Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether religion can still be seen as a way of interpreting and judging good and evil in modern western civilisation and examines what the discoveries of Darwin and our knowledge of the true physiological nature and history of man has done for us in terms understanding our concepts of good and evil. As we entered the 20th century Nietzsche announced that God is dead. Was his hatred of Christianity a natural consequence of his belief in the unlimited possibility of mankind’s self creation? If we have enough basic self confidence in our own selves, do we need God?Leszek Kolakowski and Galen Strawson map the current terrain of morality as perceived through philosophy, politics and Darwin and Christ.With Leszek Kolakowski, author and Professor of Philosophy, Oxford University; Galen Strawson, author and Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, Jesus College, Oxford.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
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| 0:36.0 | Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast. |
| 0:39.0 | For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy |
| 0:46.5 | the program. Hello the nature of good and evil is a subject which has continued to |
| 0:52.0 | tease and trouble the greatest minds in the |
| 0:54.0 | 20th century, whether in medicine, philosophy, politics or the arts. In the century that has seen one of the |
| 0:58.7 | greatest atrocities known to mankind, the Holocaust and with continual wars in the former Yugoslavia the question as |
| 1:04.3 | to what is good and evil is as resonant as ever. |
| 1:07.6 | Is good and evil in our genes as medicine is currently seeking or are they a product of society? |
| 1:12.1 | Where does responsibility for good and evil lie? |
| 1:14.6 | And is a belief in God essential to any argument about good and evil. |
| 1:18.3 | Joining me is Leshek Kolikovsky. |
| 1:20.4 | Born in Poland, he was a prominent Marxist there in the 50s and was exiled in the 60s. |
| 1:24.6 | Since then he's lectured widely at Yale, the University of Chicago and Oxford University, |
| 1:29.2 | where he's professor of philosophy. |
| 1:30.8 | He's the author of over 30 books including main currents on Marxism. In his |
| 1:35.0 | latest book, Freedom, Fame, Lying and Betrayal, essays in everyday life, he wrote in one essay, |
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