Bishop Berkeley

Bishop Berkeley

Author: BBC Radio 4 March 20, 2014 Duration: 47:29

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of George Berkeley, an Anglican bishop who was one of the most important philosophers of the eighteenth century. Bishop Berkeley believed that objects only truly exist in the mind of somebody who perceives them - an idea he called immaterialism. His interests and writing ranged widely, from the science of optics to religion and the medicinal benefits of tar water. His work on the nature of perception was a spur to many later thinkers, including David Hume and Immanuel Kant. The clarity of Berkeley's writing, and his ability to pose a profound problem in an easily understood form, has made him one of the most admired early modern thinkers.

With:

Peter Millican Gilbert Ryle Fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, Oxford

Tom Stoneham Professor of Philosophy at the University of York

Michela Massimi Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science at the University of Edinburgh.

Producer: Thomas Morris.


Melvyn Bragg and a panel of academic experts gather each week to explore the vast landscape of human thought on In Our Time: Philosophy. This long-running BBC Radio 4 series, a cornerstone of the network's intellectual offerings, approaches profound ideas not as dusty relics but as living conversations that have shaped our world. Each episode focuses on a single philosopher, a pivotal movement, or a foundational concept, building from the basic principles to the deeper complexities. You'll hear informed discussion and spirited debate that clarifies without oversimplifying, making centuries of thought accessible and relevant. The scope is deliberately broad, tracing connections from ancient inquiries into ethics and existence to the modern puzzles of logic and language. Rather than offering quick answers, this podcast provides the context and clarity needed to genuinely engage with questions about knowledge, self, and society. It’s an invitation to sit in on a nuanced, thoughtful dialogue that assumes curiosity rather than prior expertise, reminding us that these enduring debates are, in every sense, still very much in our time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

In Our Time: Philosophy
Podcast Episodes
Hannah Arendt [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:17
In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. She developed many of her ideas in response to the rise of totalitarianism in the C20th, partly informed…
Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:03
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morality - A Polemic, which he published in 1887 towards the end of his working life and in which he considered the price humans have paid, and were still p…
Zeno's Paradoxes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:30
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects h…
Sovereignty [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:21
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the idea of Sovereignty, the authority of a state to govern itself and the relationship between the sovereign and the people. These ideas of external and internal sovereignt…
The Muses [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:29
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Muses and their role in Greek mythology, when they were goddesses of poetry, song, music and dance: what the Greeks called mousike, 'the art of the Muses' from which we derive our word…
Simone de Beauvoir [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:00
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Simone de Beauvoir. "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," she wrote in her best known and most influential work, The Second Sex, her exploration of what it means to be a woman in…
Utilitarianism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:59
A moral theory that emphasises ends over means, Utilitarianism holds that a good act is one that increases pleasure in the world and decreases pain. The tradition flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries wit…
Al-Ghazali [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:12
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Al-Ghazali, a major philosopher and theologian of the late 11th century. Born in Persia, he was one of the most prominent intellectuals of his age, working in such…
The Wealth of Nations [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:05
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Adam Smith's celebrated economic treatise The Wealth of Nations. Smith was one of Scotland's greatest thinkers, a moral philosopher and pioneer of economic theory whose 1776 masterpiec…
Phenomenology [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:33
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss phenomenology, a style of philosophy developed by the German thinker Edmund Husserl in the first decades of the 20th century. Husserl's initial insights underwent a radical transformation…