The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast (podcast episodes)
The Partially Examined Life is a podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a short text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion. For links to the texts we discuss and other info, check out www.partiallyexaminedlife.com. We also feature episodes from other podcasts by our hosts to round out your partially examined life, including Pretty Much Pop (prettymuchpop.com, covering all media), Nakedly Examined Music (nakedlyexaminedmusic.com, deconstructing songs), Philosophy vs. Improv (philosophyimprov.com, fun with performance skills and philosophical ideas), and (sub)Text (subtextpodcast.com, looking deeply at lit and film). Learn about more network podcasts at partiallyexaminedlife.com.
Mark, Wes, and Dylan discuss the interview with John in part one on Seeing Things as They Are: A Theory of Perception (2015) and try to sketch out the view and its potential problems in a little more detail. Doesn't Searle's idea of a "direct presentation" constitute an intermediary between us and things, no matter what he says? And likewise, if we have to construct the complex wholes that we actually perceive including all their cultural effluvia out of basic perceptions, what story can Searle tell that's really different from the constructivist views involving sense data that he's arguing against?
Direct download: PEL_ep_138pt2_4-6-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 7:00am CDT

We interview John about Seeing Things As They Are (2015). What is perception? Searle says that it's not a matter of seeing a representation, which is then related to things in the real world. We see the actual objects, with no mediation. But then how can there be illusions? Well, it's complicated, but not too complicated, just some funny terminology that this episode will teach you.

Searle lays out his theory for us and amusingly dismisses much of the history of philosophy in the first half, and then Mark, Wes, and Dylan continue the discussion to make sure we understood what was just said and chase down some threads of the conversation.

End song: "Flesh and Blood" from The MayTricks' Happy Songs Will Bring You Down (1994).

We interview John about Seeing Things As They Are (2015). What is perception? Searle says that it's not a matter of seeing a representation, which is then related to things in the real world. We see the actual objects, with no mediation. But then how can there be illusions? Well, it's complicated, but not too complicated, just some funny terminology that this episode will teach you.

Direct download: PEL_ep_138_4-6-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 7:00am CDT

Continuing on Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1979) with guest rock star Tim Quirk. More on Bourdieu's survey of musical tastes: People use tastes to distinguish themselves and assert social superiority. The Kantian, upper-class, art-for-art's-sake paradigm of taste rules out joining in a mosh pit, but are the Kantian and social types of artistic abandon really so distinct?
Direct download: PEL_ep_137pt2_3-28-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 7:00am CDT

On Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1979), introduction, ch 1 through p. 63, conclusion, and postscript. How do our tastes in music, art, and everything else reflect our social position? This philosophically trained sociologist administered a few detailed questionnaires in 1960s France and used the resulting differences in what people in different classes preferred and how they talked about these preferences to theorize about the role that taste plays in our social games. Featuring guest Tim Quirk of Too Much Joy and recent guest on Mark's Nakedly Examined Music podcast #8

End song: "When She Took Off Her Shirt" from Tim's band Wonderlick's Topless At The Arco Arena (2005).

Direct download: PEL_ep_137_4-3-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 7:00am CDT

Continuing on Theodor Adorno's "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" (1944). We cover topics within art and entertainment like the role of style: You think you're being so original with your personal style, but Adorno sees you has having already been brainwashed into being a clone, so your "authentic" expression is anything but. Also, humor is not, as you might think, a way of bringing an audience together in solidarity, but is the "eruption of barbarism!" And sex in the popular culture: what a tease! Manufactured entertainment products can't even get tragedy right! They just condition us into accepting our crappy situation.
Direct download: PEL_ep_136pt2_3-6-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 7:00am CDT

On Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" from Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), plus Adorno's "Culture Industry Reconsidered" (1963). How does the entertainment industry affect us? Adorno (armed with Marx and Freud) thinks that our "mass culture" is imposed from the top down to lull us into being submissive workers.

End song: "All Too Familiar," from around 1992 with all instruments by Mark Linsenmayer, released on The MayTricks.

Direct download: PEL_ep_136_3-6-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 7:00am CDT

The last of our four releases on G.F.W. Hegel's Encyclopaedia Logic, this time giving Hegel's account of how Being supposedly leads, when you analyze the concept itself, to Nothingness, and then Becoming, Quality, and Quantity. And we also get Infinity in there, which is nice. End song: "Flow' by Gary Lucas with Mark Lint (2016). Listen to Mark interview Gary on Nakedly Examined Music.
Direct download: PEL_ep_135pt2_2-23-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 7:00am CDT

A whole second discussion on G.F.W. Hegel's Encyclopedia Logic, hitting sections 78–99 on the dialectic and Understanding vs. Reason. Hegel thinks we can use Reason to objectively come up with basic metaphysical categories, but can we really? With guest Amogh Sahu.

This continues ep. 134. PEL Citizens can listen to the Aftershow.

End song: "Flow" by Gary Lucas and Mark Lint. Listen to Gary interviewed about this instrumental on Nakedly Examined Music #7.

Direct download: PEL_ep_135_2-23-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 7:00am CDT

More on Hegel's The Science of Logic (1812–1816), §1–§129. We continue trying to make sense of Hegel's method and purpose: How does he think that we can deduce metaphysics? How would we even start? Hegel's view is that contra Kant, we do in fact come in contact with reality, at least when we think hard and systematically enough. And he's going to tell us how to do just that. With guest Amogh Sahu.
Direct download: PEL_ep_134pt2_2-16-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

On G.F.W. Hegel's The Science of Logic (1812–1816), §1–§129 and The Encyclopaedia Logic (1817) §1–§25. "Logic" for Hegel is about how thought interacts with the world. Our thoughts about fundamental metaphysical categories bear the same relations to each other as the the categories themselves do. Just take Hegel's many, many words for it! With guest Amogh Sahu.

End song: "Procrastination" by Steve Petrinko from The MayTricks' Happy Songs Will Bring You Down (1994). Hear Mark interview Steve on Nakedly Examined Music.

Direct download: PEL_ep_134_2-16-16.mp3
Category:Podcast Episodes -- posted at: 6:00am CDT