Bertrand Russell from the archives R4 29/10/11

[salymap]

Hope the Russell programme will be rescheduled later......

The one I use is http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/

[aeolium]

to satisfy my curiosity could you put a name to any present-day philosophers, poets or playwrights whom you would find as interesting to listen to as Russell

I didn't have any particular people in mind when I expressed that opinion, mercia, but in any case I wouldn't be comparing them with Russell. There used to be quite a few people just as interesting as Russell on R3 in the 1970s and 1980s - Hans Keller, George Steiner, Isaiah Berlin for instance - and there was a very good series of discussions with philosophers presented by Bryan Magee (and he subsequently transferred it successfully to TV, in the days when such programmes were possible on BBC2). I'd be interested to have another such series if a suitable presenter could be found - not one of the Night Waves presenters but someone knowledgeable in the field. And I think a series of talks or discussions with contemporary poets (not just British) including readings of poems would be interesting.

The problem with The Verb, for me, is its cabaret-type format, the way everything has to be presented in a jokey way, and nothing is focussed on in any depth or treated with any seriousness. I am not saying that programmes should be solemnly po-faced but that there should be some sustained attempt to treat of a subject in a way that assumes an audience both intelligent and willing to engage with difficult ideas or themes (as indeed Russell did in an admirable way).

[french frank]

In times of financial stringency, talks by philosophers would be attractively cheap, I'd have thought. From what I've read (rather than heard) I don't think the New Generation Thinkers are quite the answer ...

I suppose it's a reflection on the times that it's more difficult to think of any household names (even cultivated households ) among philosophers. The last one I can think of was Bernard Williams .

[Chris Newman]

aeolium,
You have hit it on the nail. The interesting characters, I won't say philosophers as it smacks of snobbery, have disappeared from our screens and radios : Russell, Hans Keller, George Steiner, Isaiah Berlin were the gold dust. But the journalists were priceless too. Where are the equals of Robin Day, Richard Dimbleby, Robert Key, Bernard Levin? Even on the lighter side Richard Baker and Ned Sherrin? They have been replaced by entertainers, except perhaps for occasional glimpses of David Attenborough.

[hackneyvi]

I suppose it's a reflection on the times that it's more difficult to think of any household names (even cultivated households ) among philosophers. The last one I can think of was Bernard Williams .

But then, how are they ever to become household names if they never get into the household?

Is Alain de Botton a philospher? I'm unsure whether he's actually a practitioner or simply a preacher.

Roger Scruton?

[vinteuil]

I suppose it's a reflection on the times that it's more difficult to think of any household names (even cultivated households ) among philosophers. The last one I can think of was Bernard Williams .

... well, in the area of Moral Philosophy, we still occasionally hear from Mary Warnock and Mary Midgley on Radio 3...

[aeolium]

The good thing about the Bryan Magee series was that they introduced a non-specialist audience to philosophers they may well not have heard of, and the major ideas of Western philosophy were expounded and discussed. We could do with an updated version of that series, encompassing recent developments in philosophy and widening the scope to include Eastern philosophy. I would like to hear someone knowledgeable talking about the development of Islamic philosophy, difference between Sunni and Shiite versions, etc. Marxism could be revisited in the light of recent events (David Harvey perhaps?) I'm really not familiar with developments in the philosophy of language, or ethics...

[vinteuil]

more lightweight, per-haps, - but I see that Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time on Radio 4, Thursday week (10 November), 9 am, is devoted to the split between the 'Continental' and 'Analytical' Schools of Philosophy...