Philosophy Bites

Which physical characteristics does a woman have to have to be considered beautiful? Are there many different cultural variations on this? Heather Widdows, author of Perfect Me, thinks that today there is a single set of charactestics and that pressure to conform with these has pernicious effects.

We blame people, and sometimes we blame institutions. Miranda Fricker investigates the nature of blame and its functions, draws some important distinctions, and considers the metaphysical implications of this practice.

There is a long tradition of caste in South Asia. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Nilanjan Das discusses a pre-modern philosophical critic of the whole system, and particularly of its underlying metaphysical assumptions.
This episode was supported by the Ideas Workshop, part of the Open Society Foundations

What is a question? It seems obvious, but perhaps it isn't. Lani Watson has just published a book on the topic. She thinks that true questions can be identified by their function, not by their form. She explains what she means by this and why questions matter so much in philosophy and elsehwere.

The utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer has controversial views about when it is acceptable to end a human life. In conversation with David Edmonds he explains his approach, using examples from a range of areas, including infanticide. Some listeners may find some aspects of this discussion disturbing.