Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
I will discuss some of the great philosophers and their ideas on ethics and metaphysics. Classcial philosphy is always my starting point; Plato and Aristotle will start things, but I will discuss various Hellenistic schools, and more modern thinker such as Mill , Kany, Nietzsche, and Whitehead.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Ancient philosophy survey • Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic schools, Plotinus • ethics theories: virtue, utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill), Kantian duty • metaphysics: Forms, substance, soul • logic & critical thinking • rhetoric: Aristotle, Bitzer, Booth • Greek myth divination/seersThis podcast presents short, lecture-style discussions designed to support introductory university-level philosophy coursework. It centers on ethics and metaphysics with a strong grounding in classical Greek thought, then moves through later classical and Hellenistic traditions and into key modern moral theorists. Listeners are introduced to major ethical frameworks such as utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics, with sustained attention to the development of utilitarian thinking in Bentham and Mill and to Kant’s critique of consequentialist morality through concepts like duty, good will, and the categorical imperative. The show also frames these debates against background issues such as empiricism and challenges to moral knowledge, alongside commentary on ethical relativism.
On the classical side, the podcast explores Socrates and Plato through close readings of dialogues that raise questions about piety, knowledge, the soul, and the emergence of Forms, linking these themes to broader concerns in logic and argumentation. Aristotle’s metaphysics and philosophy of mind receive focused treatment through topics like substance, change and the four causes, and the nature of psyche and intellect.
Alongside philosophical content, the podcast provides practical tools for reasoning and persuasion, including basic formal logic (statements, validity and soundness, categorical propositions, syllogisms, and propositional “if–then” arguments) and rhetorical theory from Aristotle and later theorists, emphasizing how audience, constraints, and balance among persuasive appeals shape communication. It also touches on religious and mythic material from antiquity—especially divination and seers in Greek myth—as a way of situating philosophical questions in their broader cultural context.
