Great Lives Topics - Social philosophers

Social philosophers in all BBC programmes

Benedict Spinoza — Series 2

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Sir Harry Kroto chooses the philosopher Benedict Spinoza.

Release date:
29 Nov 2002
Buckminster Fuller — Series 21

TV producer John Lloyd discusses the life of American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller
Friedrich Nietzsche — Series 1

Cartoonist Ralph Steadman and translator Adam Czerniawski discuss the philosopher's life.

Release date:
14 Sep 2001
Hannah Arendt — Series 20

Munira Mirza discusses the life of the influential political philosopher Hannah Arendt.

Release date:
29 Dec 2009
HG Wells — Series 1

Writer Fay Weldon and biographer Vincent Brome discuss the life of the visionary novelist.

Release date:
12 Oct 2001
John Stuart Mill — Series 29

Matthew Parris and Max Mosley celebrate the life of John Stuart Mill.

Release date:
08 Jan 2013
Kurt Vonnegut and Josie Long — Series 50

Kurt Vonnegut on Kurt Vonnegut, with a little help from Josie Long

Release date:
14 Jan 2020
Marshall McLuhan — Series 1

Kim Henry Veltman joins director Jonathan Miller to discuss the Canadian writer on media.

Release date:
05 Oct 2001
Philip K Dick — Series 26

Michael Sheen champions Philip K Dick who has had an influence on his production of Hamlet

Release date:
06 Dec 2011
Simone de Beauvoir — Series 24

Actress Diana Quick selects philosopher Simone de Beauvoir for Great Lives.

Release date:
19 Apr 2011
Simon Evans on JS Mill — Series 46

Simon Evans nominates JS Mill, author of On Liberty.

Release date:
14 Aug 2018
Simone Weil — Series 22

Eleanor Bron discusses the life of French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil.
Thomas Hobbes — Series 26

Steven Pinker joins Matthew Parris to discuss the life of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes.
Tom Paine — Series 5

Writer and political activist George Monbiot chooses 18th-century revolutionary Tom Paine.

Release date:
23 Apr 2004