Do we have a responsibility to inform ourselves about the state of the world? Is the experience of some people valued more highly than that of others? Matthew Sweet investigates the ethics of knowledge in Radio 4's round table discussion programme.
With:
Quassim Cassam, philosopher and author of Intellectual Vices
Havi Carel, a philosopher who's worked extensively on imbalances of knowledge in healthcare and other areas
Ian Kidd, philosopher specializing in the ethics of knowledge
Ebony Reid, author of Trapped Lives
Marianna Spring, the BBC's misinformation correspondent
Producer: Luke MulhallPart of a series of programmes across Radio 4 looking at what drives us apart and how to bring us together – look for Common Ground.
Kultur & GesellschaftTalk
Free Thinking Folgen
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives - looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Folgen von Free Thinking
1526 Folgen
-
Folge vom 10.07.2026The Ethics of Knowledge
-
Folge vom 03.07.2026Trade and trafficWhat does trade set in motion beyond the exchange of goods? Anne McElvoy explores the movement of commerce across time as a carrier of habits, ideas, ambitions and influence, as well as of material things. From the early modern world, where trade was entangled with colonial expansion and shaped by unequal, sometimes unexpected encounters, to the supply chains and diplomatic negotiations of the present, this discussion asks how economic exchange has also mediated cultural contact. Alongside rivalry and wealth, how has trade given rise to its own languages of civility, reciprocity and trust?Guests include:Nandini Das is Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at Oxford University and author of This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart EnglandJeremy Hunt is a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and the author of Can We Be Rich Again?Soumaya Keynes is an economist and columnist at the Financial Times and the author of How to Win a Trade WarProfessor Rana Mitter is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy SchoolDr Lauren Working is a Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at York University and author of A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance EnglandProducer: Ruth Watts
-
Folge vom 26.06.2026The Child's Eye ViewShahidha Bari investigates the child’s-eye view of the world. From navigating AI, to living through war, to the joys of reading, what makes children’s perspectives so distinctive? With writer Katherine Rundell, psychotherapist Josh Cohen, nature writer and novelist Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, historian Emma Butcher, and psychologist Nomisha Kurian.Producer: Luke Mulhall
-
Folge vom 19.06.2026Eccentrics & OutsidersHow has the figure of the outsider or eccentric has been used to explore English culture, history, politics, and our relationship with nature and the countryside? Matthew Sweet discusses, including a re-reading of Sylvia Townsend Warner's 1926 novel Lolly Willowes, in which a middle aged woman leaves her suburban life behind to become a witch. With philosopher Charles Foster, literary historian Jade Munslow Ong, political philosopher Sophie Scott Brown, and psychotherapist Mark Vernon. Producer: Luke Mulhall