Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A philosopher promoting public understanding of philosophy, applying ancient Greek insights to help people lead flourishing lives.
On the island
Eight records
Patty Smith Because the Night. Now this came out while I was at Sixth Horn College at Colliers in Horsham in West Sussex. And I adore dancing. I never get a chance these days, and even when I do, my fifteen-year-old daughter forbids it. I shall dance on this island with great relish, but I used to dance it a lot at school and university. And I'm playing this for all those who remember what we used to quaintly call discos in Lower Beading Village Hall, circa 1978.
Ah, now, my first musical memories are of my father singing to me. He had a lovely voice, and he used to get in at seven fifteen every evening from London and come straight up and sing to me. … There was a lot of Marlene Diesrecht I remember, a lot of musicals, but what I particularly remember are the ballads and the folk songs. And of all the ballads that I remember, Comin' Through the Rye is the one I remember most. And this is a beautiful new recording, commissioned specially for Desert Island discs.
Botham's Ashes – Headingley 1981 (Compilation)
Brian Johnston and Henry Blofeld (commentary)
Oh, yes. Now, cricket. I adore cricket, and the test match special team over the years are my sort of constant companions. My whole family adored cricket, including my mother. Now, this was Headingly 81. This is the ashes when Botham's heroics rested a seemingly lost Testmatch back. Now, I was actually playing a game called Stewball at the time. I was vice captain of Surrey under 22 for a while. And I was fielding on the boundary and this match was going on and everybody had their car doors open. I was listening to the commentary. So as I was fielding, I remember hearing all the cheers and hoping that the ball didn't come my way so I could continue listening to the commentary.
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 – II. AllegrettoFavourite
Well, this is just quite simply my favorite piece of music by my favorite composer, and this is my favorite movement in it. It is absolutely beautiful and will lift me on my desert island.
Oh, yes. Naples introduced me to many things. It's a wonderful, pulsating, vibrant city. … I shared a flat with two other teachers who introduced me to jazz and blues and all sorts of stuff. So this next record is me being twenty three, utterly carefree, let loose in this extraordinary city where you felt that anything could happen and it often did.
Yes, well, again, I mean, I grew up dancing to the stones, and as well as the raucous brown sugar kind of dancing, there's also the romantic stones, the lyrical stones. … At these discos in Lower Beading Village Hall and the like, there would always be a slow song second from the end. It would be something like what we're about to hear, and everybody would start smooching, and then they would have something with the lights up to get everybody out of the corners at the end. And both then and in later years, this song has very particular romantic associations for me.
Ah, well now, I love the poet troubadours, uh, Cohen and Dylan. … We've been talking about the importance of intimacy, and Cohen to me is the poet of intimacy. And I love Cohen because he loves older women. And this is the most beautiful, sensuous, private soul.
Ah now well, of course, after my few weeks of utter peace and resting, I do want to be rescued. But if I have to see out my days on this desert island, then this utterly sublime piece by Talis can see me out.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:44What do you think are the key components to a flourishing life?
Oh, well I think for most people a bit of uh reflection is helpful about the kind of ends or goals that you want to achieve and the best means of getting there. … I think there's a really key difference between the notion of a flourishing life, which we might get from the ancient Greek word eudaimonia, and the notion of happiness. Happiness is quite a subjective concept about how you feel today. We can't always feel happy, but we can aim to try to flourish, even at those periods of our lives when we're not feeling so happy. So of course you want love. You want romantic love, erotic love, you want love for your children and friends, satisfying work. You want to do your little bit to make the world a better place.
Presenter asks
3:02Do you think philosophy is relevant to people in the twenty-first century?
Of course, otherwise I wouldn't be doing my job. I mean, think of all the problems we've got in the world at the moment to do with what money is for. How can we make and spend and invest money in so that it serves the greater good as well as our own? The relation between fairness and equality. What does it mean to possess physical or mental health? I don't think we're doing so well without using philosophy. I think it's worth giving it a try.
Presenter asks
16:02What effect did your sister's death have on you at the time?
The keepsakes
The book
The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
W. B. Yeats
I love learning poetry by heart. It's one of the things from my school days I'm really grateful for. And I'm hoping that with some time to reflect, I'll uncover some of the layers of complexities in some of the poems.
The luxury
a harp with teach-yourself harp books and replacement strings
I would love a harp, and I'd like lots of teach-yourself harp books and lots of replacement strings.
It was um … It was an extraordinary day. I mean, I I was going to go and kiss her good morning, and I remember being told not to go into her bedroom because she had a cold. And I can remember listening outside the door and hearing her breathing, and somehow I just knew. … I just knew that she was dying. I don't know how I knew, but I did. … I couldn't deal with it at that time. I took our new puppy out for a walk. I didn't want to be in the house when she died. And I remember knowing, or feeling I knew, the exact second when she died. … I went back a few minutes later and she had just died. And yes, the house did become quiet then. … no, not for a few months.
Presenter asks
17:24Would you say that the compulsion to make the most of life is a profound effect of having lived with your sister?
I'm sure it's a factor. It wasn't at all a morbid household, but … I was just very, very aware of the fragility and finitude of life. Not just the fact it's going to end, but how vulnerable we all are. And how we all need help. … my sister clearly needed help, but I'm very aware that everybody, all of us, me included, we all need help.
Presenter asks
27:23How central is love to your life, and is there space for it given how hard you work?
Well, I separated from my daughter's father about three years ago, after over twenty years, and I hope there is going to be space for love. There have been some dates. I'm very hopeful that a romantic life will be possible over fifty. I'm an optimist. So let's see what the future holds.
“Happiness is quite a subjective concept about how you feel today. We can't always feel happy, but we can aim to try to flourish, even at those periods of our lives when we're not feeling so happy.”
“I'm very aware that we're only on this planet for a very short amount of time. So I'm very conscious of mortality. Not in a morbid, gloomy way. I'm quite a happy person, but we're not here for long and I want to crack on.”
“This is one of my main arguments for wanting to get philosophy into primary schools. Because by the time children start being targeted by various groups, whether they're gang-related or related to some kind of religious or political extremism, that can happen quite young, ten, eleven, twelve. When that starts to happen, you already want to have good habits of reasoning and thinking in place to help protect children against various forms of indoctrination.”
“I never tell people what they should be thinking or how they should be living, because nobody likes to be told how to live, least of all me. So I would never do that. I make suggestions and I issue invitations about you might want to go through these doors, you might want to consider these ideas, this way of looking at things.”
“Often the people at the very top of the company are the ones most engaged because they've gone through their career ladder. They're sort of rich, successful, and 50, and they're thinking, what do I do now with my life? And how can I use what I've done, you know, for some bigger purposes?”