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Philosophy podcast aimed at school students. Fun, informative, engaging. Philosophers at universities and schools talk about loads of questions and topics that come up in Philosophy, Ethics and Political Theory - A-Levels / IB / Highers and even GCSE. Hosted by Simon Kirchin, University of Leeds and Director of the British Philosophical Association. Timetable of topics: https://stkirchin.wixsite.com/mysite/schools-podcast (Music by Alex Grohl)Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ A-level philosophy revision • philosophy of mind debates (dualism, physicalism, functionalism, zombies, Mary) • epistemology (scepticism, perception, Gettier) • philosophy of religion (arguments, attributes, evil, language) • ethics (Kant, utilitarianism, virtue, metaethics, applied topics)This podcast introduces school-level philosophy through conversations between a host and philosophers and teachers, with an emphasis on topics commonly found in A-Level/IB/Highers (and sometimes GCSE) Philosophy, Ethics, and Political Theory. Across the episodes, listeners are guided through core areas of the subject in a structured, tutorial-like style that explains key ideas, sets out arguments, and then considers standard objections and evaluations.
A substantial strand focuses on philosophy of mind and the relation between mind and body, comparing forms of dualism with physicalist approaches such as behaviourism, functionalism, type-identity theory, and eliminative materialism. These discussions draw on well-known thought experiments and arguments (for example, zombies, Mary, inverted qualia, and issues around introspection, explanation, and multiple realisability).
Another major theme is epistemology and metaphysics: what knowledge is, how it is justified, and whether sceptical challenges can be answered. The podcast covers the tripartite account of knowledge and Gettier-style problems, as well as perception (direct and indirect realism and idealism) and debates over reason, intuition, deduction, and innate knowledge.
The philosophy of religion also features prominently, including classical arguments for God’s existence (cosmological, teleological/design, and ontological arguments), debates about God’s attributes, the problem of evil, and questions about whether religious language is meaningful.
Ethics content ranges from normative theories—utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, Aristotelian virtue ethics, natural law, and situation ethics—to metaethics (moral realism and anti-realism). Applied ethics topics include abortion, euthanasia, sexual ethics, animal ethics and eating animals, war and peace, and business ethics. Some episodes provide short introductions alongside longer, more detailed discussions, and there is also attention to foundational philosophical “key terms” used in argument and analysis.