The philosopher Leo Strauss claimed that many of the great texts of Western philosophy can be read in two ways. There's the message intended for everybody, but also a deeper level, accessible only to those who can see it. Taking this as a starting point, Matthew Sweet grapples with the closed world of social media tribes, the challenges posed by conspiracy theory, and the history of thinking in allegorical symbols.With:Marianna Spring, the BBC's Disinformation CorrespondentLisa Bortolotti, Professor of Philosophy at the University of BirminghamDaniel Herskowitz, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Theology & Religion, University of OxfordHugh Cullimore, PhD student at the Warburg Institute

And Constantine Sandis, Director of Lex Academic discusses the shortlist for the 2024 Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy. The shortlisted books are:Chris Armstrong, Global Justice and the Biodiversity Crisis (Oxford University Press).Mazviita Chirimuuta, The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience (The MIT Press).Shannon Vallor, The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (Oxford University Press).

https://royalinstitutephilosophy.org/book-prize/

Producer: Luke Mulhall