The Understanding Project

Thinking About Justice: My Conversation with Simon Rippon

In this interview, philosopher Simon Rippon and I discuss his role as a philosopher in the ETHOS (Towards a European Theory of Justice and Fairness) project. Analyzing the link between (political) philosophy and real-world politics, we talk about the need for ideal theory, what it means to have knowledge about justice, the fact-value gap and how philosophy might contribute to solving injustices such as the European refugee crisis.

Knowing the Score: David Papineau on What Sports Can Teach Us About Philosophy

Today I talk to David Papineau about his book Knowing The Score: How Philosophy can Teach us about Sport and Sport can Teach Us about Philosophy.  Philosopher David Papineau explains how sport sheds light on unresolved questions regarding the connection between intention and action and regarding how rules can or cannot give rise to moral reasons, and lays out his fascinating theory of why sport matters - what its value is.

How (Not) to be an Atheist: A Discussion with Tim Crane

Today I talk to Tim Crane about his book The Meaning of Belief: Religion from an Atheist's Point of View.Tim was Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Peterhouse from 2009. He is currently the Head of Department and Professor of Philosophy at Central European University.In the interview, Tim explains why the claim of some scientists that all philosophical questions will eventually become scientific questions is false. We discuss what religion is and why the so-called New Atheists work with an incomplete conception of religion. Believing is not just about accepting cosmological and moral propositions but also centrally involves what Tim calls, the "religious impulse" and an aspect of identification. Tim argues that indicating the fault of a religion is in a way a self-flattering intellectual project and calls for reflection on whether the kind of arguments put forward by New Atheists ever work. After going into the rationality of religious beliefs, we end by exploring whether the question of the meaning of life is tremendously important or only seems that way but is, in fact, an ill-formed one. I hope you'll enjoy this conversation as much as I did!