You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?

Read Singers’ take on the rationing debate

I recommend the charming, witty and insightful BBC podcast, Thinking Allowed. In his own playful way, host Laurie Taylor, Professor of Sociology at The University of York, delves into provocative philosophical debates.

Please read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay on Self-Reliance
Come to our next seminar with an understanding of Emerson’s key arguments and with a critique of his argumentation.

We might begin with these questions:

How does (and should) a person define his/her place in society? (what does Emerson mean by “society” anyhow?)

What are the two major barriers to self-reliance ? Who is the “aboriginal Self,” the “Trustee”? How does this concept modify the egotism of self-reliance?

What are the implications of self-reliance for business? for religion (prayers, creeds)? for travelling? for art? for property ownership and government?

David Edmonds is co-author of Wittgenstein’s Poker – this focuses on a ten minute argument between Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein.  His other books – also written with John Eidinow – include Bobby Fischer Goes to War (on the notorious chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky) and Rousseau’s Dog, which dissects the famous quarrel between David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  His day job is making radio documentaries for the BBC.

Nigel Warburton has written a number of books including Philosophy: The Basics, Philosophy: The Classics (some of which is  available as a podcast) , Thinking from A to Z and The Art Question. He is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Open University. He has also made a number of programmes for BBC Radio 4, writes a weblog called Virtual Philosopher and regularly leads courses on the philosophy of art at Tate Modern.

Here is are links to scores of interviews from these gents. Most are 20-30 minutes. All are valuable (to varying degress of course).

The SEP is a fine resource for those pursuing truth. From its inception, the SEP was designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and substantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public.

Consequently, their dynamic reference work maintains academic standards while evolving and adapting in response to new research.

Here is a list of several moral dilemmas. Your “assignment” is to consider each of them carefully. We will democratically decide which of these dilemmas we want to address when we next meet.
Of course, you are coridally invited to post some food for thought in response to any of these dilemmas in the comments link at the bottom of this post.

Enjoy.