Jesus’s Parables
Drawing on John Dominic Crossan’s The Power of Parable, mainly ch. 3 (2012), Paul Ricoeur’s “Listening to the Parables of Jesus” (1974), and Paul Tillich’s The New Being, ch. 1: “To Whom Much Is Forgiven…” (1955). Are these weird stories riddles, where if you figure out what they mean you get salvation? Are they homilies, telling you to go be like the Good Samaritan? Crossan says they’re prote...
2hr 24m Apr 06, 2015
2hr 24m
Ricoeur on Interpreting Religion
On Paul Ricoeur’s “The Critique of Religion” and “The Language of Faith” (1973). Last episode taught us about hermeneutics, but how can this best be applied to the text for which hermeneutics was originally developed, i.e. the Bible? For Ricoeur, it’s a two-way street: We need to change our understanding of the text (i.e. read it historically, recognizing for example that it was common to myth...
2hr 9m Mar 16, 2015
2hr 9m
Gadamer’s Hermeneutics: How to Interpret
On Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Truth and Method (1960, ch. 4), “Aesthetics and Hermeneutics” (1964), “The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem” (1966), and “Hermeneutics as Practical Philosophy” (1972). Hemeneutics is all about interpretation, primarily of texts, but of other things too, and Gadamer thinks that even if we learn all about the history and customs and probable authorial mindset of ...
2hr 21m Mar 02, 2015
2hr 21m
Close Reading (Preview) - Heidegger on Truth
Mark Linsenmayer and Seth Paskin read and interpret Martin Heidegger’s essay “On the Essence of Truth” (1943), first half. This is a 17-minute preview of a two-hour, 38-minute bonus recording, which you can purchase at partiallyexaminedlife.com/store or get for free with PEL Citizenship (see partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership). You can also purchase it at iTunes Store: Search for “Partially ...
17m Feb 23, 2015
17m
Whitehead Aftershow (Preview) with Stephen West
Stephen West of the Philosophize This! podcast returns to host the Aftershow for PEL episode #110 on Alfred North Whitehead. In this preview you’ll hear Stephen, Dylan Casey (who has a lot to say about process philosophy and science), and David Buchanan (guest from our Pirsig episode and PEL blogger). Later in the conversation they were also joined by Amough Sahu. This is a 20-minute preview o...
19m Feb 22, 2015
19m
Close Reading (Preview) - Kant on the Sublime
Mark Linsenmayer and Wes Alwan read and interpret Kant’s Critique of Judgment, sections 23-25. This is a 13-minute preview of a 72-minute bonus recording, which you can purchase at partiallyexaminedlife.com/store or get for free with PEL Citizenship (see partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership). You can also purchase it at iTunes Store: Search for “Partially Examined Kant Sublime.” A Close Readi...
14m Feb 16, 2015
14m
Whitehead on Nature
Whitehead thinks that old-timey metaphysics wrongly insists that what’s fundamental in the world to be studied by science is things (substance) moving around in space and time. We don’t actually experience any such thing as “substance,” so on this view we end up with an uncrossable gap between the world of our experience and that of science. Whitehead wants us to start instead with what we expe...
2hr 17m Feb 02, 2015
2hr 17m
Jaspers Aftershow
Stephen West of the Philosophize This! podcast hosts a new PEL offering: An Aftershow to a PEL episode, in this case #109 on Karl Jaspers. Hear questions and comments from super-smart PEL listeners, Stephen, and Mark Linsenmayer. What does Jaspers mean by “transcendence?” Do you buy the claim that science doesn’t give you a world-view? What is a world-view anyway? What are the “limits of reaso...
20m Feb 01, 2015
20m
Jaspers’s Existentialism with guest Paul Provenza
On Karl Jaspers’s “On My Philosophy” (1941), featuring comedian/actor/director/author Paul Provenza. What’s the relationship between science and philosophy? What about religion? Jaspers thinks that science gives you facts, but for an overarching world-view, you need philosophy. Living such a world-view requires Existenz, or a leap towards transcendence, which is of course religion’s stock and ...
2hr 1m Jan 19, 2015
2hr 1m
Precognition of Ep. 110: Whitehead
Mark Linsenmayer outlines Alfred North Whitehead’s book The Concept of Nature (1920) on the relation between experience and science, and how to think about space, time, and objects. Watch for the full discussion to be released in a couple of weeks.Go to the blog: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/01/19/precognition-of-ep-110-whitehead/#whitehead #nature #process #events #ontology
13m Jan 19, 2015
13m
Dangers of A.I. with Guest Nick Bostrom
On Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, and Strategies (2014) with the author, a philosophy professor at Oxford. Just grant the hypothetical that machine intelligence advances will eventually produce a machine capable of further improving itself, and becoming much smarter than we are. Put aside the question of whether such a being could in principle be conscious or self-conscious or have a soul ...
1hr 42m Jan 06, 2015
1hr 42m
Precognition of Jaspers on Existenz
Mark Linsenmayer introduces Jaspers’s essay, “On My Philosophy” (1941) on Existenz and the difference between philosophy, science, and religion. Watch for the full discussion to be released in a couple of weeks.Go to the blog: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/01/05/precognition-of-ep-109-karl-jaspers/#Philosophy #Jaspers #Existentialism #Transcendence #Reason #Provenza
11m Jan 05, 2015
11m
Edmund Burke on the Sublime
On A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1756), parts I, II, and his later intro essay, “On Taste.” Are people’s tastes basically the same? Burke says yes: they’re rooted in our common reactions to pain and pleasure, those two are not opposites, but simply quite different properties, each associated with a different set of responses. When we are aes...
2hr 15m Dec 20, 2014
2hr 15m
The 12 Interminable Days of Xmas: A Musical Extravaganza
Mark Lint and the PEL Orchestra present the longest, slowest, biggest, fattest, most surreal Christmas carol ever. First Mark explains for a minute what this is (you can read it here), then off we go on a long, strange trip, with different verses of the holiday classic arranged in styles from baroque to folk to metal to disco. Featuring Jonathan Segel (from Camper Van Beethoven; jonathansegel...
1hr 28m Dec 20, 2014
1hr 28m
Pyrrhonian Skepticism According to Sextus Empiricus
On Outlines of Pyrrhonism , Book 1, from around 200 CE. Are our beliefs warranted? Skeptics following in the footsteps of Pyrrho (who lived just after Aristotle, around 300 BCE, but didn’t leave us any writings, so Sextus, centuries later, has to fill us in) think that for any argument someone puts forward (at least about the nature of reality), you can come up with a plausible counter-argumen...
1hr 56m Dec 04, 2014
1hr 56m
Kant: What Is Beauty?
On Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790), Pt. 1, Book 1. Kant thinks that finding something beautiful is different than merely liking it. It’s a certain kind of liking, not dependent on your idiosyncratic tastes (like your preference for one color or flavor or tone over another) or on your moral opinions. He wants these judgments to be subjective in the sense that they’re not about the o...
2hr Nov 15, 2014
2hr
Robert Nozick's Libertarianism
On Anarchy, State & Utopia (1974), ch. 1-3 and 7. What moral limits should we put on government power? Nozick thinks that the only legitimate functions of government are protection and enforcement of contracts. Contra Rawls, Nozick’s “entitlement” version of justice doesn’t look at income inequality or any other pattern of holdings, but only at whether holdings were legitimately obtained, e.g....
2hr 2m Oct 27, 2014
2hr 2m
Thoreau on Living Deliberately
On Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854). What is the appropriate life for a truly thoughtful person? Thoreau warns against getting ensnared by social bullshit like jobs and charity, and instead living simply, in direct contact with nature, relying as much as possible only on your own effort. His time in the woods on Walden pond was meant to be an experiment to see what life lived this way reall...
1hr 49m Oct 13, 2014
1hr 49m
Precognition of Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia
Seth Paskin introduces Anarchy, State, and Utopia about libertarianism and the limits of legitimate government power. Watch for the full discussion to be released in a couple of weeks.#nozick #anarchy #state #utopia #justice
12m Oct 12, 2014
12m
Emerson on Wisdom and Individuality
On Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The American Scholar” lecture (1837) and his essays “Self-Reliance” and “Circles” (1841). How should we live? Emerson thinks that conformity, which includes most of what passes for ethics, jobs, and scholarship, makes us less than truly human. Be true to yourself! But since we’re all ever-changing, that’s a moving target, right? But Emerson thinks that when you get re...
2hr 6m Sep 20, 2014
2hr 6m
Maimonides on God
On Guide for the Perplexed (1168). What is God? Central to Judaism, at least, is the idea that He’s a unity: “God is One.” Maimonides thinks that this means you can’t attribute properties to God at all. Why? Because (according to M’s Aristotelian metaphysics, anyway) size, color, spatial and temporal location, mental state, etc. are really parts of a thing. Unity = no parts = no properties, no...
1hr 41m Sep 01, 2014
1hr 41m
Plato’s Symposium Live Celebration!
Mark, Seth, Wes, Dylan, and Philosophy Bro walk a live audience through Plato’s dialogue about love, sex, self-improvement, and ancient Greek pederasty. You can also choose to watch this on video. (go to blog for link) Is love just a feeling, or does it make the world go ’round? Does love make you better, or make you weak? What’s the difference between good love and bad love (and is any love b...
2hr 28m Aug 15, 2014
2hr 28m
Looking Back on 100 Discussions and 5+ Years
What have we learned? How has our take on the PEL project changed? What are our future plans? On the eve before our big live-in-front-of-an-audience ep. 100, we four sat down in Dylan’s living room together (with recurrent guest Daniel Horne to provide some semi-outisder perspective) to reflect on what we’ve been doing here. Folks new to PEL may want to listen to any other PEL episode before l...
1hr 49m Aug 11, 2014
1hr 49m
Guest Michael Sandel on the Limits of Markets
On his book What Money Can’t Buy: the Moral Limits of Markets (2012), and also bringing Sandel into the discussion begun without him in our last episode about his first book, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Free economic transactions are supposed to benefit both the buyer and the seller, so why not allow prostitution, vote buying, pay-to-immigrate, selling ad space on your house or body,...
1hr 28m Jul 26, 2014
1hr 28m
Michael Sandel on Social Justice and the Self
On his book Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982), mostly ch. 1 & 4. Classical liberalism from Locke to Rawls focuses on rights as primary: a good government is one that protects people from violations of their rights, and that’s what social justice amounts to, though of course, there’s some disagreement about what counts as a “right.” Sandel thinks that there’s a idea about the self be...
1hr 45m Jul 19, 2014
1hr 45m
Oppenheimer and the Rhetoric of Science Advisers
Discussing Lynda Walsh’s book Scientists as Prophets: A Rhetorical Genealogy (2013) with the author, focusing on Robert J. Oppenheimer. We also read a speech from 1950 he gave called “The Encouragement of Science.” What is the role of the science adviser? Should scientists just “stick to the facts,” or can only someone with technical knowledge make decisions about what to actually do? After le...
2hr 5m Jul 01, 2014
2hr 5m
Gödel on Math
On Kurt Gödel’s essays, “Some Basic Theorems on the Foundations of Mathematics and their Implications” (1951) and “The Modern Development of the Foundations of Mathematics in Light of Philosophy” (1961). Gödel is famous for some “incompleteness theorems” of direct interest only to those trying to axiomatize mathematics. What are the implications for the rest of philosophy? Gödel thought that, ...
1hr 50m Jun 16, 2014
1hr 50m
Precognition of Oppenheimer’s Rhetoric
Guest Lynda Walsh describes her book Scientists as Prophets: A Rhetorical Genealogy, focusing on J. Robert Oppenheimer’s conflicted position after WWII as science advisor and anti-nuke spokesman.#Oppenheimer #Rhetoric #Science #Prophets
12m Jun 07, 2014
12m
Schopenhauer on Reading, Writing and Thinking - Partially Examined Life
On Arthur Schopenhauer’s essays, “On Authorship and Style,” “On Thinking for Oneself,” and “On Genius” (all published 1851). Is the best way to do philosophy (or any art) to self-consciously build on the work of others to advance the genre? Schopenhauer says no! Geniuses are solitary, original, authentic, naive thinkers. They write because they have something to say, not because they’re being ...
1hr 39m May 23, 2014
1hr 39m
Precognition of Gödel on Math
Guest Adi Habbu lays out Kurt Gödel’s famous incompleteness theorems and describes some highlights from “Some Basic Theorems on the Foundations of Mathematics and their Implications” (1951) and “The Modern Development of the Foundations of Mathematics in Light of Philosophy” (1961).#Gödel #Incompleteness #Math #Habbu #Goedel #GodelGo to the blog: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2014/05/22/...
9m May 22, 2014
9m
Strawson (vs Strawson) on Free Will - Partially Examined Life
On P.F. Strawson’s “Freedom and Resentment” (1960), Galen Strawson’s “The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility” (1994), and Gary Watson’s “Responsibility and the Limits of Evil: Variations on a Strawsonian Theme” (1987). Do we ordinarily act with the right kind of freedom so that blame is justified? Galen Strawson says no: our choices stem from our character, which is not something we chose (...
1hr 36m May 03, 2014
1hr 36m
Bergson on Metaphysics - Partially Exmained Life
On “An Introduction to Metaphysics” (1903) How does metaphysics differ from science? While Kant had dismissed metaphysics as groundless speculation about things beyond human knowledge, Bergson sees it as a matter of grasping things “from the inside.” He calls this “intuition”: the kind of understanding we have of our own inner lives. If you try to describe this with concepts or images, you fal...
1hr 38m Apr 12, 2014
1hr 38m
Precognition of Ep. 93: Free Will (via Strawsons)
Guest Tamler Sommers (from the Very Bad Wizards podcast) summarizes Galen Strawson’s “The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility” (1994) and his father P.F. Strawson’s “Freedom and Resentment” (1960).#freewill #tamler #sommers #strawson #philosophy
14m Apr 08, 2014
14m
Transhumanism and Response to Brin - Partially Examined Life
Continuing discussion of David Brin’s novel Existence (without him) and adding Nick Bostrom’s essay “Why I Want to Be a Posthuman When I Grow Up” (2006). Are our present human capabilities sufficient for meeting the challenges our civilization will face? Should we devote our technology to artificially enhancing our abilities, or would that be a crime against nature, a God-play that would proba...
1hr 32m Mar 29, 2014
1hr 32m
Brin on Sci-Fi and Philosophy - Partially Examined Life
Discussing David Brin’s novel Existence (2012) with the author. What’s the point of thinking? Brin sees the future as a pressing threat, and Existence speculates that the reason we don’t see evidence of life on other planets is that no species survives its technological adolescence. The solution? We need to be smarter than our parents and work to give our kids the tools to be smarter than we a...
1hr 34m Mar 26, 2014
1hr 34m
Precognition of Ep. 90: Sci-Fi and Philosophy with David Brin
Introductory salvo by Mark Linsenmayer before our interview with author David Brin.
8m Mar 25, 2014
8m
Precognition of Episode 92: Bergson on Metaphysics
Guest Matt Teichman (from the Elucidations podcast) introduces Bergson’s essay “An Introduction to Metaphysics"#bergson #teichman #metaphysicsGo to the blog: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2014/03/20/precognition-of-ep-92-henri-bergson/
16m Mar 20, 2014
16m
Berkeley on Ideas - Partially Examined Life
On Bishop George Berkeley’s Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (1713). While only a goon would deny the real existence of things like tables and chairs, does “real” existence have to mean existence as matter, i.e. as something that could exist in the absence of any mind to think about it? Berkeley says no! Tables and chairs are ideas! But not just my ideas, or yours, as they obviously...
1hr 33m Mar 12, 2014
1hr 33m
Not School Digest: Sartre, Heidegger, Zizek, Marx, and Theater
"Excerpts from PEL podcaster & listener discussions on Sartre’s Nausea, Heidegger’s “The Question Concerning Technology,” Slavoj Zizek’s Year of Dreaming Dangerously, Marx and Engels’s “Communist Manifesto,” Peter Schaffer’s play Equus, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form. Plus an interview with Hillary Sydlowski, leader of the Not School Introductory Readings in ...
1hr 9m Mar 01, 2014
1hr 9m
Partially Examined Life Not School Digest #4: Sartre, Heidegger, Zizek, Marx, and Theater
Excerpts from discussions on Sartre's Nausea, Heidegger's "The Question Concerning Technology," Slavoj Zizek's Year of Dreaming Dangerously, Marx and Engels's "Communist Manifesto," Peter Schaffer's play Equus, and Cormac McCarthy's The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form.
1hr 9m Mar 01, 2014
1hr 9m
Precognition of Ep. 90: David Brin on Sci-Fi & Philosophy
Mark Linsenmayer frames our upcoming discussion with sci-fi author David Brin about his 2012 novel Existence.#brin #scifi #existenceGo to the blog: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2014/02/24/precognition-90-david-brin/
8m Feb 24, 2014
8m
Anscombe on Moral Language - Partially Examined Life
On Elizabeth Anscombe’s “Modern Moral Philosophy” (1958), Intention sections 22-27 (1957), and “War and Murder” (1961). No, Anscombe thinks that our moral language was developed in a theistic context, and without a law-giver, the idea of a moral law or obligation doesn’t make sense. However, we can debate about what actions display “justice,” whether some action is “harmful,” whether some task...
1hr 47m Feb 18, 2014
1hr 47m
Precognition of Episode 89: Berkeley's Three Dialogues
Listen to Wes Alwan’s introduction and summary for George Berkeley’s Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. Read more about the topic and get the text at partiallyexaminedlife.com.#berkeley #idealism #epistemologyGo to the blog: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2014/02/18/precognition89-berkeley/
21m Feb 18, 2014
21m
Precognition of Ep. 89: Berkeley’s Idealism
Wes Alwan introduces George Berkeley's Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous.
31m Feb 18, 2014
31m
Episode 88: G.E.M. Anscombe: Should We Use Moral Language?
On Elizabeth Anscombe’s “Modern Moral Philosophy” (1958), Intention sections 22-27 (1957), and “War and Murder” (1961). No, Anscombe thinks that our moral language was developed in a theistic context,...Read more »
1hr 47m Feb 18, 2014
1hr 47m
Precognition of Ep. 88: G.E.M. Anscombe
Guest Philosophy Bro introduces Elizabeth Anscombe's "Modern Moral Philosophy," and Intention sections 22-27.
10m Jan 18, 2014
10m
Precognition of Episdoe 88: Anscombe on Morality
Special guest Philosophy Bro introduces us to Elizabeth Anscombe’s essay “Modern Moral Philosophy” and her book Intention (sections 22-27).#anscombe #philosophybro #moralityGo to the blog: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2014/01/18/precognition-88-anscombe/
10m Jan 18, 2014
10m
Table read of Sartre's "No Exit" with Lucy Lawless and Jaime Murray
In support of our upcoming ep. #87 on Sartre, the PEL Players present our 2nd annual dramatic reading of a work of philosophical theater. Mark Linsenmayer and Wes Alwan are joined by real actresses Lucy Lawless (Xena, Battlestar Galactica, Parks & Recreation, etc.) and Jaime Murray (Defiance, Dexter, Warehouse 13, etc.), who are pals through working together on Spartacus. Warning: This is a c...
1hr 27m Jan 02, 2014
1hr 27m
Episode 87: Sartre on Freedom and Self-Deception
On Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Existentialism is a Humanism” (1946), “Bad Faith” (pt. 1, ch. 2 of Being & Nothingness, 1943), and his play No Exit (1944)....Read more »
1hr 56m Jan 01, 2014
1hr 56m
Thomas Kuhn on Scientific Progress - Partially Examined Life
On The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, published mostly in 1962. Does scientific knowledge simply accumulate as we learn more and more, coming closer and closer to a full and truthful picture of the world? Kuhn says no! Instead, each scientific sub-culture has its own “paradigm,” or model for what constitutes legitimate science, which includes what problems to study, what to counts as a r...
1hr 28m Dec 24, 2013
1hr 28m