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The BBC A History of Ideas series began a little over two weeks ago on Radio 4 and is both a fantastic listen and great learning resource for students of Philosophy.
The format goes like this; the week begins with a group discussion led by Melvyn Bragg with four thinkers who then over the course of the week examine the subject in more depth. This range of lawyers, philosophers, neuroscientists and theologians use their own specialism to examine a key Philosopher’s thinking on the issue. So far the topics have been “What is Happiness?” and “What is Beauty?” and have examined the thinking of philosophers such as Hume, Aristotle, Mill, and Hobbs as well ideologies such as Darwinism and Determinism.
The format goes like this; the week begins with a group discussion led by Melvyn Bragg with four thinkers who then over the course of the week examine the subject in more depth. This range of lawyers, philosophers, neuroscientists and theologians use their own specialism to examine a key Philosopher’s thinking on the issue. So far the topics have been “What is Happiness?” and “What is Beauty?” and have examined the thinking of philosophers such as Hume, Aristotle, Mill, and Hobbs as well ideologies such as Darwinism and Determinism.
Each episode only lasts about 10 minutes and so is a great way into the subject, or a fantastic bite-size revision of something you have studied in class. You can download them as podcasts or you can find them all on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04bwydw/episodes/guide). In addition there are also animations voiced by Gillian Anderson and The Simpsons' Harry Shearer. These can also be found on the Open University’s website (http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/radio/ou-on-the-bbc-history-ideas)
This week’s title is “How can I tell right from wrong” and contains a great example of Kantian thinking that students study in the L6th; Kant’s Axe Problem:
This week’s title is “How can I tell right from wrong” and contains a great example of Kantian thinking that students study in the L6th; Kant’s Axe Problem:
I hope this has wetted your appetite for what is set to be a great series – I will certainly be posting more of them over the coming months here on Fordthought.
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