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(0)Pablo García
Description
This program chronicles the life and work of John Locke, the 17th-century English philosopher and political theorist considered by many to be the first notable thinker of the Enlightenment. Without a doubt, Locke's legacy is vast: his articulation of empiricism laid the intellectual groundwork for an explosion of scientific activity that continues to this day, and his political philosophy is widely seen as the genesis of modern liberalism-an inspiration...
Description
This program explores three major areas of philosophical inquiry into religion: religious epistemology, or the exploration of the rational grounds for religious beliefs and, in particular, the existence of God; the metaphysics of religion, which inquires into the nature of God; and theodicy, which examines the philosophical implications of the presence of evil in the world. Commentary by Alvin Plantinga, of the University of Notre Dame; Fordham University's...
Description
During the 16th century, a new breed of thinker arose, equal parts philosopher and scientist, that threw off the received wisdom of the past and started afresh. In this program, Paul Guyer, of the University of Pennsylvania; Rutgers University's Colin McGinn; and Princeton University's Kwame Anthony Appiah and Daniel Garber address the major philosophical currents of that era-and the explosive controversies surrounding them. Bacon's Novum Organum,...
4) Ethics
Description
Moral philosophy lies at the heart of today's most heated issues-abortion, human cloning, assisted suicide, financial conflicts of interest, and environmental stewardship. In this program, Harvard University's Frances Kamm; Rutgers University's Larry Temkin; and Richard Sorabji, honorary fellow at Wolfson College, the University of Oxford, describe the three major categories of ethics: metaethics; applied ethics; and normative ethics, including virtue...
Description
What do modern art, a symphony, and a documentary film have in common? They all require aesthetic considerations. This program presents the ideas of key figures in the shaping and understanding of aesthetics-from Plato, Francis Hutcheson, and Kant to Leon Battista Alberti, Stendhal, and Tolstoy-and addresses pivotal writings, including Aristotle's Poetics and Morris Weitz's "The Role of Theory in Aesthetics." Columbia University's Arthur Danto and...
Description
The writer who best represents 20th-century Southern narrative led an existence every bit as colorful and dramatic as his fictional sagas. This program recounts William Faulkner's life and the great literary works it produced, exploring his affinity for the tragic and whimsical aspects of a decaying, racially fractured South. The film describes his early ambitions, family life, alcoholism, stints in Hollywood, and his eventual garnering of the Nobel...
Description
A writer of novels, short stories, folktales, plays, and essays, Zora Neale Hurston combined a hunger for research and a desire to penetrate the deepest of popular beliefs with a exquisite narrative talent. This biography of Hurston--a compelling story of a free spirit who achieved national prominence yet died in obscurity--examines the rich legacy of her writings, which include Mules and Men, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Tell My Horse, and Dust...
Description
Rafael Alberti is regarded today as one of the greatest of modern Spanish poets. A member of the "Generation of 1927," a group of Spanish poets known for revitalizing the art to a quality not seen since the sixteenth century, Alberti gradually turned away from the lyric traditions of his homeland, embracing communism and a more utilitarian style. After the Spanish Civil War, he fled the country and lived in exile, first in Argentina, then in Rome,...
10) Adam Smith
Description
Details Smith's life and traces the impact of The wealth of nations as Europe began the arduous transition from mercantilism to the laissez-faire philosophy of the Physiocrats. Quotes from The wealth of nations are woven into the narrative, including the famous passage describing how an "invisible hand" guides individuals towards the common good.