Philosophy For Our Times

Do we need a moral reawakening? Is animal suffering simply a fact of life or can it be avoided? How did the US Navy break whale protection laws? Is there more to animal suffering than just pain?

From the cruelty of the factory meat industry to hunting and habitat destruction, animals are in trouble all over the world. Some deem the treatment of animals in farms the worst crime in history, yet it still takes place all over the world. Join philosopher and renowned ethicist Martha Nussbaum, as she explains how we have gone so wrong and argues for a brand new theory of animal ethics, demonstrating why we need and how to achieve a moral and philosophical reawakening.

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Universities, long celebrated as sanctuaries of free thought and intellectual rigour, have for centuries been regarded as the best way to educate and conduct research. But increasingly, this assumption is being questioned. A recent study found that two-thirds of academics feel their freedom to teach and study is being curtailed. In 2022 alone, over 1,000 instances of content warnings or text removals were documented across UK universities. While some academics now criticise PhD programmes as a way to extract "fees and cheap labour" from students, reports suggest that most academic papers are read by an average of just ten people. More than half of respondents now say that going to university is not worth it. And in the US, graduate student debt averages over $71,000, while similar information is often freely available online.

Should we call time on the age of the university and find new, innovative ways to educate people? Should we leave research and innovation to the business sector and free-market forces? Or are universities still vital to our education and culture and can a radical overhaul restore them to their original purpose?

Yaron Brook is a political scientist, and chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute. He’s a bestselling author and the host of The Yaron Brook Show. Catherine Liu is a Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She’s the author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class. Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham. He’s the author of Taboo and Whiteshift: Immigration, Populism and the Future of White Majorities. Jay Shapiro hosts.

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What do the Soviet Union and the current British economy have in common? What can studying the philosophy of science reveal about our economic systems? Is the depoliticisation of economics a dangerous pipe dream?

Join political economist Abby Innes as she argues that treating society as a closed system that can be controlled and regulated ignores man's unrelenting capacity for new ideas and technologies. Abby Innes is Associate Professor of Political Economy in the European Institute at the LSE.

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Who are we? Why are we here? Does life have a meaning beyond itself?

Join former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and groundbreaking psychiatrist, literary scholar and author of 'The Matter with Things', Iain McGilchrist, to explore the nature of meaning, and why we should move beyond the assumptions of a materialist worldview from radically divergent perspectives. 

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Should everyone be treated equally?

Many see populism with its focus on immigration and nationalism as not only politically dangerous but morally wrong. This reflects the universalist morality of the main Western moral frameworks. But critics argue moral universalism generates a case for favouring strangers over the interests of those close to us and that it is profoundly mistaken. In contrast, Chinese Confucian morality accepts partiality towards our nearest. Recent studies have shown that we do in practice favour those close to us, and moreover that we think we are morally right to do so.

Alain de Botton is the best-selling philosopher and founder of The School of Life, an organisation dedicated to developing emotional intelligence through philosophy, psychotherapy, and culture. Seyla Benhabib is one of the most influential political philosophers of her generation and is the author of At the Margins of the Modern State. Tommy Curry is the Personal Chair of Africana Philosophy and Black Male Studies at the University of Edinburgh, renowned for his critical scholarship on the intersection of race, gender, and power. Alex O'Connor hosts.

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