Podcast Roundup: May 26

Here are the podcasts I try to listen to each week, and mostly succeed.

Philosophy in Action Radio Chat: Responsibility and Luck, Chapter One – In a new podcast series, Diana Hsieh will be discussing her recently published book, Responsibility and Luck: A Defense of Praise and Blame.  The book is an edited version of her dissertation and deals with finding a solution for the perceived problem of “moral luck.” In this first episode of eleven, she discussed the material in chapter one, which gives an overview of what moral luck is and why it poses a problem.

I find this very fascinating. So far it seems pretty straight forward though I find at this point I have the same view that Diana did before she started working on her dissertation, that it seems like an obvious issue. I am looking forward to the next 10 weeks as I read the book and listen to the podcasts to see some of the complications I am not seeing at the moment.

Philosophy in Action – Diana Hsieh answers real life questions, applying rational principles to everyday life. This week she dealt with questions on:

  • creating a stylized life
  • legal dueling
  • permission versus forgiveness
  • and more

The podcast has not yet been posted to the archives as yet, so I have linked to the archive page for access once it has been posted.

Peikoff.com Episode 323 – Yaron Brook answers questions primarily on current politics and foreign policy issues. This time he answers questions on:

  • the proposed law (now vetoed) in Arizona allowing businesses to discriminate against gays, and more generally the difference between government and private discrimination
  • the motivation of the United States invasion of Iraq
  • the role of government in wildlife management
  • a comment he had made comparing government taxation to the draft
  • the California law making it illegal to shoot an intruder in your home if they are unarmed
  • should Sikhs be allowed to wear turbans if the enlist in the United States military

I have finally listed to the new material in the 8th and final lecture in Leonard Peikoff’s Principles of Grammar course and have corrected all my homework except for the final exam. I still need to make time to finish that part up. Once I have done that I will go back, on, to his course Introduction to Logic.

My daily commute is still my time to listen to Leonard Peikfoff’s lectures on the Philosophy of Objectivism. I am currently up to the lectures on ethics, going through the main virtues in objectivism. These are fantastic lectures and the only downside to listening to them in the car is that I cannot take notes when something is said that I want to go back to later to think about more thoroughly.