Philosopher's Zone

If someone's behaving badly, it can be hard to know how much of their behaviour stems from a deep character flaw, and how much of it is incidental - the stuff we might charitably filter out as unreflective of their true self. And the same goes for achievement: how much credit for a Nobel prize should go to the person themselves, and how much to their fortunate circumstances, or to the people who helped them? This week we're asking if philosophy can help us discern the signal from the noise.Guest: Mark Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern CaliforniaProducer: David RutledgeWhen Things Get Personal: A Philosophical Guide to Conflict by Mark Schroeder (Princeton University Press 2026)*The 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture* - Alexandre Lefebvre on 'The return of the moral state: philosophy and the good life', Thursday September 24 at 6.30 pmRegister on the 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture event page, registrations close on September 17

If I pick up a tree branch and smash your window with it, you're going to be angry, and your anger will rightly be directed at me. But if a tree branch smashes your windscreen during a cyclone whose intensity has been caused by global warming, you're still going to be angry — but who or what exactly should you be angry with? This week, a conversation about responsibility for systemic injustice.Guest: Stephanie Collins, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Monash University MelbourneProducer: David Rutledge*The 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture* - Alexandre Lefebvre on 'The return of the moral state: philosophy and the good life', Thursday September 24 at 6.30 pmRegister on the 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture event page, registrations close on September 17

The great German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who died in March, wrote in his later works about what he called Unheimlichkeit — roughly translated as "the unease of the times" — to describe the global retreat of liberal democracy, the fraying of the rules-based international order, and the increasing polarisation and hostility of public discourse. And yet, to the end he defended Enlightenment reason and the utility of rational debate. In a world that seems to be losing its democratic bearings, has Habermas' day passed? Or is the problem more that we haven't read him carefully enough?Guest: Peter J. Verovšek, Assistant Professor in the History of European Integration, University of Groningen, The NetherlandsProducer: David RutledgeDid Jürgen Habermas's death also mark the end of his vision of democratic life? - Peter Verovšek for ABC Religion & Ethics*The 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture* - Alexandre Lefebvre on 'The return of the moral state: philosophy and the good life', Thursday September 24 at 6.30 pmRegister on the 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture event page, registrations close on September 17

Ever since AI was founded in the 1950s, people have talked and written about 'intelligence' as though we all broadly agree on what that word means. But there's considerable debate on that score, and among the debaters are philosophers - like this week's guest - who question the degree to which machines can be said to be intelligent at all, and think that claims of intelligence can all too easily deflect attention from the real ethical issues around AI.Guest: Tim Crane, Professor of Philosophy at the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, AustriaProducer: David Rutledge*The 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture* - Alexandre Lefebvre on 'The return of the moral state: philosophy and the good life', Thursday September 24 at 6.30 pmRegister on the 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture event page, registrations close on September 17