Philosophy Bites on Morality

As usual, Philosophy Bites is worth to listen to at least twice. Nigel Warburton and David Edmonds received Susan Neiman to talk about morality in the 21st century. Neiman makes in important point against the moral relativism that most people tend to hold to. Ethics are not like beauty, where the good and the bad are in the eye of the beholder. She claims that in opinions on morality, people think remarkably alike.

Her views are in that a response, not only to relativism, but also to fundamentalism and she proposes a reinforcement of morality within liberalism. Liberalism seems to be identified, or easily slide into relativism and Neiman points back at the roots of liberalism, the Enlightenment. However, what in her mind has gone wrong is that liberalism, deteriorated into rampant capitalism in which consumerism took over from most moral values. Fundamentalism may well be just a reaction to that and there, she admits sits a valid criticism.

She extracts four values from the Enlightenment and argues that this is a defense of 'the modern world with its capacity of self-criticism and transformation'. The values she chooses are: Happiness - people have a right to strive for the good life. Reason - against superstition and blind authority. Reverence - the capacity to feel respect and awe, without sliding into the authoritative structures of organized religion. Hope - the incentive to keep trying for the best.

More Philosophy Bites:
The genocide and the trial,
Dirty Hands,
Understanding decisions,
Nietzsche repossessed,
What can you do with philosophy?.

Catching up for Anne is a Man

This post is to give you a quick list of podcasts I listened to over the past weeks. These I recommend, but unfortunately I won't come round giving full reviews for them. I am just too busy these days and for the time being it seems that situation is not going to change soon. In order to keep you informed I resort to this short hand reporting.

There were a couple of Israel related podcasts I took up:
Rear Vision with a short history of the Mossad,
The Economist about Israeli Arabs and
Harvard's PON (program on Negotiations) podcast about the aftermath of the Annapolis conference (feed).



The Harvard podcast issue is a rather old one, but the nice thing about some podcasts is that they are timeless. Another old but interesting podcast (series) I ran into was from Eastern Michigan University a 2008 lecture series with Marshal Poe, Larry Sanger and Andrew Keen delivering a construction and critical evaluation of the phenomenon of Wikipedia under the title: 'Democratization of Knowledge or Triumph of Amateurs' (feed)

Another academic level podcast I loved was the Entitled Opinions issue in which Robert Harrison delved into the subject of literature with Tobias Wolff.

Also, there were a couple of great new issues at The Memory Palace. Especially outstanding was the last episode (Babysitting) about 'a man in a box with a bomb'.

Another podcast series from Eastern Michigan University I started is Rick Rogers' series World Religions (History 100) (feed). I have done the intro and the five lectures about Hinduism. There is a superficiality and a sense of political correctness that bothers me a bit, but other than that, this series seems very informative.

Philosophy Bites had two fascinating chapters I really enjoyed. One about John Rawls' Theory of Justice and the other about the Sense of Self.

Philip Harland's Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean has made very interesting progress with his new subject: The historical Jesus.

I was inspired by my appearance at SFFaudio and followed up on Jesse Willis's recommendation CBC's Ideas and heard a thrilling issue about Morality. (feed) Here I learned human beings can be 'high' on morality, for better and for worse.

Last but not least, I very much enjoyed the last show of Ran Levi's Making History about genetics. (Hebrew)

Anne is a Man on SFFaudio podcast

One of the most exciting things that from time to time happens to me (and I hope to you as well) is that I bump into someone who also listens to podcasts. On such an occasion I immediately find myself engaged in great conversation, in great enthusiasm and invariably come away from the encounter with fresh ideas and new podcasts to explore. You'd want to record such encounters, wouldn't you?

The closest approximation was staged at the podcast SFFaudio (feed), which is a weekly show on which Jesse Willis and Scott Danielson speak with various guests about great audio on the web. Their usual subject is narration audio in general and SciFi and Fantasy stories in particular. Yet, both their blog and their podcast has a wider range than this and also touches upon all sorts of podcasts and audiobooks. On their last show they decided to invite me and talk with me about Anne is a Man, the blog and related subjects, mostly podcasts and podcasts reviewing. (SFFaudio #053 - with Anne is a Man)

We had a couple of lapses in the Skype connection, but other than that this was a very pleasant conversation. Fun to do and when I listen back, as far as I can say, fun to listen to. And we just scratched the surface. I hope we get to do this some more. On this one hour show you can hear us discuss Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, The Memory Palace, podcasting versus radio, podcasting in other countries and languages and much more.

More Jesse Willis:
Five Free Favorites

Anne is a Man - passover break

Here is a quick post to let you all know I am going to be away from my blog for about a week.

Surviving in the Wilderness

While we are at it, we can point out that there was another guest from Shrink Rap Radio that also appeared on CBC's Tapestry: Robert Kull.

Years after a motorcycle accident left him with one leg, Bob Kull traveled to a remote island in the Patagonia wilderness with supplies to live completely alone for a year. He sought to explore the effects of deep solitude on the body and mind and to find answers to the spiritual questions that had plagued him his entire life. With only a cat and his thoughts as companions, he wrestled with inner storms while the wild forces of nature raged around him. The physical challenges were immense, but the struggles of mind and spirit pushed him to the limits of human endurance. Shrink Rap Radio #223 , Tapestry February 7th 2010

Although these podcast issues are both readily available, they may be hard to dig up from both feeds. Therefore I have stuck them together in a special Robert Kull feed at Huffduffer. Just subscribe to Anne is a Man's Kull feed and there you are.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Happiness and Health,
Resurrection after Rape,
Life Changing Lessons,
Shrink Rap Radio - 200 great podcasts,
Technology and The Evolving Brain.

More Tapestry:
Survival of the Kindest,
Fear,
Karen Armstrong,
Terry Eagleton.

Dacher Keltner in podcast

Lately I have been rethinking my blogging and started an additional way of reviewing podcasts. You may have noticed that in addition to general reviews about podcasts and reviews of individual episodes, I have begun pointing at several podcasts (or podcast episodes) around certain subjects and themes. The idea is that the individual podcasts you may have already found, but if you are especially interested in the subject, you may want more. With the aim at serving you best, I try to supply that additional material as well.

For example, who is not interested in happiness and health? Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and his field is exactly that. Furthermore, Keltner is a very exciting speaker and fortunately, he can be heard on podcast. First of all, you can follow his lectures at Berkeley. Last Fall he taught the podcast course Letters and Science C160V, 001, Psychology C162, 001 - Human Happiness (feed). Here you can find out everything he has to say about positive emotions, about the parts of the brain responsible for this, about touch, compassion, forgiveness and much much more. My colleague podcast reviewer DIY Scholar has written two reviews of Keltner's course to which I recommend to read: Human Happiness and Are we a touch Starved Culture?

Dacher Keltner also appeared on the excellent psychology interview podcast Shrink Rap Radio, by Dr. David van Nuys. Last summer, Keltner was interviewed by Van Nuys - do not miss this one (feed).

Last February, Keltner appeared on CBC Radio (Canada) in the program Tapestry, which is also a podcast (feed). Be quick to download this episode (Survival of the kindest), as it is the last in the feed. If you miss out on it, let me know - the files stay on the server at CBC and I will stick it in a Huffduffer feed for you.

More Berkeley:
The Indian Rebellion 1857,
Human Evolution and Prehistory,
Dacher Keltner on Happiness and Health,
Modern Western History in podcasts,
Wars, Empires, Nations 1648-1914.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Resurrection after rape,
Life Changing Lessons,
Shrink Rap Radio - 200 great podcasts,
Technology and The Evolving Brain,
Nova Spivack.

More Tapestry:
Fear,
Karen Armstrong,
Terry Eagleton.