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Current PEL Episode

Ep. 229: Descartes’s Rules for Thinking (Part Three)

Concluding René Descartes’s Rules for Direction of the Mind (1628).

We finish rule 12 through the end, talking about simples, the faculties of intuition and judgment, perception and imagination, necessary vs. contingent truths, and how to do Cartesian science, including what constitutes a “perfectly understood problem.”

Start with part one, or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Perfect Design” by Ian Moore, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #94.

Sponsors: Get 20% off at nativedeodorant.com (code PEL), $10 off at skylightframe.com (code PEL), 20% off at hempfusion.com (code PEL), and learn about St. John’s College at sjc.edu.

Boston-area listeners can see Wes live talking Joker on 11/22; see partiallyexaminedlife.com/joker.

Plus: Episode 2: Descartes’s Meditations: What Can We Know?
Featuring: PREVIEW-Episode 38: Bertrand Russell on Math and Logic

Nakedly Examined Music

NEM#110: Joe Louis Walker’s Blues Soup

November 22, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

Joe has played alongside B.B. King, Ron Wood, and even back to Hendrix, Hooker, and Monk. As a solo  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop

Pretty Much Pop #20: Improv Comedy w/ Tim Sniffen

November 20, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

What role does improv comedy play in popular culture? It shows up in the work of certain film  Continue Reading …

Phi Fic

Phi Fic #30 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez Part 2

October 3, 2019 By Laura Davis

Only then did he discover that Amaranta Úrsula was not his sister but his aunt, and that Sir Francis  Continue Reading …

Combat and Classics

Combat and Classics #29: Emerson’s Divinity School Address

July 9, 2019 By Sanya Kerksiek

How does speech move the human soul? How can a leader use speech inspire others to action? Lise,  Continue Reading …

Featured Post

Revisiting Philosophy and Media Critique (Why Pretty Much Pop?)

October 22, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

How does the recent spate of media discussion on this site fit in with our larger dedication to philosophy? Mark explains how the new spin-off pop culture podcast is part of the dictum to know thyself… but maybe don’t get so pompous about it.

From the blog

Pretty Much Pop #19: Race and the Target Audience w/ Rodney Ramsey

November 13, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

We've all felt at various points (maybe at most points) that some media creation has reached us by mistake, that we are not the target audience. 20th century American TV was aimed largely at a white  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #18: Stephen King’s Media Empire

November 8, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

Is the most popular writer of our time actually a good writer? Or maybe he used to be good but has long since run out of inspiration? What are the most effective ways to adapt these very readable  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #17: Comedy as Philosophy w/ Daniel Lobell

November 8, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

Are stand-up comedians the Modern Day Philosophers? This claim forms the premise of Daniel's podcast where interviews some of our best known and loved comedians, but really, only some comedians are  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #16: 25 Years After FRIENDS

October 22, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

Mark, Erica, and Brian examine the conventions, techniques, and staying power of the beloved ’90s sitcom. Are we supposed to identify with, or idolize, or merely like these people? What makes the  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #15: Opera As Pop

October 16, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

Opera used to be a central part of European pop culture, Pavarotti was as big a pop star as they come. But still, it's now the quintessential art-form of the wealthy and snobbish. What  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #14: UFOs on TV with Investigative Journalist Paul Beban

October 9, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

TV news reporter Paul Beban (ABC, Al Jazeera, Yahoo, and now featured on the Discovery Network's Contact) joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss the appeal of UFO narratives, both at the peak of  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #13: TV Revivals Revived!

October 2, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

A crazy number of shows are now being continued long after their deaths. Revivals (not to be confused with reboots) bring us back to the comfort of old friends, who are now really old. What can a  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #12: Once Upon a Tarantino Film (feat. Wes!)

September 27, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

Wes Alwan joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood in the context of Tarantino’s other films. Wes thinks the film is great, even though he’s not  Continue Reading …

Engaging with the Indian Textual and Philosophical Universe

September 26, 2019 By Mukunda Raghavan

In PEL’s foray last year into the understanding and discussing Indian thought vis a vis The Bhagavad Gita, the PEL team and their guest Shaam Amin did a great service in bringing forth the Indian  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #11: The Live Music Experience

September 19, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

Surely tech advances make it unnecessary to ever leave the house, right? Why go to see live people doing live things live? Dave Hamilton (Host of Gig Gab, Mac Geek Gab, and Mark's old drummer)  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #10: The Handmaid’s Tale

September 14, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

  Mark, Erica, and Brian take on both Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel plus the Bruce Miller/Hulu TV series through season 3. There's also a graphic novel and the 1990 film.   We get  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #9: Cartoons with Dee Bradley Baker (from Clone Wars, American Dad)

September 4, 2019 By Mark Linsenmayer

Are cartoons an inherently juvenile art form? Even animation aimed at adults is still typically considered genre fiction–a guilty pleasure–and the form enables tones and approaches that might simply  Continue Reading …

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