Melvyn Bragg and guests chart 500 years of Western philosophy through its most influential ideas and theorists.

First aired in 1998, In Our Time has become one of Radio 4's most beloved and enduring shows, regularly attracting an audience of over 2 million. Each week, Melvyn Bragg and his panel of guest experts take part in an erudite, stimulating discussion on subjects ranging from the Peasants' Revolt to plate tectonics, taking the listener on a fascinating tour through a wonderland of ideas.

Collected in this special thematic anthology are 25 episodes showcasing notable individuals from Renaissance times to the present day who have transformed the way we think about the world. Included are philosophers such as Descartes, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Karl Marx, authors Albert Camus, Iris Murdoch, Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir, psychoanalyst Carl Jung and many other celebrated thinkers. Also featured are programmes on key philosophical themes, traditions and theories, among them existentialism, empiricism and feminism.

Both an essential resource for philosophy students and a treasure trove for knowledge-seekers, this wonderfully curated collection of thought-provoking programmes will captivate longtime fans of the flagship BBC show, and surprise and delight those who are coming to it for the first time.

Production credits

Presented by Melvyn Bragg

Produced by Natalia Fernandez, Thomas Morris, Simon Tillotson and Victoria Brignell

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:

Part I: Modern Philosophical Traditions

The Continental-Analytic Split 10 November 2011

Part II: Rationalism and Empiricism

Consciousness - 25 November 1999

Empiricism - 10 June 2004

Cogito Ergo Sum - 28 April 2011

Spinoza - 3 May 2007

Bishop Berkeley - 20 March 2014

David Hume - 6 October 2011

Part III: Existentialism

Existentialism - 28 June 2001

Schopenhauer - 29 October 2009

Kierkegaard - 20 March 2008

Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality - 12 January 2017

Camus - 3 January 2008

Part IV: Logic, Language and Science

Ordinary Language Philosophy - 7 November 2013

Jung - 2 December 2004

Bertrand Russell - 6 December 2012

Wittgenstein - 4 December 2003

Bergson and Time - 9 May 2019

Popper - 8 February 2007

Part V: Moral Philosophy

Virtue - 28 February 2002

Kant's Categorical Imperative - 21 September 2017

Mill - 18 May 2006

Simone Weil - 15 November 2012

Iris Murdoch - 21 October 2021

Part VI: Political Philosophy

The Social Contract - 7 February 2008

Machiavelli and the Italian City States - 9 December 2004

Hobbes - 1 December 2005

Rousseau on Education - 10 October 2019

Marx - 14 July 2005

Hannah Arendt - 2 February 2017

Part VII: Feminist Philosophy

Feminism - 7 January 1999

Mary Astell - 5 November 2020

Mary Wollstonecraft - 31 December 2009

Simone de Beauvoir - 22 October 2015