For example, in our lecture on logic last night we discussed all the different types of fallacies that crop up in persuasive discourse. (A fallacy is another word for a flawed or invalid argument.) One example our lecturer used for the fallacy of confusing cause with correlation was with aboriginal communities and alcoholism. An example proposition (philosophy lingo for a statement of argument) might be: “Alcoholism is rife in Aboriginal communities, therefore Aboriginals are just naturally alcohol abusers”. The fallacy in that argument is that a correlation doesn’t mean that there is a cause and of course we know that there are many factors that cause alcoholism in some Aboriginal communities and we have no evidence of a cultural or genetic predisposition (at least not in traditional aboriginal culture). But the point I’m making is that a seemingly abstract and boring topic can be applied positively to a contemporary and relevant problem.

The Philosopher’s Zone seems to also reflect this. When I tuned in, they were interviewing Jonathan Glover, a Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London about his recent talk on the Israel Palestine conflict and how narratives are constructed and used by both sides. His topic not only spoke to the conflict of study but had implications for all of us and how we form our identity and live our lives:

When we think about ourselves and our lives, we think we’d try and make some sense of our lives, people don’t just want their life to be a heap of events one after another in a kind of chaos. People like to think that their lives add up to some kind of coherent story which makes some kind of sense, until they have an answer to the question What have you done with your life? (Jonathan Glover, “Uprootedness and national conflicts”, The Philosopher’s Zone)

He talks about “rootedness” and the need for people to have a place where they belong and the humiliation that we feel when that is denied.

Any other fans of the Philosopher’s Zone out there? Recommended philosophy / theology podcasts?

References:

Jonathan Glover, “Uprootedness and national conflicts”, The Philosopher’s Zone.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/stories/2008/2332471.htm#transcript.