“That’s why it’s always worth having a few philosophers around the place. One minute it’s all Is Truth Beauty and Is Beauty Truth, and Does A Falling Tree in the Forest Make A Sound if There’s No one There to Hear It, and then just when you think they’re going to start dribbling one of ‘em says, Incidentally, putting a thirty-foot parabolic reflector on a high place to shoot the rays of the sun at an enemy’s ships would be a very interesting demonstration of optical principles.”
The many and varied advantages of philosophy in “Small Gods” by Terry Pratchett
Note: I no longer recommend this podcast. While there are very interesting points of view, I think there is also an underlying poisonous ideology at work. Some podcasts about general topics are really good, but any personal advice he gives to callers — whose problems inevitably are related back to issues with parents (and they were at fault/abusive) — are just highly unethical and poisonous. More in the second posting about this podcast and in a third I have yet to write written.
There are a couple of really great podcasts online, just ideal for jogging, walking to work, or prior to falling to sleep. Although some get you ideas or insights you might want to jot down (having an infrastructure to capture ideas is helpful for so much ;-)).
The podcast at Freedomain Radio by Stefan Molyneux is well worth listening to. So far, I have listened to four(ish) podcasts. I don’t agree with everything, but he is excellent in making cases and analyzing issues … and people. Mind-blowing actually. Smart and definitely food for thought.
Although I am not sure whether it is such a good idea to give such open and honest feedback if you don’t know whether they have a stable environment that is able to support them. They are adults, but still, as plausible as the explanations sound, they might be wrong. Or worse, they might be true but too much for the person.
But still, impressive display of people skills and analytical thinking in action. And he’s extremely prolific. I guess there’s something you can do with philosophy … here augmented by hard work on “people skills”. Seriously, I roll my eyes when I try to have a conversation/argument with some ideologists on Twitter, because eventually they use ad hominems or name calling. But compared to this person … waow, there’s a world of difference. Nice to see what I can still learn … and want to learn.
You find a list of the podcasts on his site, there’s also a YouTube channel and free books.
Probably more on that podcast and a few specific recommendations of episodes when I have worked myself through a couple more of them.
