Philosophy audio
June 6th 2007 02:45
Philosophy audio, philosophy sound files, philosophy MP3s... This list is pretty short right now, but I'll try to keep adding to it as long as this blog is in existence.
You'll find much better collections elsewhere on the net (for instance, at EpistemeLinks or this LiveJournal site), but I wanted to concentrate on things that I've actually had some experience with, and make brief comments.
No video links, because it's easy enough for you to go to YouTube and type in "Sartre", "Foucault", "Derrida", etc.
General
University of California podcasts -- hour length interviews that aren't that great (bit rambling and questions too abstract). Includes conversations with John Searle (summarises his views on consciousness, speaks of involvement in the free speech movement, generalises about the sixties), Noam Chomsky (spells out thoughts on anarchism), Daniel Kahneman (talks about what led him to investigate intuitions), Amartya Sen (makes one or two remarks on economics vs political philosophy).
Centre for Time, University of Sydney -- frequently holds seminars, etc, and frequently tapes 'em.
Guerrilla Radio Show -- have listened to all of these; particularly recommend the one on Eastern Philosophy, and absolutely loathe the one on drugs.
La Trobe University Philosophy Colloquium -- have listened to all of these. This will be unkind, but my memory is that a lot of the shows were a bit meandering. On the other hand, there was always something interesting. Particularly recommend the Robert Farrell interview, where he speaks about academic life and studying with Quine, Putnam, Goodman.
Philosophers' Zone -- weekly program broadcast on ABC Radio National. Often in an "interview with a philosopher" format. Transcripts of most shows are included on the site.
Philosophy Bites -- Interviews with top philosophers, and the interviewer (I think it's Nigel) does an amazing job of it -- asks insightful questions, clarifies ambiguity, doesn't let people escape on not answering, etc. In a nutshell, these shows are excellent. They usually strike a nice balance between introducing a subject and getting to philosophically interesting terrain (whereas a lot of philosophy podcasts tend to paddle in the shallow end of the pool).
Philosophy Talk -- in all honesty I haven't heard a single episode, but everyone knows about it, so I couldn't exclude it from this list.
Sydney University podcasts -- note the 2006 series on "key concepts" (death, truth, race, freedom, etc) and "key thinkers". Too many philosophers in these podcasts to list individually.
Some particular philosophers
Bernstein, Jay
Seminar on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit -- includes class members introducing themselves, class questions, etc. About 40hours all up over two and a half months. Frankly, I found it very hard to understand, partly because I hadn't read the text; but what I almost understood was intriguing. Essentially argues that Hegel is very close to Adorno.
Brandom, Robert
"Kantian Lessons about Mind, Meaning, and Rationality" -- 14 October 2005 -- Centre for Time, University of Sydney -- from memory, he makes interesting comments on what a concept is.
Putnam, Hilary
"Misconstructing the mind", "Non-scientific knowledge" and "Functionalism" -- 11-27 August 1998 -- University of Adelaide -- thank you Anonymous for this link. Quite brilliant lectures, where Putnam summarises a lot of the work he's done -- among other things, he explains why he's no longer a functionalist, and gives an overview of ethics without ontology.
"The fact/value dichotomy and its critics" -- 5 March 2007 -- University College Dublin -- not the clearest of lectures, but spells out three paths to breaking the dichotomy.
"Is analytic philosophy a good thing?" -- haven't listened to this in its entirety, but I think part of Putnam's take is to point to analytic assumptions that aren't indubitable.
Skinner, Quentin
"How many concepts of liberty?" -- 24 July 2006 -- University of Sydney -- very clear lecture. A historical overview. Answer: three. I blogged a summary shortly after I heard it, and then, a couple of months later, they stick the audio up.
Zizek, Slavoj
Conversation -- 15 April 2005 -- St Paul Among the Philosophers conference in Syracuse, NY -- from memory again, there were a bewildering array of topics, including religious experience, the comic, confronting the Holocaust, the nature of understanding. I remember it being inspirational.
You'll find much better collections elsewhere on the net (for instance, at EpistemeLinks or this LiveJournal site), but I wanted to concentrate on things that I've actually had some experience with, and make brief comments.
No video links, because it's easy enough for you to go to YouTube and type in "Sartre", "Foucault", "Derrida", etc.
General
University of California podcasts -- hour length interviews that aren't that great (bit rambling and questions too abstract). Includes conversations with John Searle (summarises his views on consciousness, speaks of involvement in the free speech movement, generalises about the sixties), Noam Chomsky (spells out thoughts on anarchism), Daniel Kahneman (talks about what led him to investigate intuitions), Amartya Sen (makes one or two remarks on economics vs political philosophy).
Centre for Time, University of Sydney -- frequently holds seminars, etc, and frequently tapes 'em.
Guerrilla Radio Show -- have listened to all of these; particularly recommend the one on Eastern Philosophy, and absolutely loathe the one on drugs.
La Trobe University Philosophy Colloquium -- have listened to all of these. This will be unkind, but my memory is that a lot of the shows were a bit meandering. On the other hand, there was always something interesting. Particularly recommend the Robert Farrell interview, where he speaks about academic life and studying with Quine, Putnam, Goodman.
Philosophers' Zone -- weekly program broadcast on ABC Radio National. Often in an "interview with a philosopher" format. Transcripts of most shows are included on the site.
Philosophy Bites -- Interviews with top philosophers, and the interviewer (I think it's Nigel) does an amazing job of it -- asks insightful questions, clarifies ambiguity, doesn't let people escape on not answering, etc. In a nutshell, these shows are excellent. They usually strike a nice balance between introducing a subject and getting to philosophically interesting terrain (whereas a lot of philosophy podcasts tend to paddle in the shallow end of the pool).
Philosophy Talk -- in all honesty I haven't heard a single episode, but everyone knows about it, so I couldn't exclude it from this list.
Sydney University podcasts -- note the 2006 series on "key concepts" (death, truth, race, freedom, etc) and "key thinkers". Too many philosophers in these podcasts to list individually.
Some particular philosophers
Bernstein, Jay
Seminar on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit -- includes class members introducing themselves, class questions, etc. About 40hours all up over two and a half months. Frankly, I found it very hard to understand, partly because I hadn't read the text; but what I almost understood was intriguing. Essentially argues that Hegel is very close to Adorno.
Brandom, Robert
"Kantian Lessons about Mind, Meaning, and Rationality" -- 14 October 2005 -- Centre for Time, University of Sydney -- from memory, he makes interesting comments on what a concept is.
Putnam, Hilary
"Misconstructing the mind", "Non-scientific knowledge" and "Functionalism" -- 11-27 August 1998 -- University of Adelaide -- thank you Anonymous for this link. Quite brilliant lectures, where Putnam summarises a lot of the work he's done -- among other things, he explains why he's no longer a functionalist, and gives an overview of ethics without ontology.
"The fact/value dichotomy and its critics" -- 5 March 2007 -- University College Dublin -- not the clearest of lectures, but spells out three paths to breaking the dichotomy.
"Is analytic philosophy a good thing?" -- haven't listened to this in its entirety, but I think part of Putnam's take is to point to analytic assumptions that aren't indubitable.
Skinner, Quentin
"How many concepts of liberty?" -- 24 July 2006 -- University of Sydney -- very clear lecture. A historical overview. Answer: three. I blogged a summary shortly after I heard it, and then, a couple of months later, they stick the audio up.
Zizek, Slavoj
Conversation -- 15 April 2005 -- St Paul Among the Philosophers conference in Syracuse, NY -- from memory again, there were a bewildering array of topics, including religious experience, the comic, confronting the Holocaust, the nature of understanding. I remember it being inspirational.
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Comment by Damo
Is there a Philosophers dating site?
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
There's no philosophy dating site I know of, but there are these things called "conferences" and "philosophy departments", and they're often fairly incestuous.
Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
> there are these things called "conferences" and "philosophy departments", and they're often fairly incestuous.
Lol.
Comment by Damo
I could see how a philosophers dating site could be problematic.
People might spend too long questioning the validity of a date.
Anyway I'll check out some of the audio sites.
Comment by HenKaiPan
Also of interest:
www.lecturesarchive.como
www.discoursenotebook.com
Comment by soofloo
i took plzr
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