Fri, 22 March 2013
Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan share what drove them into philosophy and keeps them there. How is philosophy different than (or similar to) science? Than religion? Art? The consensus seems that philosophy, to us, is inevitable for the curious. It's just inquiry, unbounded (in principle at least) by any fixed assumptions. We did no formal reading for this discussion, but did tell each other to keep in mind Plato's "Apology." Get the full discussion at partiallyexaminedlife.com. |
Sat, 9 March 2013
We're joined by an international terrorism expert to discuss how to define terrorism and whether it can ever be ethical. With readings by Donald Black, J. Angelo Corlett, Igor Primoratz, Karl Heinzen, Bhagat Singh, and Carl von Clausewitz. Looking for the full Citizen version? |
Fri, 15 February 2013
On Buber's 1923 book about the fundamental human position: As children, and historically, we start fully absorbed in relation with another person (like mom). Before that, we have no self-consciousness, no "self" at all. It's only by having these consuming "encounters" that we gradually distinguish ourselves from other people, and can then engage in what we'd normally consider "experience," which Buber calls "the I-It relation." Buber thinks that unless we can keep connected to this "I-Thou" phenomenon, through mature relationships, art, and nature. With guest Daniel Horne. Get the full discussion at partiallyexaminedlife.com. |
Tue, 29 January 2013
On Karl Marx's The German Ideology, Part I, an early, unpublished work from 1846. What is human nature? What drives history? How can we improve our situation? Marx thought that fundamentally, you are what you do: you are your job, your means of subsistence. All the rest, this culture, this religion, this philosophy, is just a thin layer over our basic situation. Ideas are not primarily what changes the world; it's economics. Get the full discussion at partiallyexaminedlife.com. |
Sat, 12 January 2013
On Plato's Dialogue, "Gorgias" (380 BCE or so). Why philosophize? Isn't it better to know how to persuade people in practical matters, like a successful lawyer or business leader? Plato (via Socrates) thinks that the "art" of rhetoric isn't an art at all, in the sense of requiring an understanding of one's subject matter, but merely a talent for saying what people want to hear. Looking for the full Citizen version? |
Fri, 11 January 2013
Three podcasters and two listeners join to read Plato's fabulous dialogue.
Direct download: PEL_Players-Platos_Gorgias_pt1.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 11:16pm CDT |
Fri, 21 December 2012
On David Chalmers's book Constructing the World (2012). How are all the various truths about the world related to each other? David Chalmers, famous for advocating a scientifically respectable form of brain-consciousness dualism, advocates a framework of scrutability: if one knew some set of base truths, then the rest would be knowable from them. Get the full discussion at partiallyexaminedlife.com. |
Fri, 7 December 2012
On Rudolph Carnap's The Logical Structure of the World (1928). What can we know? Carnap thinks that all the various spheres of knowledge are logically interrelated, that you can translate sentences about any of these into sentences about sets of basic, momentary experiences. This book, aka the Aufbau, is his attempt to sketch out how this system of linguistic reduction can work (it doesn't). With guest Matt Teichman. Get the full discussion at partiallyexaminedlife.com.
Direct download: PREVIEW-PEL_ep_067_11-15-12.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 11:01am CDT |
Wed, 21 November 2012
On W.V.O. Quine's "On What There Is" (1948) and "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (1951). What kind of metaphysics is compatible with science? Quine sees science and philosophy as one and the same enterprise, and he objects to ontologies that include types of entities that science can't, even in principle, study. Also, troubles with the concept of synonymy, i.e. "same meaning." With guest Matt Teichman. Get the full discussion at partiallyexaminedlife.com. |
Thu, 8 November 2012
Our highlight reel in thanks to all you listeners who have brought us to the milestone of approximately two million downloads.
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