Philosophy bites...not

I've stumbled across a rather interesting and definitely useful site: Philosophy Bites. Unlike the occurrence of the word 'bites' in this post's title, which functions as a slang verb, the word's occurrence in that site's title functions as a slang noun. The QuickTime audio "bites" are clear, responsible, easily digestible introductions to how contemporary, English-speaking philosophers, in dialogue with the humble but well-educated hosts, approach the range of perennial issues in the discipline.

Most readers of this blog will not, of course, agree with a lot of the philosophers recorded at PB. I sure don't. For that matter, literate people in general would not agree either with or about a lot of the philosophers recorded at PB. That's good: if things were otherwise, we wouldn't be dealing with philosophy. But one bite that I particularly like is on free will.

Its main speaker is Dr. Thomas Pink, Reader in Philosophy at King's College, London. He's an active, committed, orthodox Catholic. And in good philosophical fashion, what he says about free will is perfectly compatible with Catholicism without ever relying on it for premises. To me as a Catholic, that's precisely the sort of thing that makes philosophy useful. Getting things right philosophically is what enables intelligent Catholics to communicate with intelligent people in the secular world about God and man without appeals that would, in the view of such people, just beg questions.