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2008-07-19 - Damned if you do and damned if you don't
What happens if you're in one of those situations where you're faced with a choice and, whatever you choose, it's going to be a bad choice? This is what's known as a moral dilemma, but do moral dilemmas actually occur in real life? Moral philosophers tend to say they don't - if you think you've got a dilemma, you haven't understood the situation - but can life really be that easy?
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2008-07-12 - Taking God for granted (or not)
Some people take God (or, at least, God´s existence) for granted; their belief comes from faith. But some of them still think that they can learn from philosophers. This week, we meet somebody who teaches philosophy to evangelical Protestant students and a Sydney lawyer who, taking nothing for granted, argues for God in an increasingly sceptical philosophical world.
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2008-07-05 - John Gray at the Writers' Festival - Part 2
The celebrated British philosopher and political theorist John Gray discusses the ways in which the Utopian aspirations of the secular left and right reflect the Christian heritage of Western political thought. From Stalinist Russia to contemporary Iraq, he argues, the road to perfection is built over the bodies of the innocent.
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2008-06-28 - John Gray at the Writers' Festival - Part 1
The celebrated philosopher and critic John Gray is one of Britain´s most prominent thinkers. In such books as Straw Dogs and Black Mass, he argues that apocalyptic religion has returned as a major force in global conflict.
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2008-06-21 - Egalitarianism and fairness
Australia prides itself on its egalitarianism, but what do we mean by 'egalitarianism'? Is it about treating everybody alike or just about treating like cases alike? Does inequality matter if nobody gets hurt? It is about fairness, and can we talk about fairness if there isn't actually anybody who's being unfair? (Can a roulette wheel be unfair?) This week, a philosophical look at one of the leading beliefs (or myths) of our time.
Also this week a French philosophy teachers puts the big thinkers to an R&B/hip hop beat. And more from Simon Critchley on continental philosophy.
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2008-06-14 - The only good philosopher is a dead one
Or the only truly tested philosophy is that of a dead philosopher. When the philosopher dies, the philosophy is put to the test. Does is still seem valid? Or does it fade into irrelevance in the face of eternity? From the Sydney Writers´ Festival, a conversation with Simon Critchley, author of The Book of Dead Philosophers.
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2008-06-07 - Ethics in the public realm - Bill Henson and drug-resistant tuberculosis
This week, The Philosopher's Zone looks at a couple of current, public ethical issues. It's said that the photographer Bill Henson, whose images were recently seized by the police, didn't intend to produce pornography. Does this mean that the images in question can't be pornography? What is it that makes art art? And tuberculosis, which kills almost as many people each year as AIDS; should we forcibly and indefinitely separate people infected with TB and refuse them access to their family and friends? A case in South Africa illustrates some of the ethical aspects of TB.
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2008-05-31 - Mai '68
In May 1968, the universities of France and Germany erupted. There were protests, there were sit-ins, there were riots and, among students of philosophy, there was a total rejection of the older generation. Jean-Paul Sartre found himself outflanked from an unexpected direction: the left. This week on The Philosopher's Zone, we look at the consequences of 'les evenements' of 1968 on two influential thinkers: Paul Ricoeur, who suffered at first hand at the University of Nanterre, and Michel Foucault, who lived through much graver events in Tunisia.
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2008-05-31 - Mai '68
In May 1968, the universities of France and Germany erupted. There were protests, there were sit-ins, there were riots and, among students of philosophy, there was a total rejection of the older generation. Jean-Paul Sartre found himself outflanked from an unexpected direction: the left. This week on The Philosopher's Zone, we look at the consequences of 'les evenements' of 1968 on two influential thinkers: Paul Ricoeur, who suffered at first hand at the University of Nanterre, and Michel Foucault, who lived through much graver events in Tunisia.
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2008-05-31 - Mai '68
In May 1968, the universities of France and Germany erupted. There were protests, there were sit-ins, there were riots and, among students of philosophy, there was a total rejection of the older generation. Jean-Paul Sartre found himself outflanked from an unexpected direction: the left. This week on The Philosopher's Zone, we look at the consequences of 'les evenements' of 1968 on two influential thinkers: Paul Ricoeur, who suffered at first hand at the University of Nanterre, and Michel Foucault, who lived through much graver events in Tunisia.
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2008-05-31 - Mai '68
In May 1968, the universities of France and Germany erupted. There were protests, there were sit-ins, there were riots and, among students of philosophy, there was a total rejection of the older generation. Jean-Paul Sartre found himself outflanked from an unexpected direction: the left. This week on The Philosopher's Zone, we look at the consequences of 'les evenements' of 1968 on two influential thinkers: Paul Ricoeur, who suffered at first hand at the University of Nanterre, and Michel Foucault, who lived through much graver events in Tunisia.
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2008-05-24 - To be or not to be (part 2)
In the second part of our philosophical study of suicide, we look at how attitudes to the act altered when religion began to feature less in philosophers' views of the subject and the focus turned to the autonomy of the individual: it's your life so you can do what you like with it, can't you? And, if not, why not?
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2008-05-17 - To be or not to be (Part 1)
Suicide has been a focus of philosophical examination in the West since at least the time of Plato, and for good reason. It raises a lot of difficult questions. What makes behaviour suicidal? Is suicidal behaviour rational and - the question that has obsessed philosophers down the ages - is it morally permissible? This week, the first part of a two-part investigation of this enigmatic and disconcerting phenomenon.
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2008-05-10 - Practical philosophy and speculative fiction
The philosophy of Vedanta, which derives from the ancient Hindu Scripture, aspires to scientific knowledge about how life is to be lived. This week, we examine its claims. We also look at a new novel that asks what might happen if the work of Plato were to be put into practice. The result? Totalitarianism plus genetic engineering.
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2008-05-03 - Doing without a ruler: in defence of anarchism
The word derives from the Greek—it means 'without a ruler'—and the idea is that all forms of government are oppressive and undesirable and should be abolished. This week we are looking at anarchism and why it has mostly played a minor role in political life and philosophy. The autonomous collective that is The Philosopher´s Zone investigates.
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2008-04-26 - Morality and political violence
War, rebellion and terrorism - together, they constitute a major challenge to the world today. But they also constitute a challenge to morality itself. This week, we talk to the Melbourne philosopher C.A.J. Coady about morality and political violence.
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2008-04-19 - Time for philosophers
Time, as we all know, is money, but what else is it? Would it exist if nothing were changing or moving? Does it really have a direction? Are the future and the past real? Will the future be infinite? Was (or is) the past infinite? These and other questions will be tackled this week on The Philosopher's Zone - if there's time.
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2008-04-12 - Steam-age philosophy
Two of the inventors of the steam engine differed hugely about the theory behind what they were doing. Did that make a difference to what they did, or does philosophy not matter at all? This week´s program stares into the gap between theory and practice.
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2008-04-05 - Beautiful one day, metaphysical the next
Many Australian trends in philosophy of mind, environmental philosophy, logic and social thought began in Queensland or had a fruitful infancy there. So this week, with the help of Dr Gary Malinas, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Queensland, we celebrate the history of deep thought in the sunshine state.
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