Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
In this series of podcasts Marianne Talbot uses some famous arguments in the history of philosophy to examine philosophy as a discipline. By harnessing participants’ intuitions on both sides of the various arguments she encourages her audience actually to do philosophy. In listening to these podcasts you can yourself learn how to do philosophy, not by listening to someone else do it, but by starting to do it for yourself.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ beginner philosophy • argument analysis • Descartes’ cogito • epistemology, Gettier problems • metaphysics, possible worlds • moral theory: utilitarianism, deontology • freedom vs equality • philosophy of science, objective fact • audience questionsThis podcast introduces complete beginners to philosophy by walking through well-known arguments and thought experiments and using them to show how philosophers build, analyze, and challenge ideas. Across the series, the focus is less on memorizing historical positions and more on practicing philosophical thinking: identifying premises and conclusions, testing intuitions, and evaluating whether an argument succeeds.
A recurring theme is methodology—how to recognize an argument, assess its validity and soundness, and understand what counts as a good reason for a claim. From there, the podcast ranges across major areas of the discipline. It explores questions in moral and political philosophy by examining tensions between freedom and equality and comparing influential ethical frameworks such as deontology and utilitarianism. It also addresses central issues in epistemology and metaphysics, including challenges to traditional definitions of knowledge, the role of counterexamples, and debates about possible worlds and the status of “unactualised” possibilities.
The series concludes by turning to philosophy of science, asking what “objective facts” are and how scientific theories depend on them, which raises broader questions about evidence, observation, and theory-building. A concluding question-and-answer session revisits themes from the talks and clarifies points raised by listeners, reinforcing the overall aim of helping the audience learn to do philosophy through active engagement with arguments.
| Episodes: |
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Questions and Answers Session 2014-Nov-11 82 minutes |
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The Philosophy of Science 2014-Nov-11 75 minutes |
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Epistemology and Metaphysics 2014-Nov-11 77 minutes |
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Moral and Political Philosophy 2014-Nov-11 90 minutes |
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Logic and Argument: the Methodology of Philosophy 2014-Nov-11 83 minutes |