How do we know what it is to be good?

Our moral intuitions are so strong that they can seem like simple truths. But our present political and cultural tumult make it plain that agreeing on ‘goodness’ is anything but a simple matter. Philosophers have been musing, disagreeing and investigating this question for thousands of years and it is one which particularly exercised the ancient Greeks. It’s a question that has implications both for the nature of reality – is goodness real, ‘out there’, something to be discovered? – and for the way that we navigate our personal relationships and our lives as citizens. The exploration of goodness and its relationship with truth gets to the very heart of our humanity. Join Katja Vogt, a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, as she explores these fundamental issues in conversation with host Skye Cleary and acclaimed jazz pianist Jason Moran.

Katja Vogt

Speaker

Katja Vogt is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. She specialises in ethics, normative epistemology, and ancient philosophy. She is interested in questions that resonate both in ancient and contemporary discussions: What are values? What kind of values are knowledge and truth? Her published work includes Desiring the Good (2017), Ancient Skepticism (2024), and Law, Reason and the Cosmic City (2008). She is also an editor of the philosophy journal Noûs and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Philosophy, Apeiron, Dialogoi: Ancient Philosophy Today, and Rhizomata.

Jason Moran

Artist

Jason Moran is a visionary American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. A MacArthur Genius Fellow and inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Moran resists easy categorisation and works across visual art, theatre and installation alongside his music innovation. He was artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center from 2011-2025, and has taught at the New England Conservatory since 2010. Moran is deeply invested in interrogating the relationship between music and language, and his extensive efforts in composition, improvisation, and performance are geared towards challenging the status quo. His multimedia tributes to Thelonious Monk, Fats Waller, and James Reese Europe have shifted the jazz paradigm. Also a successful visual artist, his debut solo exhibition opened at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2018 and travelled to four museums, including the Whitney in New York.

Jason can be found on instagram at @thejasonmoran

Skye Cleary

Host

Skye Cleary is a philosopher, DJ, and author of How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment, Existentialism and the Authentic Life, Existentialism and Romantic Love, and How to Live a Good Life. Skye is a Thinking Partner with Philosophy at Work and her writing has featured in leading publications including Aeon, Psyche, The Paris Review, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Wall Street Journal. Her philosophical interests span from the philosophy of love and sex, to that of leadership, management, and ethics: she teaches these at Columbia University.

Skye can be found on Instagram at @skye_cleary and LinkedIn.