This is philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Woberton.

Philosophy bites is available at W.

W. Can and should philosophers contribute to public life?

Well, one philosopher, Mary Warnock, has certainly done her bit.

She sits in the House of Lords and has been selected by the British government to head up two major inquiries,

both of which have had an enduring influence. The first inquiry was into how the education system should deal with children with emotional and physical difficulties in the jargon, special needs.

The second looked at how the government should regulate fertility treatment and embryo research.

It covered numerous issues from surrogacy to IVF.

Among the recommendations was that scientific research be limited to embryos less than 14 days old.

Mary Warner, welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Well, thank you for asking me. I'm delighted to know what we're going to say.

Well, I'm really interested to talk about your role in public life. It's

comparatively rare for philosophers to have an active role in public life but you've

chaired commissions, you've been an active member in the House of Lords for quite some time now.

I wondered how philosophy actually prepared you for these things?

I think that being a professional philosopher makes you tremendously anxious to distinguish things

that differ that tend to be lumped together all in one concept.

It makes you quite alert to the need to pick conceptual muddles to pieces

and recognise that the way you say things is actually terribly important.

I always find myself when carrying some committee or something

being very bossy about saying, well, hang on.

There are two different things here.

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