Today's episode of the egg timer takes a look at Thomas Malthus's ideas about population and the significant influence that they had on 19th century thought.

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in 1968 Garrett Hardin published 'The Tragedy of the Commons' and since that time his ideas have proved highly influential to a wide range of thinkers including philosophers, political scientists, economists, ecologists, and biologists. Tune to learn what the tragedy of the commons is and what solutions have been offered to try to address the problem.

A link to Hardin's article can be found here: https://math.uchicago.edu/~shmuel/Modeling/Hardin,%20Tragedy%20of%20the%20Commons.pdf

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What is the fundamental element of reality? In 1714 Leibniz published the Monadology and gave a very interesting answer to this question. There he argued that a non-physical part less basic substance called a Monad was indeed the fundamental element of reality. Tune in to learn more about Monads and see if you think Leibnitz was on to unlocking one of the oldest metaphysical quandaries.

You can find a free copy of the Monadology here: https://www.plato-philosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/The-Monadology-1714-by-Gottfried-Wilhelm-LEIBNIZ-1646-1716.pdf

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Do the Gods love the good because it is good or is something good because the Gods love it?  That's the dilemma that Plato posed through the voice of Socrates in his dialogue Euthyphro and the topic for this episode of the egg timer.

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On today's episode we delve deeper into the ethical conundrum of the trolley problem.

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Imagine you are conducting a trolley and the break gets stuck.  If you do nothing the trolley will kill five workman on your path.  But you can quickly switch tracks where the trolley will kill one person.  Should you pull the lever and switch tracks?  That's the question on this episode of the egg timer.

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How would you respond to the offer to live life again forever exactly as you have lived it?  That's the question Nietzsche poses with his eternal recurrence thought experiment.  This episode explores how the notion of regret plays a strong role in how this offer is treated.

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Is eating meat a moral practice?  Today's episode explores this question with specific attention given to a very interesting analogy between eating meat and swinging a baseball bat into a cow's skull offered by Robert Nozick.

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This episode of the egg timer explores James Rachels's influential essay, 'Active and Passive Euthanasia'.  Rachels suggests that the distinction based upon the difference between killing and letting die that has shaped medical policy surrounding euthanasia in the United States is deeply flawed.  Tune in to find out why Rachels holds this position.

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This episode of the egg timer is devoted to the Platonic Dialouge of Crito.  In this Dialouge Socrates finds himself in prison awaiting a death sentence and his friend Crito has come to visit.  Crito comes with the enticing offer of helping Socrates escape from prison.  Listen to why find out why Socrates rejects the offer and accepts his sentence of death.

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Does weakness of will exist?  It sure seems like the answer is yes but as we will see, by looking at the basic views of Plato and Aristotle, the answer is more nuanced and interestingly complex than it first appears.  

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This episode of the egg timer considers the distinction between threats and offers.  Many people typically think that offers are morally permissible and threats are not. This thought is normally right but as we will explore things are more complicated than they first appear.

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Can human nature and freedom coexist?  Maybe, but if so a new way to look at both ideas will probably be needed.  Enjoy this episode of the egg timer as the topic of how human nature and freedom might relate with one another is explored.

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Can we owe duties to people who do not yet exist? Tune in as this vexing philosophical and ethical question gets scrambled up.

On this episode of the egg timer the distinction between act and rule utilitarianism is given a closer look.

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This episode of the egg timer is devoted to exploring and attempting to define the concept of use.

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Do people conducting business have any ethical obligations beyond following the law and making as much profit as possible?  On Today's episode we will explore Milton Friedman's influential answer to this question.

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This episode of the egg timer is devoted to exploring the basic aspects of utilitarian ethical thought.

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What exists?  George Berkeley argued that the only things that exists are minds and ideas.  Find out more about this odd but strangely compelling view on this episode of the egg timer.

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Today on the egg timer the topic will be how William James makes the case that a deterministic view of the world is confronted with a very challenging dilemma.

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This episode of the egg timer is devoted to reviewing the basic positions that philosophers take toward free will.  Are alternatives possibilities necessary for free will?  That's just one question that will be scrambled up on this episode.

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This episode of the egg timer is devoted to exploring the moral principle that 'ought implies can'.  The principle enjoys lots of philosophical support but is more questionable than it first appears.

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How much money would it take for you to sell your ability to experience music?  That's the question for this episode of the egg timer.

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What does it mean for a person to own their self?  This episode of the egg timer explores the basic answer that political philosophers have given to this vexing question.

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This episode of the egg timer offers some introductory questions and themes about the relationship between ethics and the law.

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This episode of the egg timer explores the concepts of ownership and property.  Do you own, in any sense, a car that you have just rented at the airport counter?  Tune in, as this and other examples are discussed.

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What separates science from other areas of inquiry?  Karl Popper argued that it is the activity of falsification.  Tune in to hear about Karl Popper's falsification driven view of scientific inquiry.

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This episode of the egg timer is devoted to discussing the major themes within Aristotle's approach to ethics.

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What forces drive us to economically consume?  Today's egg timer will take a look at the philosophical and socially engaging answer that Thorstein Veblen gives to this question.

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This episode of the egg timer explores a passage from Robert Pirsig's 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' to better understand the relationship between time and experience.

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Should society regulate objectionable speech?  This episode of the egg timer considers and critiques John Stuart Mill's answer to this long standing and difficult question.

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Do we have voluntary control over our beliefs?  It turns out probably not in the vast majority of cases.  This episode explains why this is the case and explore the relationship between freedom and belief.

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Do the evils of the world provide evidence against the existence of God?  Listen in as this question is explored on this episode of the egg timer.

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What principles of justice would people agree to under a veil of ignorance that prevents them from knowing things about themselves such as their ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation? John Rawls says, the 'difference principle' and the 'liberty principle'.  This episode breaks down and discuss each of these ideas.

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How do we create a just society? In this episode of the egg timer we take a look at how John Rawls used the idea of ignorance to provide a very inventive answer to this question.

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This episode of the egg timer scrambles up existential themes from the second half of Albert Camus's 'The Stranger'.

You can find the full text of 'The Stranger' here: https://archive.org/stream/CamusAlbertTheStranger/CamusAlbert-TheStranger_djvu.txt

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This episode of the egg timer tackles the question: what are rights?  In order to answer this question the relationship between rights and obligations is cracked open.  

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If you knew every physical fact about the world but had only experienced the confines of a black and white room would you learn anything new when you see a ripe red tomato for the first time?  This episode of the egg timer considers this thought experiment and the threats to the physicalist world view that it poses.

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This episode of the egg timer delves into the depths of Nirvana through Buddha's third and fourth noble truths.  This episode is a continuation of last week's episode that explored Buddha's first and second noble truths.

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This episode of the egg timer takes a look at Buddha's first and second noble truths.  Particular attention will be given to the idea of attachment.

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How should the state be defined?  This episode of the egg timer takes a look at Max Weber's influential attempt to answer this question. 

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Is believing that God exists a good rational bet to place?  Blaise Pascal thought so.  This episode of the egg timer takes a closer look at this divine wager.

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This episode of the egg timer takes a look at Jean Paul Sartre's notions of bad faith and authenticity.  Many claim to value freedom a great deal but bad faith threatens to make that valuing an act of self-deception.  The roots of this self-deception are explores as well as whether authenticity offers a path to genuine freedom.

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This episode of the egg timer is devoted to existential philosophy.  In particular Sartre's existential slogan that 'existence proceeds essence' will be discussed and its implications explored.

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This episode of the egg timer is devoted to Plato's infamous allegory of the cave.  

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Can God make a rock so big that He cannot lift it?  This episode of the egg timer explores the answer that Thomas Aquinas gave to this seeming paradox.

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This episode of the egg timer scrambles up existential themes from the first half of Albert Camus's 'The Stranger'.

You can find the full text of 'The Stranger' here: https://archive.org/stream/CamusAlbertTheStranger/CamusAlbert-TheStranger_djvu.txt

Send your comments, questions, and ideas for future episodes to: eggtimerphilosophy@gmail.com

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This episode of the egg timer explores Henry David Thoreau's 1849 essay 'Civil Disobedience' .  Thoreau's approach to civil disobedience is put in the spotlight and we see how his view compares and contrasts with that of major 20th century advocates for civil disobedience such as Gandhi and King.

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This episode of the egg timer continues on the theme of knowledge from last week's episode.  But a shift in focus is made toward the work of the 11th century Islamic thinker, Al-Ghazali.  As we see, Al-Ghazali masterfully demonstrated the case for epistemic skepticism roughly 400 years before Descartes is often credited with accomplishing this feat.

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What, if anything, can we know with absolute certainty?  This episode of the egg timer takes a critical look at the answer Rene Descartes gives to this question.  His answer has provided the foundation for the last 400 years of philosophical thought surrounding knowledge.

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