On the subject of the Philosophy Bites Interviews co-produced by: David Edmunds and Nigel Walburton:
(available on iTunes)
Interview tones: Mr. Walburton opens almost all of his interviews up by thanking the interviewee for being a guest. Many of the earlier interviewees seemed bemused but interested in giving the interview however towards the middle of the first 25 interviews the structure and tone of the interviews are consistent and the interviewees approach their interview in a more professional way.
Questioning methods: Nigel understands his field and asks pointed questions in an expert way. With each interview, after introducing the topic or subject, he turns to the interviewee and in most interviews asks what the interviewee understands by the topic in question. The purpose for this is to define the interviewee’s interpretations since there may be several interpretations or angles to ideas, and from there the interviewee is left to explain those ideas set the pace of the interview. At the end of one interview with Quentin Skinner on Hobbes, Mr. Walburton thanks Mr. Skinner for the interview and Skinner replies, “well Nigel thank you very much…they’re such perceptive questions you’ve helped me to make it easier than it should be to answer them”. This clearly shows his expert knowledge on the subject of Philosophy. However there are in some Nigel’s interviews leading questions. This may be to keep an interviewee from derailing the interview. Also there is one interview where some friendly disagreement occurs such as the interview with Tim Crane on ‘Mind and Body’ where he ‘presses’ Mr. Crane in a particular part of the interview.
Most of the interviews are poignant and thought provoking. The interviews mostly for posterity seems to evoke what could be called a ‘revivalist Philosophy movement’ due to there modern interview structure and appeal to pop culture.
Frank
