Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.

Radio 4. The My castaway this week is the philosopher Professor Angie Hobbs. Her current

professional role is promoting the public understanding of philosophy. The point, well to help us to apply the

rigor, clarity and precision of big philosophical thoughts to our everyday lives. Born in Sussex, her happy childhood was deeply marked by the death of her much-loved

and profoundly disabled sister, an event that would lead my cast away to a great appreciation

of the fragility of life.

A bright child, she didn't particularly shine at school and was at one point even expelled.

But as inspirational teachers introduced her to a love of literature. She went on to read classics at Cambridge,

discovering a deep and abiding passion for philosophy, in particular the ancient Greeks.

She says, I see myself as helping people think through problems and

broadening their range of concepts and ideas. I genuinely think that philosophy

can help people lead a more flourishing life both individually and

communally.

So Angie Hobbs, I guess, straight off the bat then I should ask you what the key components

are do you think to a flourishing life?

Oh, well I think for most people a bit of a reflection is helpful about the kind of

ends or goals that you want to achieve and the best means of getting there.

And to do that I think you need to think about what it means to be a human being.

What might it mean to live a well-lived human life? I think there's a really key difference

between the notion of a flourishing life, which we might get from the ancient Greek word

...