Philosopher's Zone

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The simplest questions often have the most complex answers. The Philosopher's Zone is your guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics.

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Albert Camus, fascism and America

Living and writing through the years before, during and after the Second World War, French author and philosopher Albert Camus witnessed the rise of fascism and its terrible endgame in German National Socialism. Today, amid fears of a neo-fascist resurgence in the USA, his work well is worth revisiting.

46 min
7 JANV.

How feminism changed primatology

For decades, primatologists believed that primate societies were structured around aggressive alpha males - until a remarkable push from feminist scientists in the 1960s and 70s changed the narrative. So why does the "dominant alpha male" story persist in human culture?

35 min
31/12/2025

What's the time? Indigenous temporalities and the 'Everywhen'

We tend to think of time as a universal experience, something that carries us all along in the same direction at the same pace. So it might seem strange to think of time in terms of 'temporalities', different concepts and experiences of time that reflect different cultural values. In Australia, Indigenous temporalities are deeply interwoven with notions of justice, sovereignty and care for country - but these temporalities exist in tension with settler-colonial notions of time.

30 min
24/12/2025

Buddhism and nationalism

Buddhism in the West is often thought of as an ethical or philosophical system first and foremost, based on principles of non-self and impermanence, and universalist in its outlook. So it can come as a surprise to find that in countries like Sri Lanka, there exists a strain of Buddhist nationalism that has fierce pride, religious chauvinism and even violence in its history.

33 min
17/12/2025

Innocence and 'child rescue' in the colonial imagination

The forced removal of First Nations children from their families was active government policy in Australia between the 1910s and the 1970s, and still continues today under the banner of child protection. Today we're hearing that the story of the Stolen Generation has a historical parallel in the 'child rescue' movement in 19th century Britain, when so-called 'ragged children' were taken from their families - in many cases, abducted - and placed in institutions, to be trained and moulded into productive citizens.

37 min
10/12/2025

Distributed intelligence and the problem with 'doing your own research'

Conspiracy theorists are turning out to be a resilient bunch, and no amount of refutation or mockery will make them go away. It's a problem, because as well as being ethically problematic, conspiracy theories can sometimes be downright dangerous. So how do we deal with them? This week we're exploring the ways in which the familiar diagnosis of the conspiracy theorist - lacking in reason, perhaps mentally ill - doesn't really get it right.

33 min
04/12/2025

Can atheists be virtuous? The moral philosophy of Catharine Trotter Cockburn

Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749) is best known as a contemporary and defender of John Locke - but she was also a fascinating philosopher in her own right. Writing at a time when secular philosophy was beginning to challenge the Christian religious monopoly on moral authority, Cockburn was a devout Anglican - and, for a time, a devout Catholic - who nevertheless believed that virtue could be attained via reason.

41 min
26/11/2025

What are we doing when we read?

Reading seems like a simple, uncomplicated activity that most of us enjoy without thinking too much about it - but how simple is it really? Literary theorists have been arguing for decades over what it is to read, what it is to interpret a text, what it is for something to be a text. This week we're catching up on some of the recent debates.

29 min

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David Rutledge

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The simplest questions often have the most complex answers. The Philosopher's Zone is your guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics.