Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
David Edmonds (Uehiro Centre, Oxford University) and Nigel Warburton (freelance philosopher/writer) interview top philosophers on a wide range of topics. Two books based on the series have been published by Oxford University Press. We are currently self-funding - donations very welcome via our website http://www.philosophybites.comThemes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ interviews with philosophers • ethics: animals, AI, digital privacy, rescue, longtermism, organ sales, spying • political philosophy: democracy, lottocracy, identity, decolonising • Africana/Latin American/Japanese thought • classical and modern figures • mind, emotion, grief, loneliness, authenticity • thought experiments, vagueness, decision-makingThis podcast features short interviews with leading philosophers about major questions in contemporary philosophy and the history of ideas. Conversations range across moral philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics, with the hosts drawing out central arguments, conceptual distinctions, and the practical stakes of different views.
A recurring focus is ethics in both personal and public life: what we owe to strangers, how to think about rescue and moral heroism, the moral status of nonhuman animals and sentience, and how technologies such as AI and digital surveillance reshape familiar ethical problems around responsibility, privacy, and decision-making. Several discussions also examine how moral reasoning works, including the role and limits of thought experiments, uncertainty and indeterminacy, and the possibility of moral vagueness.
Political themes include alternative models of representation, civic polarization and democratic culture, law’s relationship to morality, and the pressures that identity-based politics can place on public argument. The show also gives substantial attention to traditions and thinkers beyond a narrow canon, with interviews on Africana, Mexican, and Japanese philosophy, and on figures central to understanding colonialism, racism, and decolonisation.
Alongside issue-driven episodes, there are biographical and historical conversations that introduce influential philosophers and situate their work in context—especially major ancient and modern figures in ethics and political thought. Overall, listeners can expect accessible, idea-centered dialogues that connect philosophical theory to live social and personal concerns.
