Location:
United States
Description:
What is a virtue and what is a sin? Is it possible to say that our actions are evil or good? Every age and culture have their own answers to these timeless questions. For example, in the Western Protestant tradition, the human body and its desire have been considered to be inherently evil, but that is not a position taken for granted in other cultures. Virtue and sin seem to represent a duality that is as old as humankind. This anthology explores how perceptions of virtues and sins have changed through history. The essays take ancient Greece and Rome as their starting point, move to the early Christian period from St Augustine to Dante, and then on to more recent philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche. The writers, Swedish as well as international researchers, also touch on everything from Confucian China and ancient India to self-help books, transhumanism and AI as well as the existence or non-existence of human rights. Duration - 6h 12m. Author - Katarina Barrling. Narrator - Justine Harris. Published Date - Tuesday, 06 January 2026.
Language:
English
Opening Credits
Duration:00:00:28
Introduction
Duration:00:02:14
Forging Virtue in the Furnace of Greece and Rome
Duration:00:19:32
Imperfect Virtues and Deadly Vices
Duration:00:20:59
How Sin Vanished and Virtue Was Privatised
Duration:00:23:36
An Enlightened Virtue: the Equality of the Species and the Abolition of Slavery
Duration:00:23:42
'Self-love and Social': Some Enlightenment Concepts of Human Nature and its Social Expression
Duration:00:25:28
Freedom's Paradox and the Price of Sin
Duration:00:22:31
Nietzsche and the Transformation of the Virtues
Duration:00:30:44
Confucianism and Filial Piety: When Political Loyalty Was Not a Civic Virtue
Duration:00:22:31
Belief and Belonging: Reflections on Virtue and Power
Duration:00:25:21
The Dharma King and the Liberated Sage
Duration:00:22:20
We Need Self-Help Books, but Self-Help Books Don't Help
Duration:00:25:05
Sins and Humans: How Individual Sin Shaped the Western Concept of a Person
Duration:00:21:33
Is Heroism in Combat Courageous? An Attempt to Answer Pope Francis with Virtue Ethics
Duration:00:23:02
Transhumanism and AI: the Ultimate Expression of Pride?
Duration:00:20:23
The Journey to Conservatism and a Diverse Sweden
Duration:00:43:00
Ending Credits
Duration:00:00:28