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Current PEL Episode

Ep. 261: Derek Parfit on Personal Identity (Part One)

On Reasons and Persons (1984), ch. 10-13. What makes a person persist over time?

After using various sci-fi examples to test the Lockean (personhood=psychological continuity), physicalist (same brain=same person), and Cartesian (same soul=same person) theories, Parfit concludes that the whole notion is incoherent and isn’t actually what we care about when wondering “will I die?”

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode, or listen to a preview. Citizens can get the entire second part here.

Sponsors: Visit TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/PEL for a free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Organize your Inbox: Get a free trial and save $25 at sanebox.com/pel. See headspace.com/PEL for a free month of guided meditations. Start a new monthly donation and have your first matched up to $250 at givewell.org/PEL (choose podcast and partially examined life at checkout). Learn about St. John’s College at SJC.edu.

Plus: Ep. 259: Locke Clarifies Misleading Complex Ideas (Part One)
Featuring: Episode 171: Buddhism vs. Evolution with Guest Robert Wright (Part One)

Pretty Much Pop

Pretty Much Pop #77: The Big Screen Experience

January 21, 2021 By Mark Linsenmayer

Plague has kept us out of the movie theaters, forcing new streaming practices so that films can be  Continue Reading …

(sub)Text

(sub)Text: Clever Hopes in W. H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939”

January 20, 2021 By Wes Alwan

W. H. Auden hated this poem. He called it the most dishonest he had ever written, and eventually had  Continue Reading …

Nakedly Examined Music

NEM#139: Don Rauf’s Life In A Blender

January 15, 2021 By Mark Linsenmayer

Don started the NY-based Life in a Blender in the late 80s and has put out ten albums of tunes with  Continue Reading …

Phi Fic

Phi Fic#37 The Sound and the Fury

October 26, 2020 By Laura Davis

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS BOOK? In this episode we struggle, spin and madly rub our eyes as we  Continue Reading …

Combat and Classics

Combat & Classics Episode 50. “Warspeak” by Lise van Boxel

December 18, 2020 By Brian Wilson

Brian and Jeff are joined by Michael Grenke, St. John's College - Santa Fe, to discuss Lise van  Continue Reading …

Featured Post

PEL Nightcap Early January 2021

January 4, 2021 By Mark Linsenmayer

Recorded on Dec. 22, 2020 after our final Locke recording, this is our extra-long year-end  Continue Reading …

MORE FROM THE PARTIALLY EXAMINED LIFE

Pretty Much Pop #76: Wonder Women (84 and Others) w/ Vi Burlew

January 15, 2021 By Mark Linsenmayer

The holiday film release season has passed us with only one real blockbuster, which is the return of Wonder Woman, and we likewise have a returning hero:  Our college-going young guest from ep. 33 on heroine journeys has now grown into a grad student just studying comics and brings her deep WW  Continue Reading …

PREVIEW-Ep. 260: Locke on Moral Psychology

January 11, 2021 By Mark Linsenmayer

Subscribe to get the full episode. We made one last swipe at mopping up some outstanding issues in John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), covering Book II, ch. 21 and 28, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. This preview includes only about a third of the discussion, but I'm  Continue Reading …

(sub)Text: The “Human Position” of Suffering in W.H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts”

January 7, 2021 By Wes Alwan

As war loomed in Europe, the poet W.H. Auden left Britain for the United States. One of the poems he wrote just before leaving is about the nature of human suffering—or as Auden puts it, the “human position” of suffering: for the most part, it happens invisibly, and the procession of ordinary life  Continue Reading …

Pretty Much Pop #75: Our Great British Baking Show w/ Stephen Carlile

January 6, 2021 By Mark Linsenmayer

What explains the immense quarantine-time popularity in America of this quaint British reality cooking show? What do we get out of watching talented amateurs bake things? Stephen, who is famous for playing Scar in The Lion King on Broadway (and is VERY British himself), joins Erica, Brian, and Mark  Continue Reading …

Ep. 259: Locke Clarifies Misleading Complex Ideas (Part Two)

January 4, 2021 By Mark Linsenmayer

More on Book II (ch. 22-33) of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), discussed by Mark, Wes, and Dylan. On relations, then personal identity, with more on substances (spiritual and material), the various ways in which ideas can go wrong, and how mental association can entrench  Continue Reading …

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Why Are We Here?

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.

Recent Comments

  • Benjamin Bramble on PEL Nightcap Early January 2021
  • Peter on Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part One)
  • Bill Youmans on PREVIEW-Ep. 260: Locke on Moral Psychology
  • johnnythunder on Episode 14: Machiavelli on Politics
  • January 2020: Consuming and Producing on Ep. 258: Locke on Acquiring Simple Ideas (Part One)

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.

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