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Hello, the 18th century politician and philosopher Edmund Burke was once moved to comment,

guilt was never a rational thing.

It distorts all the faculties of the human mind.

It perverts them.

It leaves a man no longer in the free use of his reason.

It puts him into confusion.

Burke was touching upon a question that has animated theologians

and philosophers for centuries. Is the feeling of guilt a vital part of our

moral lives or can it do more harm than good? Is it innate or learned? And how does guilt

relate to reason? The answers seem to cut deeply into our understanding of what it is

to be human. We'll be looking at guilt on a moral and psychological phenomenon and not as a

legal category. With me to discuss the concept of guilt and examine its

relationship to morality I'm Miranda Fricker, senior lecture in philosophy at

Birkbeck University of London, Stephen Mulhall, fellow and tutor in

philosophy at New College Oxford and, and Oliver Davis, professor of Christian

doctrine at King's College London.

Stephen Mullock, as I understand it, there's a traditional distinction made between guilt

cultures and shame cultures.

Can you elaborate on that?

Sure, yes.

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