The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify patreon

You can also see them organized by topic. For episodes marked "Preview," you can access the full episode at our store, or you could become a PEL Citizen and get them from our Free Stuff for Citizens page.

View Ascending View Descending

Episode 186: J.L. Austin on Doing Things with Words (Part Two)

by 8 Comments

Continuing on How to Do Things with Words (lectures from 1955), covering lectures 5–9.

Austin tries and fails to come up with a way to grammatically distinguish performatives from other utterances, and so turns to his more complicated system of aspects of a single act: locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary. In doing so, he perlocutionarily blows our minds.

Listen to part one first, or get the ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at squarespace.com, offer code PEL. Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

Episode 186: J.L. Austin on Doing Things with Words (Part One)

by 2 Comments

On How to Do Things with Words (lectures from 1955).

What’s the relationship between language and the world? Austin says it’s not all about descriptive true-or-false statements, but also includes “performatives” like “I promise…” and “I do” (spoken in a wedding) that are actions unto themselves. They can’t be true or false, but they can be “unhappy” if social conventions aren’t fulfilled (e.g., you try to marry a pig). Austin thinks performatives will change your whole view of language and of linguistically expressed philosophical problems!

Don’t wait for part two! Get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition now! Please support PEL.

Sponsors: Visit Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED and thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

Episode 186: J.L. Austin on Doing Things with Words (Citizen Edition)

by 2 Comments

On How to Do Things with Words (lectures from 1955).

What’s the relationship between language and the world? Austin says it’s not all about descriptive true-or-false statements, but also includes “performatives” like “I promise…” and “I do” (spoken in a wedding) that are actions unto themselves. They can’t be true or false, but they can be “unhappy” if social conventions aren’t fulfilled (e.g., you try to marry a pig). Austin thinks performatives will change your whole view of language and of linguistically expressed philosophical problems!

End song: “The Promise” by When In Rome. Listen to Mark interview singer/songwriter Clive Farrington on Nakedly Examined Music #40.

Episode 185: Ethics in Homer’s “Odyssey” Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part Two)

by Leave a Comment

Continuing with Emily Wilson on her translation of the Greek epic poem. We discuss the oikos, or estate, built on violence, and its connection to xenia, or hospitality, which serves to forge military alliances. Also: status distinctions and the role of the gods in the text.

Listen to part one first, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Tiny Broken Boats” by Arrica Rose, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #66.

Sponsors: Get $25 off dog-walking at rover.com/partiallyexamined, promo code partiallyexamined. Get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at squarespace.com, offer code PEL. Try TextExpander’s snippets at textexpander.com/podcast and get 20% off your first year. Check out Seth Godin’s Akimbo podcast sethspodcast.com.

Episode 185: Ethics in Homer’s “Odyssey” Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part One)

by 2 Comments

On the classic Greek epic poem, written ca. 750 BC and translated by our guest Emily Wilson in 2018.

Does this story of “heroes” have anything to teach us about ethics? Wilson wrote an 80-page introduction to her new translation laying out the issues, including “hospitality” as a political tool, the value for status and identity of one’s home (including your family and slaves), and the tension between strangeness and familiarity. Can time and change really be undone?

Don’t wait for part 2! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED and thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Order Danny Lobell’s comic at fairenoughcomic.com.

Episode 185: Ethics in Homer’s “Odyssey” Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Citizen Edition)

by 2 Comments

On the classic Greek epic poem, written ca. 750 BC and translated by our guest Emily Wilson in 2018.

Does this story of “heroes” have anything to teach us about ethics? Wilson wrote an 80-page introduction to her new translation laying out the issues, including “hospitality” as a political tool, the value for status and identity of one’s home (including your family and slaves), and the tension between strangeness and familiarity. Can time and change really be undone?

End song: “Tiny Broken Boats” by Arrica Rose, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #66.

Episode 184: Pascal on Human Nature (Part Two)

by 3 Comments

Continuing on Pascal’s Pensées.

More on our human desire and how God is supposed to address that, plus Pascal’s views on political philosophy, the relation between faith, reason, and custom… and finally, the wager! Why not just be a skeptic? Is Pascal right that people suck?

Listen to part 1 first or get the unbroken, ad-free, Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

End song: “44 Days” by Dutch Henry, written and sung by Todd Long, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #34.

Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

Episode 184: Pascal on Human Nature (Part One)

by 5 Comments

On Blaise Pascal’s Pensées (1670).

Is it rational to have religious faith? You’re likely familiar with “Pascal’s Wager,” but our wretchedness is such that we can’t simply choose to believe and won’t be argued into it. Pascal thinks Christianity is the only religion to accurately describe the human condition.

Don’t wait for part 2! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit MUBI.com/PEL for 30 days of free curated movies and Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED.

Episode 184: Pascal on Human Nature (Citizen Edition)

by Leave a Comment

On Blaise Pascal’s Pensées (1670).

Is it rational to have religious faith? You’re likely familiar with “Pascal’s Wager,” but our wretchedness is such that we can’t simply choose to believe and won’t be argued into it. Pascal thinks Christianity is the only religion to accurately describe the human condition.

End song: “44 Days” by Dutch Henry, written and sung by Todd Long, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #34.

Episode 183: Mill on Liberty (Part Two)

by 5 Comments

Continuing on John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. We discuss “partial truths,” whether “truth will out,” whether we can discard some “experiments in living” as established failures, education, “barbarians,” how Mill compares to Nietzsche, and more.

Listen to part 1 first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition.

End song: “Flavor” by Tori Amos with strings by John Philip Shenale, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #12.

Sponsors: Visit Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code PEL, thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service, and textexpander.com/podcast for 20% off pain-free insertion of your heavy-use text snippets into your apps.

Episode 183: Mill on Liberty (Part One)

by 5 Comments

Discussing John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (1859).

If we disapprove of certain behaviors, when is it okay to prohibit them legally? What about just shaming people? Mill’s “harm principle” says that we should permit anything (legally and socially) unless it harms other people. But what constitutes “harm”? And how can we discourage someone from, e.g., just being drunk all the time?

Mark, Wes, and Dylan bring this debate to current issues and explore some of the weirder aspects of Mill’s view.
Don’t wait for part 2! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit MUBI.com/PEL for 30 days of free curated movies, thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service, and Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED.

Episode 183: Mill on Liberty (Citizen Edition)

by 8 Comments

Discussing John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (1859).

If we disapprove of certain behaviors, when is it okay to prohibit them legally? What about just shaming people? Mill’s “harm principle” says that we should permit anything (legally and socially) unless it harms other people. But what constitutes “harm”? And how can we discourage someone from, e.g., just being drunk all the time?
Mark, Wes, and Dylan bring this debate to current issues and explore some of the weirder aspects of Mill’s view.

End song: “Flavor” by Tori Amos with strings by John Philip Shenale, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #12.

Episode 182: Reflections on PEL 2017 (Part One)

by 15 Comments

To what extent has our podcast changed in reaction to current politics? Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan reflect back on our year, discuss how we select texts, and give some thumbnail sketches of potential topics. Also, does authorial intent matter, and how to talk philosophically about works that aren’t philosophical texts.

Attention: Only the first 45 min of this discussion will be posted on the blog feed. If you like PEL, consider becoming a PEL Citizen or supporting us via Patreon to get the whole thing now.

It’s not too late to get a 2018 PEL Wall Calendar!

Visit MUBI.com/PEL for 30 days of free curated movies.

Episode 182: Reflections on PEL 2017 (Citizen Edition)

by 13 Comments

To what extent has our podcast changed in reaction to current politics? Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan reflect back on our year, discuss how we select texts and guests, and give some thumbnail sketches of potential topics. Also, does authorial intent matter, and how to talk philosophically about works that aren’t philosophical texts.

End song: “The Evening Standard” (from 1992 or so) from Mark Lint’s Black Jelly Beans & Smokes.

Episode 181: Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Part Two)

by 5 Comments

Continuing on Eichmann in Jerusalem, on how ordinary people can do—or acquiesce to—horrific things. How do people rationalize this? What can we apply from this to ourselves? Also, how was genocide a new type of crime, and what’s the best rationale for punishing it? We talk justice, revenge, and ways that we too might be morally mass-confused.

Listen to part one first or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Hiding from the Face of God”; hear Mark talk to singer/songwriter Jeff Heiskell on Nakedly Examined Music eps. 5 and 63.

Sponsors: Visit simplecontacts.com/pel with promo code PEL for $30 off, and Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code PEL.

Episode 181: Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Part One)

by 26 Comments

On Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963).

Are we still morally culpable if our entire society is corrupt? Arendt definitely thinks so, but has a number of criticisms of the handling of the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. The Israelis were committed to the view that Eichmann was a monster, when the reality, says Arendt, is more frightening.

Don’t wait for part 2! Get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Visit Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED.

Episode 181: Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Citizen Edition)

by 3 Comments

On Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963).

Are we still morally culpable if our entire society is corrupt? Arendt definitely thinks so, but has a number of criticisms of the handling of the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. The Israelis were committed to the view that Eichmann was a monster, when the reality, says Arendt, is more frightening.

End song: “Hiding from the Face of God” from Judybats 2000; listen to me interview singer/songwriter Jeff Heiskell on Nakedly Examined Music eps. 5 and 63.

Episode 180: More James’s Psychology: Self and Will (Part Two)

by 4 Comments

Concluding on William James’s Psychology, the Briefer Course (1892). We briefly cover emotions and spend the bulk of our time on will. James’s introspective method allows us to distinguish reflex or coerced actions from voluntary, free-seeming ones, and gives us the vocabulary to attribute moral virtue to those who have enough willpower to keep those inconvenient truths in mind (if you eat this, you’ll get fat!) that allow us to successfully resist temptation.

Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Support PEL!

End song: “Join the Zoo/Live Again” by Craig Wedren; listen to him on Nakedly Examined Music #15.

Sponsor: Learn about PDF Pen software from smilesoftware.com/podcast.

You can still get a 2018 PEL Wall Calendar!

Episode 180: More James’s Psychology: Self and Will (Part One)

by 8 Comments

On Psychology, the Briefer Course (1892), chapters on “The Self,” “Will,” and “Emotions.”

Continuing from ep. 179, we talk about the “Me” (the part of me that I know) vs. the “I” (the part of me that knows), including personal identity. James thinks that emotions are just our experience of our own physiology. Finally, we tackle will, veering into ethics, free will, and more.

Don’t wait for part 2! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Make sure to pick up a 2018 PEL Wall Calendar! Visit Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED.

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy 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 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

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | iTunes