Contemporary physics opens the possibility that causality as described by Aristotle and ideas as presented by Plato are real causes - essential dimensions of the world of nature.

Scientific materialism flourished when Newtonian physics ruled, but contemporary physics destroyed the foundations of classical physics and opened the way for rethinking the nature of reality itself.

Do personal human souls exist after individual human bodies die? This podcast explores the idea of mind and the myth of personal immortality in the context of Plato's Phaedo.

In contrast to the contemporary scientific way of thinking that favors materialism, the vast majority of people hold a view of human nature that incorporates both body and soul. This model is taught as religious doctrine in several traditions. Some philosophers think that sound rational arguments can be provided to justify this belief. Rene Descartes and Socrates are two philosophers who examine that possibility.

The search to understand human nature cannot be separated from the universal human desire to understand the meaning of life. Two different ways of thinking are essential for this philosophical quest, what the ancient Greeks called logos and mythos.

Perhaps even worse than poison are values that pretend to be beneficial and are actually pernicious. Happiness is one such value, especially when it is linked to the promise of utopia.

The modern sciences are sometimes linked to concepts that poison and undermine essential human values. This podcast treats three such concepts — behaviorism, determinism, and materialism — and considers an antidote proposed by Immanuel Kant.

This podcast interprets and comments on "Minds and Machines: A Modest Proposal," in light of developments in artificial intelligence during the past four decades.

This is an oral version of a paper written in 1968 that compares human beings and android computers. It predicts that in the next stage in human evolution computers will replace humans because they are better fit to survive.

This podcast introduces the series by focusing on two modern developments in biology: Darwin's theory of evolution and the Human Genome Project.