Born into slavery in the nineteenth century, Anna Julia Cooper received a classical education, attended the Sorbonne, and became the fourth African American in history to be awarded a PhD. Her first book, A Voice from the South, offered one of the first articulations of how Black women are impacted by race, gender, and socioeconomic class. She believed that uplifting Black women through higher education would improve life for all Black people. Josh and Ray explore her life and thought with Kathryn Sophia Belle, author of Beauvoir and Belle: A Black Feminist Critique of The Second Sex.

Part of our Wise Women series, generously supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/diogenes-and-the-honest-life.

Diogenes of Sinope was a famous—or infamous—4th-century BCE Greek philosopher. Reportedly, he lived in a jar, performed many bodily functions in public, and wandered public spaces with a lit lantern in broad daylight. But what was the broader social critique advanced by Diogenes and his followers? What did they believe was needed for a life of freedom and virtue? And how does Diogenes continue to serve as a symbol of defiance to authority and artificial values? Josh and Ray defer to Inger Kuin from the University of Virginia, author of Diogenes: The Rebellious Life and Revolutionary Philosophy of the Original Cynic.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/civil-disobedience/.

Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King all engaged in civil disobedience, and are widely admired for doing so. But how can democratic society function if each person’s conscience has to be satisfied for a law to be obeyed? When is civil disobedience justified? When is it required? How does the concept fit with the great ethical and political philosophies? John and Ken discuss the ethics of protest and punishment with Kimberley Brownlee from the University of Manchester, author of Conscience and Conviction: The Case for Civil Disobedience.