Mon, 27 June 2016
Socrates hangs out in the country flirting with his buddy Phaedrus. And what is this "Platonic" love? Using the enticement of desire not to rush toward fulfillment, but to get you all excited about talking philosophy. Socrates critiques a speech by renowned orator Lysias, who claimed that love is bad because it's a form of madness, where people do things they then regret after love fades. Socrates instead delivers a myth that shows the spiritual benefits of loving and being loved. With guest Adam Rose. End song: "Summertime" by New People, from Might Get It Right (2013). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. |
Mon, 20 June 2016
Concluding on Simone de Beauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947). The full discussion starts with ep. 140. We turn to political dilemmas: Embracing our freedom means willing the freedom of others, but what if the other person is (according to Beauvoir's formula) failing at freedom by oppressing you or someone else?
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Mon, 13 June 2016
More on The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), this time on part III. (For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here). Ep. 140 laid out man's "ambiguity," but what does that mean in terms of practical decision making? B. talks about the practical paradoxes of dealing with oppression and what it might mean to respect the individual, given that there's no ultimate, pre-existent moral rulebook to guide us, nothing we can point to to excuse the sacrifice of someone to a "greater good." Become a PEL Citizen to listen to the the Aftershow featuring Beauvoir scholar Jennifer Hansen. End song: "Indiscretion (Mess Things Up)" from the 1993 Mark Lint album Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses.
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Mon, 6 June 2016
Continuing on Simone de Beauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), parts I and II. For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here. We discuss all the various ways to fail to wholly will your own freedom, i.e., will it all the way to where you will the freedom of others. Will you be "sub-man" or "serious man" or "nihilist" or "adventurer?" There are many ways to fail the existential test! |