Jonathan Wolff: valuing life, philosophy, COVID, disability models, society of equals, musical performance, life advice

Ben Yeoh Chats

Jonathan Wolff is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy. Before he was Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Arts and Humanities at UCL. He is currently developing a new research programme on revitalising democracy and civil society. His other current work concerns equality, disadvantage, social justice and poverty, as well as applied topics such as public safety, disability, gambling, and the regulation of recreational drugs. He has had a long-standing interest in health and health promotion, including questions of justice in health care resource allocation, the social determinants of health, and incentives and health behaviour. He writes a regular column on higher education for The Guardian.

We discuss how to value life and the relevance to public policy for healthcare, and Jo’s initial interest stemming from work on railway safety.

Jo gives insights in how disability studies informed his philosophy and how behind the curve political philosophy was last century and apologises on behalf of political philosophy.

Jo is concerned over vaccine equity and we discuss what role and duty biopharmaceutical companies have and who should pay for vaccines.

Jo outlines his aspiration and idea of a society of equals,

Jo rates multiculturalism, direct democracy, Adam Smith, the future of the city, cryptocurrencies and pronouns.

We chat about the philosophy of musical performance seen through the lens of music therapy.

We end talking about what a productive day looks like and his advice for young people.

This sums up to:

• Be Kind,
• Think in other people’s shoes,
• Think of where your power and privilege comes from, and,
• Study subjects that interest you

Transcript and video are available here.