Philosophy For Our Times

Does the past even exist anymore?
Quantum mechanics has long unsettled our understanding of matter and measurement. But what if its implications reach further — into history, politics, and the very structure of reality itself? If the present can retroactively reshape the past it emerged from, what does that mean for how we act, how we remember, and how we govern?
These are not merely theoretical puzzles. In a world where liberal democracy appears to be fracturing, where AI and climate change defy traditional political categories, and where new authoritarian currents are emerging from thinkers like Curtis Yarvin in the West and Wang Huning in the East, the question of whether reality offers any coherent ground for political action has never felt more urgent.
Few thinkers are willing to hold all of this together at once — to move from Niels Bohr to Stalinism, from Lacanian psychoanalysis to the collapse of the political centre, without flinching. Slavoj Žižek does precisely that. In his new book Quantum History: A New Materialist Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2025), Žižek argues that incompleteness is not a failure of knowledge but a feature of existence itself — and that this demands an entirely new way of thinking about history and politics.
Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, Lacanian psychoanalyst, and one of the most provocative intellectuals of our time. Hosted by Omari Edwards.
Read the full transcript of this conversation at IAI News: https://iai.tv/articles/slavoj-zizek-on-quantum-history-and-the-end-of-the-past-auid-3437
Don't hesitate to email us at [email protected] with your thoughts or questions on the episode!
To witness such debates live buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/
And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/
You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Did analytic philosophy ruin the entire discipline?
For more than a century there has been a divide in Western philosophy between two distinct approaches, often described as analytic and continental philosophy. Analytic philosophy is predominantly based in the English-speaking world taking its name from Bertrand Russell’s philosophy of logical analysis that overthrew the grand Hegelian metaphysics of the 19th century. It did so in favour of a focus on logic and linguistic precision, with the assumption that science would do the serious work of uncovering the nature of reality. Continental philosophy, based primarily in France and Germany, has offered a broad range of outlooks on the nature of the human condition and the world. It has been defined by its critics simply in opposition to analytic philosophy.
Few thinkers have bridged the divide to be taken seriously by both camps. Yet both traditions now have deep challenges. The original focus of analytic philosophy has become increasingly blurred while in France English speaking philosophy is now in vogue.
What is the future of European thought? Are we seeing the end of the analytic and continental divide? Or is the Enlightenment tradition itself under threat and with it the influence and identity of European philosophy?
Associate Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University London, Christoph Schuringa is known for his works on German philosophy and is Editor of the Hegel Bulletin. Genia Schönbaumsfeld is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton and the author of several books – most recently, Wittgenstein on Religious Belief. Babette Babich is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University and the editor of the journal New Nietzsche Studies. Hosted by Danielle Sands.
Don't hesitate to email us at [email protected] with your thoughts or questions on the episode!
To witness such debates live buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/
And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/
You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Do we need a moral reawakening? Is animal suffering simply a fact of life or can it be avoided? How did the US Navy break whale protection laws? Is there more to animal suffering than just pain?

From the cruelty of the factory meat industry to hunting and habitat destruction, animals are in trouble all over the world. Some deem the treatment of animals in farms the worst crime in history, yet it still takes place all over the world. Join philosopher and renowned ethicist Martha Nussbaum, as she explains how we have gone so wrong and argues for a brand new theory of animal ethics, demonstrating why we need and how to achieve a moral and philosophical reawakening.

To see your favourite thinkers tackle philosophy's most current issues, buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/
And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/
You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes
And don't hesitate to email us at [email protected] with your thoughts or questions!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Universities, long celebrated as sanctuaries of free thought and intellectual rigour, have for centuries been regarded as the best way to educate and conduct research. But increasingly, this assumption is being questioned. A recent study found that two-thirds of academics feel their freedom to teach and study is being curtailed. In 2022 alone, over 1,000 instances of content warnings or text removals were documented across UK universities. While some academics now criticise PhD programmes as a way to extract "fees and cheap labour" from students, reports suggest that most academic papers are read by an average of just ten people. More than half of respondents now say that going to university is not worth it. And in the US, graduate student debt averages over $71,000, while similar information is often freely available online.
Should we call time on the age of the university and find new, innovative ways to educate people? Should we leave research and innovation to the business sector and free-market forces? Or are universities still vital to our education and culture and can a radical overhaul restore them to their original purpose?
Yaron Brook is a political scientist, and chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute. He’s a bestselling author and the host of The Yaron Brook Show. Catherine Liu is a Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She’s the author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class. Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham. He’s the author of Taboo and Whiteshift: Immigration, Populism and the Future of White Majorities. Jay Shapiro hosts.

Email us at [email protected] with your thoughts on the episode!

To see your favourite thinkers tackle philosophy's most current issues, buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/
And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/
You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What do the Soviet Union and the current British economy have in common? What can studying the philosophy of science reveal about our economic systems? Is the depoliticisation of economics a dangerous pipe dream?
Join political economist Abby Innes as she argues that treating society as a closed system that can be controlled and regulated ignores man's unrelenting capacity for new ideas and technologies. Abby Innes is Associate Professor of Political Economy in the European Institute at the LSE.

To see your favourite thinkers tackle philosophy's most current issues, buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/
And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/
You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes
And don't hesitate to email us at [email protected] with your thoughts or questions!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.