Inner Self and External World
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus talks about the views of multiple philosophers concerning how the inner self encounters the every day reality of the external world.
Philosophy Over Time
Philosopher Hilary Putnam talks about philosophy since the time of Socrates. He notes that one constant about philosophy since the days of the ancient Greeks has been its concern with thinking carefully about how to live.
Ancient Philosophers and the Meaning of Life
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum talks about Socrates' belief that the unexamined life is not worth living. Professor Nussbaum adds that Plato and Aristotle urged those who were running society and making the rules to see things more clearly and do a bet...
What is Philosophy?: Socrates and His Method
Perhaps the most famous example of how "to do" philosophy was provided by Plato's teacher, Socrates. Socrates loved to be with people, to talk with them, argue with them, and ask them what they thought about a variety of subjects. In Plato's Apology...
Aristotle on Knowledge
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus says that Aristotle believed when people perform in an expert manner, it's because they have a skill to do so, not because they are following principles that are innate or learned.
Bentham, Mill and Human Flourishing
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum explores the different approaches to utilitarianism as expressed in the works of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. She suggests that Bentham focuses primarily on pleasure, while Mill is more akin to Aristotle in his em...
What is Philosophy?: Plato's Myth of the Cave; Its Relevance Today
Plato's parable of the cave, written in the 4th century B.C.E., portrays how philosophy works. In the parable prisoners sit in the bottom of a cave, their heads chained so they can only see shadows cast by objects moving in front of a fire. We are l...
Classical Greek philosophy
What is "the good," and why is it that one can never step into the same river twice? This program featuring Princeton University's Alexander Nehamas and Richard Sorabji, honorary fellow at Wolfson College, the University of Oxford, addresses core to...
Socrates and Plato on Knowledge
According to Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus, Socrates thought that for anybody to be an expert in any domain, they had to understand the principles and rules of that domain. The result of this thinking was that Socrates concluded no one knows anything. ...
Socrates, Darwin and the Essence of Things
Philosopher Daniel Dennett discusses the question posed by Socrates about what constitutes the essence of things. He notes that after Darwin and in the wake of modern science in general, the notion that anything has an immutable, ever-lasting essenc...