Philosophy Playdate

Clever Make Funny Productions Ltd
  • 5.0 (5)
  • PHILOSOPHY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Children's impossible questions addressed by the greatest minds in philosophy. With jokes. Hosted by philosopher Christabel Cane and comedian Steve Cross.

Episodes

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    Episode 2 - "What's the best favourite colour to have?"

    This week Christabel is on a mission to convince us that navy blue is the objectively best colour. In her efforts to do this, she enlists the help of Immanuel Kant, and his distinction between things that are capital B Beautiful, and the merely agreeable. Kant relegates wine to the latter category, and Steve argues that the same is true of Queen (but makes a reasonable exception for Freddie Mercury). Christabel takes issue with both, drawing on Shen-Yi Liao’s characterisation of nostalgic food as art to argue that we have good reasons for widening our understanding of what counts as both Beautiful and high art. We are then introduced to Samantha Matherne’s Kant scholarship, to which Christabel appeals in order to make the claim that if we squint at the Critique of Judgement in the right light, Kant might give us what we need to make the argument that individual shades and tones, when appreciated in a sufficiently abstract way, might be taken to count as the kinds of things about which proper aesthetic judgements can be made. We are invited to conclude that there may be a universally correct answer to this week’s question “What’s the best favourite colour to have?” (and that the answer is navy blue). Email us the impossible questions children ask you at philosophyplaydate@gmail.com Find Steve at https://drstevecross.squarespace.com/ Philosophy Playdate theme by Piers Cane

    51 min

  2. 6 DAYS AGO

    Ep 1 - The Dog/Baby Switch

    For the very first episode of Philosophy Playdate, Steve and Christabel tackle a fresh new take on the trolley problem, provided by a 7-year-old nascent ethicist. Her question was: “If there was a switch that turned all dogs into human babies, and another switch that turned all human babies into dogs, and you had to push one, which would you push?” This ethical dilemma prompts a discussion of animal sentience and the problems we face when tasked with ranking different kinds of human and non-human consciousness, and whether such a ranking could ever justify the ‘speciesist’ conclusion that some lives are worth more than others. Christabel extolls the virtues of care ethics over the utilitarian aggregative calculus, and Steve extolls the virtues of vasectomies. Both oscillate between the two poles of pro- and antinatalism, considering the environmental, social and hedonistic factors that bear on the question as to when - if ever - it is morally permissible to bring life into the world.    As a rare treat for this inaugural episode, both hosts come to a definitive answer on this week’s question (though in a characteristically philosophical turn of events, they fail to meet an agreement). Email us the impossible questions children ask you at philosophyplaydate@gmail.com Find Steve at https://drstevecross.squarespace.com/ Philosophy Playdate theme by Piers Cane

    49 min
  • 2 Episodes

5
out of 5
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About

Children's impossible questions addressed by the greatest minds in philosophy. With jokes. Hosted by philosopher Christabel Cane and comedian Steve Cross.

Information

  • Creator
    Clever Make Funny Productions Ltd
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Clever Make Funny Productions Ltd
  • Show Website
    Philosophy Playdate

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