intersection of political philosophy, existential phenomenology, and philosophy of technology.

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Should we think of morality in terms of objective truth or social consensus?

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Once the fashion of a postmodern age, moral relativism has always had its detractors, many of them religious. But now a new breed of atheist celebrity thinkers, from Sam Harris to Peter Singer, are making claims for the existence of absolute moral truths. Critics argue that like authoritarian moralists of the past, they use so-called 'objective' morality to shore up to their own prejudices and silence dissent.

Firebrand philosopher Slavoj Žižek, bestselling author of Zed Joanna Kavenna, and philosopher and author of Truth Simon Blackburn debate objective morality in a postmodern age. Hosted by Professor and Chair of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford, Ruth Chang.

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