Exhibition: Philosophy in the Open

This theme is comprised of 13 videos. All originally formed part of teaching materials for Philosophy modules at the Open University. They are reproduced here for the first time alongside specially commissioned commentaries by leading contemporary thinkers. 

• Dostoevsky and Deontology: Bernard Williams debates Kant, utilitarianism and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment with A. Phillips Griffiths.
  Accompanying essay by Christine M. Korsgaard. 
• Mind and Brain: Charles Taylor and Anthony Quinton discuss the mind-body problem.
  Accompanying essay by Tim Crane. 
• Other Minds: A. J. Ayer and Godfrey Vesey discuss the problem of other minds.
  Accompanying essay by Anita Avramides. 
• Truth: Gareth Evans and P. F. Strawson discuss the nature of truth.
  Accompanying essay by Huw Price. 
• The Concept of Mind: Gilbert Ryle and Susan Haack discuss Ryle’s work on the mind.
  Accompanying essay by Susan Haack. 
• Moral Philosophy: A. J. P. Kenny and R. M. Hare discuss the value of moral philosophy.
  Accompanying essay by Michael Smith. 
• Laws of Nature: R. B. Braithwaite and K. K. Baublys discuss scientific explanation and laws of nature. Accompanying essay by Anna Alexandrova. 
• Knowledge: Martha Kneale and A. Phillips Griffiths discuss the nature of knowledge.
  Accompanying essay by Mona Simion.  
• Perception: Rodney Hirst and Alan White discuss perception.
  Accompanying essay by Ian Phillips. 
• Free Will: Geoffrey Warnock and psychologist B. F. Skinner discuss free will and determinism.
  Accompanying essay by Daniel C. Dennett.  
• Time: Bernard Williams and physicist Dennis Sciama discuss time from the perspectives of philosophy and physics.
  Accompanying essay by Craig Bourne and Emily Caddick Bourne. Accompanying video with Anna Alexandrova, Huw Price and Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees. 
• Wittgenstein and Universals: Stephan Körner and Renford Bambrough discuss Wittgenstein’s treatment of the problem of universals.
  Accompanying essay by Fraser Macbride. 
• Personal Identity: Sidney Shoemaker and Hywell Lewis discuss the question of identity. Accompanying essay by Amy Kind.

In the video on this page, Professor Emeritus Stuart Brown discusses with Derek Matravers how these videos came to be made and the early days of Philosophy at the Open University.