241 episodes

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.

Philosopher's Zone ABC listen

    • Society & Culture

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.

    Free will, consciousness and AI: a conversation with Daniel Dennett

    Free will, consciousness and AI: a conversation with Daniel Dennett

    Daniel Dennett is one of the world's leading figures in philosophy and cognitive science. At 81, and with a new memoir out, he's still as provocative and enlightening as ever.

    • 36 min
    René Girard and victimhood

    René Girard and victimhood

    The politics of victimhood is a feature of our contemporary cultural landscape - but according to French philosopher René Girard, the impetus behind victim politics has been driving human civilisation for millennia.

    • 28 min
    Beauty and AI

    Beauty and AI

    AI-powered beauty apps are becoming increasingly popular, as people use them to evaluate, rate and enhance their facial appearance in selfies and other images. But exactly what's going on behind the technological wizardry raises a host of troubling ethical and philosophical concerns.

    • 28 min
    The pathology of ugliness

    The pathology of ugliness

    There are plenty of features of our faces and bodies that we don't necessarily like - but does this make them aberrations that require medical intervention? As the cosmetic surgery industry goes from strength to strength, the answer would increasingly appear to be Yes.

    • 28 min
    Women philosophers in 19th century Germany

    Women philosophers in 19th century Germany

    When we think of 19th century German philosophy, we perhaps think first of Nietzsche, or Hegel, and then some other men - but Germany in the 1800s was also home to a number of women philosophers.

    • 38 min
    Police abolition

    Police abolition

    What might a society without police look like? For some, the idea of police abolition evokes a vision of danger, anarchy and chaos - but for heavily-policed communities subject to high rates of incarceration, it's a survival imperative. 

    • 28 min

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