Podcast
The Eristicrats
Hosted by The Eristicrats · EN
In this show we discuss all the concepts covered in our A-Level Philosophy, Ethics and Theology course. We debate and explore topics from the existence of God, to metaethical questions such as 'What is good?', to St. Augustine's view on human nature. In doing so, we cover the work and ideas of many of the greatest philosophers in history from Plato to Peter Singer.
14episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Episode Thirty: The Nature and Attributes of God
Jul 2501:01:39Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we discuss the three key attributes of the Christian God - omnibenevolence, omnipotence and omniscience. We discuss the potential problems that arise from these different qualities, such as the question of whether God can do the illogical and if God's omniscience prohibits human free will. We look at the perspectives of many scholars, including Aquinas, Anselm, Augustine and Boethius.
Transcribe →Episode twenty nine: Liberation Theology and Marxism: Can Christianity ever combine with marxism?
Apr 13, 202501:21:15Tap to summarizeIn this episode we are grateful to be joined by our greatly knowledgeable friend Ned Evans ( Marxist philosopher). Together we understand what conditions in society led to the rise in Liberation theology as a contextual theology. Then we will understand what Marxism is and how it interacts with liberation theology according to scholars such as the 'Boff' Brothers and Gutierrez. Finally, we discuss the fundamental compatibility/ incompatibility of Christianity and marxism.
Transcribe →Episode Twenty Eight: Conscience - Aquinas and Freud
Mar 15, 202500:51:11Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we contrast the views of Aquinas and Freud on conscience, guilt and moral responsibility. We explore the three key aspects of Aquinas's understanding of conscience: Ratio, Synderysis and Conscientia. We also look at the three concepts that Freud believes result in our experience of conscience and importantly guilt. These are the Id, the Ego and the Super-Ego. We end the episode with a debate on falsifiability. Enjoy!
Transcribe →Episode Twenty Seven: Secularisation, Should we separate the Church and state, if so - how?
Mar 1, 202500:53:52Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we go through different forms of secularisation and the impact that they have had on different countries such as France. In addition, we discuss the impact of secularization on both schools and governments, while also delving deeper into what secularization is and if it is a postitive or nagative impact on western culture, through the lens of popular new atheist Richard Dawkins and other counterpart scholars such as Terry Eagleton.
Transcribe →Episode Twenty Six: Gender and Theology - Can a male saviour save women?
Dec 23, 202400:43:27Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we explore the Feminist Theology of Mary Daly and Rosemary Radford Ruether. We discuss their perspectives on God as male and the potential problems this raises for Feminists and compare their ultimate judgements on Christianity: should it be reformed or entirely abandoned? As always, we end with a debate evaluating whether Daly can be a source of inspiration.
Transcribe →Episode Twenty Five: Gender and society - is Christianity outdated or is secularism imoral?
Dec 8, 202400:48:11Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we discuss the changing role of gender in society and the estrangement of the Church's views on family and sexuality from our increasingly secular society. Then, we will discuss the potential merits and flaws of this change in our societies' value systems and gender roles.
Transcribe →Episode Twenty Four: Pluralism in Society - Can there be constructive dialogue between different faiths?
Nov 16, 202400:41:43Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we explore the practical side of pluralism. We look at different perspectives on interfaith dialogue, from exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist perspectives. We also discuss the scriptural reasoning movement which is hailed as one of the most successful attempts at fruitful interfaith dialogue. We apologise for the poor audio quality of this episode. It was not recorded in our usual location, so the acoustics were far from optimal.
Transcribe →Episode Twenty Three: Religious Pluralism and Theology: is faith an all or nothing claim?
Oct 16, 202401:02:51Tap to summarizeIn this episode we discuss the theology of religions from three broad perspectives: Exclusivism, Inclusivism and Pluralism. We explore two key questions of epistemology and soteriology, asking if more than one religion can save and if more than one religion can be True.
Transcribe →Episode Twenty Two: Meta-Ethics
Sep 22, 202400:53:17Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we dive into the world of meta-ethics. We begin with Hume, exploring the is-ought problem and its consequences for claims about what 'Good' is. We share possible responses to the problem: Naturalism, Intuitionism and Emotivism; as always, we end with a discussion. Enjoy!
Transcribe →Episode Twenty One: Christian Moral Principles
Sep 15, 202400:54:22Tap to summarizeIn this episode we explore different ways that Christians establish moral systems. We consider three methods: Theonomous, Heteronomous and Autonomous and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. We show that none of these views is perfect and discuss the challenges of biblical interpretation. Finally we debate the self evidence of moral principles, Christian consistency in ethics and the role of the Church as an arbiter of morality for Christians
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