David Hume - Philosophy Bites

We have to make our pick from the wide range of philosophical issues Philosophy Bites brings to the fore every week. This time around I choose one of my all time favorites: David Hume - and I have come to love him more than ever.

If only Hume himself could be on the show, but no such luck. Peter Millican appears to explain about Hume. The importance of Hume lies in epistemology and his ardent skepticism therein. He is considered one of the greatest philosophers from Britain and I think I missed Millican pointing out that for example Popper was highly influenced by Hume.

A very entertaining insight is given in Hume's assumptions about God. Millican makes a case Hume was actually an agnostic, possibly even an atheist. He had to hide these views in his work though in order not to enrage his friends and colleagues. So Millican shows how Hume disguises his thoughts, but how you nevertheless can extract them.

More Philosophy Bites:
Several issues of Philosophy Bites,
Free rider problem,
Humanism,
Is war innate?,
Wittgenstein.

Missing Link with monotheists

Proceeding on its journey to get clarity on the Evolution vs. Creation divide, The Missing Link podcast makes a stop at the three monotheistic religions. For an American audience, the divide should position Evolution with science and Creation with religion, but this need not be so.

The podcast reveals that it is a strong Protestant, Evangelistic, inclination, to root for Creation as the religiously sanctioned position. Their companion, so is claimed, is found with Islam and the podcast states that by all means, Islam is showing the widest consensus against Evolution.

The student essays then concentrate on Judaism and Catholicism. I found it not the strongest edition of The Missing Link, but with an interview with George Coyne (astrophysicist and former director of the Vatican Observatory) the issue does have a renewing feature. The bottom line is that Judaism and Catholicism leave much more room for science to make claims about facts and feel comfortable taking the scripture metaphorically.

More about The Missing Link on this blog:
Missing Link with Popper,
An evolved controversy,
Time's Arrow,
On Time and on Counting - The Missing Link,
Strength in Numbers.

Stern Review - UChannel podcast

Even though the discussion is still going on whether climate change is happening and whether it can be ascribed to and influenced by man, this seems more of a sideshow these days. There seems to be consensus there is Global Warming, man has caused it largely and must now make amends. This opens the possibly much more difficult issue: what needs to be done. Nicholas Stern, a British economist wrote about that in what has become known as the Stern Review (2006).

On January 7th, Princeton invited Stern to come and speak about his report. The lecture was recorded and published as a podcast in the UChannel series. (site, audio, video) In spite of the many slides during the talk, this is a very informative podcast. Stern explains, in terms largely comprehensible for non-economists, how climate change implies a considerable economic crisis. Even though the scope of the change is unknown, he proposes sound models for projection and on the basis of these projections one can assume the measures to be taken.

Once a model is chosen and one ponders on the measures to be taken, Stern claims, not surprisingly, these measures need to be global and are directed for a very long term. As to practical figures, he brings some clarity to their proportion and their fairness. When talking of emissions, it is said the Western World largely attempts to reduce with 80% in a certain amount of time. Whether this is a lot, fair or very little, is made more clear in Stern's talk. This is one of the practical points where this podcast allows the lay listener to get some more grip on the huge and sometimes very abstract problem of climate change.

More UChannel on this blog:
Islam meets Europe,
The rise and demise of Palestine,
Alan Johnston,
Nuclear Terrorism,
Attack Iran (or not).

Life and bio-engineering - podcast review

WNYC's Radiolab tackled Life as a subject. In a way there were two subjects and the bridge between them was somewhat flimsy, if you ask me, but nevertheless they were fascinating and both pertaining life, although not exactly as we know it.

At first they built up to a short interview with a chimera. Karen Keegan from Boston one day found out she was a twin in one person. Part of her organs genetically were her sister's and part were hers. They blended into one functioning human during the earliest stages of pregnancy. That is a chimera.

The bridge, as said, to bioengineering is not so compelling, but one wouldn't give up such a juicy story as Keegan's. Now hosts Krulwich and Ambumrad take on a couple of working examples of bioengineering: microbes that got new DNA in the lab in order to get functions they naturally do not have; human DNA implanted in other organisms. Eventually, life could be designed, as such.

The undertone in the last subject, and basically of the program is: is this right? One conclusion that stands out is: it could be dangerous considering we already have begun engineering while we still know so little in microbiology. But ethically? Even if we can make things work. We can cure disease, let microbes solve pollution and the energy problem? Is that right. Krulwich expresses it intuitively: it doesn't feel right, but other than that this question is not explored. It is as if they lack terms, or an entry into the philosophy.

In the past I have noted this inability apart from one podcast, the bioethics podcast, which knows it full well, but is so exclusively predisposed with its Christian fundamentalist outlook on the world, that it doesn't satisfy the need for a universal and not strictly evangelical answer.

More Radiolab:
War of the Worlds,
Wright Brothers,
Morality.

Bioethics:
Bioethics without Christ, please,
A useful map into Bio-Ethics,
Stem Cell Research: Science, Ethics, and Prospects.

In Our Time, Podcast Review

BBC's In Our Time is a great podcast about the history of ideas (or the history of thought as it was called in previous seasons). Recently I have found that issues of In Our Time provide great supplements for history and philosophy podcasts. Especially for more drawn out university lecture series, In Our Time can help you get acquainted and receive the head start needed in order to more thoroughly enjoy the in depth content.

A relative disadvantage with In Our Time is that it has no feed history. Only the latest issue is kept in the feed. However, all previous chapters can be heard on-line from the archives. For a 40 minute listen, not so bad after all.

I thought In Our Time would always put the latest program in the feed and by persistently downloading I would have the archive on my computer, but last week (Yeats and Irish Politics) no such thing occurred. There was a legal issue and this one could only be heard on line. Moreover, a recent computer crash wiped out my carefully built up archive and so I am stuck with listening in front of the PC.

Today there was a discussion about the Enclosures that rationalized land use in Britain, made possible an agricultural revolution and gave way to industrialization. The development was much lamented by those in love with pastoral sights, but how bad was it?

Last week Materialism was discussed and it had one of the finest quotes from an old source, but still loaded for ignition:

If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them.

Yeats I already mentioned and since my last review there has also been discussion of the Norman Yoke. William the Conqueror brought the Normans to rule England, but was it a yoke after all?

In Our Time is regularly reviewed on this blog. It can be tracked with the label In Our Time. The podcast is one of the best that is around and fit to almost all audiences. All reviews are listed here. The most recent are:
King Lear,
Ada Lovelace,
The Social Contract,
Plate Tectonics,
The Fisher King.

129 Podcasts Reviewed - Anne is a Man!

UPDATE: we now have 217 podcasts reviewed. (link)



It is the first of the month again and so I post in alphabetical order all podcasts I reviewed linked to the last post and relevant labels:

1. 12 Byzantine Rulers, history podcast


2. Africa (Stanford Travel), geography
   
   


3. Africa Past and Present, geography


4. Ancient and Medieval Podcast, history podcast


5. Are we alone?, science,


6. Arizona, University of: Introduction to Language, language
   
   


7. BBC History Magazine, BBC history podcast


8. Bike Radar, tour



9. Binge Thinking History, history podcast


10. Bioethics podcast, science, law and society


11. the Biography Show, history podcast


12. Biota Podcast, science


13. Bommel Hoorspel, NL radio


14. British History 101, history podcast


15. Car Talk,
    
    


16. Celtic Myth Podshow
    
    


17. CFR Podcast, law and society


18. Chronicles Radio Dispatches


19. Dan Carlin's Common Sense,
    
    


20. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, history podcast


21. David Kalivas' World History, history podcast


22. Distillations, history podcast science


23. the Economist,


24. Engines of our Ingenuity, science


25. English 117S, language


26. Everything Lincoln, history podcast


27. Exploring Environmental History, science, history podcast


28. F1Cast
    
    


29. Fresh Air (NPR)
    
    


30. From our own Correspondent, BBC geography


31. Geography 130, geography


32. Geography of World Cultures (Stanford), geography history podcast


33. Global Geopolitics, geography


34. Hank's History Hour, history podcast


35. Hannibal (Stanford), history podcast
    
    


36. Haring Podcast, NL radio


37. Historical Jesus (Stanford), history podcast יהדות


38. History 106B, Berkeley history podcast


39. History 167B, Berkeley history podcast


40. History 181B, Berkeley history podcast


41. History 2311, history podcast


42. History 2312, history podcast


43. History 4A, Berkeley history podcast


44. History 5 (Anderson), Berkeley history podcast


45. History 5 (Laqueur), Berkeley history podcast


46. History 7B, Berkeley history podcast


47. History according to Bob, history podcast


48. History Network, history podcast


49. History of Rome, history podcast


50. History of the International System (Stanford), history podcast


51. History Podcast, history podcast


52. Historypod, history podcast


53. Historyzine, history podcast


54. ICT Update,
    
    


55. In Our Time, In Our Time BBC (science) history podcast


56. In the Media (WNYC)


57. Inspired Minds (Deutsche Welle)
    
    


58. Interview Vrijdag, NL radio


59. Irving Poetry podcast
    
    


60. ITV, tour


61. Jung Podcast, psychology


62. KMTT, יהדות


63. KQED Forum


64. Language (UCSD), language


65. Librivox: History of Holland, history podcast


66. Marathon Interview, NL radio


67. Matt's Today In History, history podcast


68. Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events, history podcast


69. Medieval Podcast, history podcast


70. Midwest Writer, language
    
    


71. Military History Podcast, history podcast


72. Missing Link, history podcast science


73. MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Chamberlain), history podcast


74. MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Herbst), history podcast


75. My Three Shrinks, psychiatry
    
    


76. Napoleon 1O1, history podcast


77. National Archives Podcast, history podcast


78. NRC FM,
    
    


79. Only in America, history podcast יהדות


80. Open Source
    
    


81. OVT, history podcast NL radio


82. Oy Mendele!, יהדות


83. PACS 164A, Berkeley
    
    


84. Parnell's History Podcast, history podcast


85. Peopletalk's Podcast, history podcast


86. Physics for future Presidents, Berkeley science


87. Phil 7 (Berkeley), Berkeley philosophy


88. Philosophy 103, philosophy


89. Philosophy 7 (Berkeley), Berkeley philosophy


90. Philosophy Bites, philosophy
    
    


91. the Philosophy Podcast, philosophy


92. Prosperity show


93. Podcasts on Medieval Texts, history podcast


94. Podwatch
    
    


95. Radiolab (WNYC), science


96. Rav Dovid's, יהדות


97. Redborne History, history podcast


98. Rhetoric 10 (Berkeley), Berkeley language


99. Rpgmp3


100. Sex History Podcast, history podcast


101. the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, SGU science


102. Šimek 's Nachts, simek NL radio


103. Social Innovation Conversations,
     
     


104. Sonic Society, creative writing


105. Speaking of Faith, יהדות


106. Shrink Rap Radio, shrinkrapradio psychology


107. Stanford U History, history podcast


108. Sunday Sundown
     
     


109. Talking Robots, science
     
     


110. TdF London, tour


111. Teaching American History, history podcast


112. TED Talks, vodcast
     
     


113. That Podcast Show
     
     


114. Times Talks,


115. Tudorcast, history podcast


116. The Word Nerds, TWN language


117. UCLA Israel Studies, Israel
     
     


118. University Channel Podcast, science


119. Volkskrant Podcasts, tour


120. We the People Stories, history podcast


121. What is Judaism?, יהדות


122. Wise Counsel, Wise Counsel psychology


123. the Writing Show, Writing Show language


124. Wynyfryd's meditation room


125. the Your History Podcast, history podcast


126. Your Purpose Centered Life
     
     


127. zencast


128. zoem, psychology
     
     


129. האוניברסיטה המשודרת, גלי צה"ל

If you know of interesting podcasts that you think should be reviewed, please let me know through the comments page. Or send me mail...

Thanks in advance,

Anne Frid de Vries (in one word)

AT

Yahoo DOT co DOT uk