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TLS radio podcast

by Edward Feser

My recent interview on The James Allen Show is now available for your listening pleasure. Go here and follow the relevant link.

Posted by Edward Feser on April 16, 2009 3:09 AM | Del.icio.us |

Comments (6)

Cool! I was able to listen to it while doing other stuff. Great interview, Ed! I thought you handled the callers really well, including the somewhat aggressive atheist woman. I esp. appreciated your point to the effect that Christians should not be on the defensive but on the offensive and that we have let the portrayal of Christianity as irrational pass for far too long. Preach it, brother!

Posted by Lydia | April 16, 2009 8:57 PM

The interview was excellent, but it also seemed like Dr. Feser was educating the host of the show as much as he was any of the callers. The major problem now seems to be Christians. They lack the ability to defend their faith. Catholic schools, whether middle, high, or college, do absolutely nothing in the way of training pupils in Catholic philosophy and theology. We all know that most of the fans and followers of these New Atheists are lapsed Catholics and other Christians. Whether it was through propaganda or simply laziness, Christianity in the public sphere has lost the battle over who is rational and who isn't. Some of this I would blame on mainline Protestantism and Evangelicalism, both of which have abandoned the philosophical tradition, that is, if they ever had one to begin with. Catholics as a group have become either too dumb or too secular to withstand even the slightest assault on their faith.

Posted by Edward | April 17, 2009 11:00 AM

Ed,
Keep in mind that just because a host asks his guest questions, that doesn't necessarily imply that the host couldn't answer them as well or is in need of education. Name recognition draws. Case in point, I doubt you would have tuned in and listened to James if he were speaking by himself.

As for losing the battle over reason, meaning, and truth, there's plenty of blame to go all around. :)

Posted by ThinkingIsPresuppositional | April 17, 2009 3:24 PM

[Commenter] Edward is exactly right. The host seems like a good guy, but the subject matter is kinda over his head, so he's not very successful in providing Dr. Ed with opportunities to get his best licks in.

Of course, my idea of Dr. Ed's "best licks" would start with, e.g., his defense of the cosmological argument - and maybe there's just no hope of getting that sort of thing across on radio.

Tant pis.

Posted by steve burton | April 17, 2009 3:25 PM

Please keep in mind, folks, that any radio host has to conduct an interview in a way he thinks his audience is going to be able to relate to. James Allen surely knows this more than most hosts, since he's had philosophers on as guests before and (from what I understand) has had at least some listeners complain about certain topics being too hard too follow. So he has to keep that always in mind, as I knew he would have to from the get go. I think he deserves credit for bringing philosophical topics to a wider audience, and if the topics aren't pursued at the greatest depth, that's not his fault, but the nature of the medium. You can't expect to hear anything about (say) act/potency or hylemorphism on a general audience radio show!

Posted by Edward Feser | April 18, 2009 2:32 AM

Kudos to Mr Allen for work that desperately needs done, forward thinking IMO and should go from strength to strength. More philosophers please! including philosophers of aesthetics :)

Oh and Paul Cella + Michael P. Goldberg aka 'Spengler' at First Things on the economy and how some conservative leadership here can drive a stake through liberalism's heart.

Posted by Martin | April 18, 2009 7:31 AM

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