Jack Symes

It has been proven that philosophical dialogues and debates using digital information dissemination tools now play a leading role in popularizing philosophy beyond the academic community. It has been established that the main differences between oral dialogue and printed interviews are the degree of text editing, the possibility of changing the positions of dialogue participants, the presence of speech intonational and emotional colouring, and stylistic communication limitations. The perceptual advantages of oral dialogue lie in its accessibility to a wide range of people, deeper immersion in the communicative situation, and a better understanding of the personal traits of the communication participants.

The origin of our universe is the greatest mystery of all. How do we find ourselves existing, let alone enveloped in a cosmos enriched with such order and complexity? For religious philosophers, despite the incredible advances of modern physics, we are no closer to a scientific explanation of where the universe came from. 'God', they affirm, 'is the best solution to the mystery.' Yet, there are those who call for patience. The new atheists remind us that science has a habit of explaining what was once unexplainable. In the meantime, we should not delude ourselves into contentment. 'Religion', they say, 'is the opium of the people and the enemy of progress. In fact, God may be the nastiest idea in human history.' This book is a short, engaging and accessible guide to the mystery of existence. Featuring remastered interviews and original essays from the world's most influential and respected thinkers, Philosophers on God explores the most fascinating and innovative research in all of philosophy and science. In doing so, it sheds new light on the nature, purpose and ultimate destination of our universe.

We know, more intimately than anything else, what it's like to undergo a rich world of experiences: agonizing pains, dizzying pleasures, heady rage and existential doubts. But, despite the incredible advances of physical science, it seems that we're no closer to an explanation of how this inner world of experiences comes about. No matter how detailed our description of the physical brain, perhaps we'll always be left with this same question: how and why does the brain produce consciousness? This book is a short, accessible and engaging guide to the mystery of consciousness. Featuring remastered interviews and original essays from the world's leading thinkers, Philosophers on Consciousness sheds new light on the most promising theories in philosophy and science. Beyond understanding the mind, this is a journey into personal identity, the origin of meaning, the nature of morality and the fundamental structure of reality.

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast is an audio learning tool which provides content aimed at students to help improve their knowledge outside of the classroom. The podcast offers discussions and analysis dedicated to the topics set by the OCR Religious Studies specification studied in the UK. It also provides content which has the potential for synoptic links across modules and possibly other subjects the students are learning. The research project aimed to gauge how classroom teachers and their students perceived the usefulness of the podcast when using it as a flipped-learning tool. Teachers were asked to choose episodes of the podcast and then set their student's homework to listen in preparation for a discussion or written task. The staff and students were then required to fill in a feedback questionnaire which they accessed online. Teachers addressed questions relating to their thoughts on how the podcast was best employed as a learning tool and how it benefited their teaching practice, if at all. Students answered questions concerning their enjoyment of the podcast medium and how it compared to their other methods of learning. The results of the quantitative and qualitative feedback received from the questionnaire are analysed in the following assessment.