First, the Lucy Lawless episode is nearly done percolating. Most of you are going to really like it; a small percentage will be annoyed at our not having read a more substantial book or having more substantial things to say about it. Such is the price of fame.
Second, we've gotten an affirmative to being on our show from none other than David Chalmers (his words: "i'd be happy to do this."), who is frankly one of the biggest stars among contemporary philosophers (watch him here). Now, with our last big-time philosopher guest, I refrained from announcing him until we'd actually recorded him, and several of the subsequent episodes were recorded in the aftermath of his interview, as in "what should we go read now in order to understand fully what was just said?" With Chalmers, I'd like to reverse the order.
In preparation for discussing his new book, Constructing the World
This means that all of our other episode plans have gotten pushed forward to 2013 (Sorry, Marx! Sorry, Ayn Rand! Deleuze! Martin Buber! Rawls and Nozick!). So get ready for some hardcore analytic action (after the Federalist Papers)!
Even more exciting than these bits of news is the new part of our web site that we're (meaning Dylan, with me whipping him and cursing) currently setting up. I've brought this up a bit on our Facebook site to some enthusiasm, and we have a few listeners and past podcast guests already on there trying it out as users. In short, we're providing support for study groups: some forum space and other resources to help you find people to read a book (or take in some other philosophy media) together with. Unlike Facebook groups and the like, the groups are meant to have a specific structure: they last only a month, and they have specific, and manageable goals, like, for instance, "we're going to read just these two chapters, use the group-specific forum space to chat about it during these two weeks, and maybe have a Skype chat about it at the end of the month if the group votes to do so at the time."
This resource is intended both for people already into philosophy who want a bit of social pressure to force them to read things they keep not getting around to looking at, and to brand new philosophy readers, who just want some support in trying to tackle a nice introductory book. I realize the pace of our podcasts is fast, and probably none of you read along with us, but this is a chance to pick maybe just one topic that you enjoyed hearing about and get some people to focus on it with you, a bit at a time in month-long chunks, for as long as you feel like keeping it up. The cost will be a recurring $5/month donation to PEL, and we're throwing in a lot of free documents and audio to assuage your impatience if it maybe takes a few weeks for us to reach the critical mass of users required to make this really really fun.
Stay tuned for our official launch announcement (which could come anywhere between a couple of days and a couple of weeks from now; we need to add some polish to the thing). I'll provide plenty of info for you to read through before you decide on engaging in that weighty $5 financial investment!
(Oh, and if anyone is an experienced hand at BuddyPress/S2member configuration and would be willing to help us out with a few things, please let me know ASAP.)
-Mark Linsenmayer
dmf says
October 3, 2012 at 7:27 amcongrats that’s a deep sea style big catch, are we going to get some extended-mind talk?
Mark Linsenmayer says
October 3, 2012 at 8:01 amWell, his new book is not about mind and runs 500ish pages, so probably not a lot.
Tim says
October 3, 2012 at 4:15 pmI would love to hear an entire episode devoted to the extended-mind concept… that stuff is fascinating
dmf says
October 4, 2012 at 7:18 ammaybe chalmers can hook the fellows up with andy clark.
Mark Linsenmayer says
October 4, 2012 at 4:40 pmChalmers’s mind book was actually high on our list for a while a year or two back, but we were sort of waiting for guest Marco to make some headway in it, which he never did. Damn those honey-voiced Italian IT dudes!
Tim says
October 3, 2012 at 4:15 pmQuine, Carnap, Marx, Rand, Deleuze, Buber, Rawls, Nozick — I’m very excited about all of these! (the Rand more for purely entertainment value)
Kyle H says
October 4, 2012 at 3:18 pm‘Such is the price of fame’. I think somewhere in ‘The Gay Science’ Nietzsche said that fame is achieved after the mob has fully embraced someone without reservation. When this is handed over, a transformation occurs and shame is lost in the individual, and behold there is fame. Just dont get too big for your britches, would not want to hear PEL with special guest Hulk Hogan.
Looking forward to this one. Will be prepping with Chalmers & VS Ramachandran on youtube.
Mark Linsenmayer says
October 4, 2012 at 4:36 pmI was thinking more Ron Jeremy on to discuss Bataille’s “Erotism.”
I kid, I kid.
sajon nola b. says
October 4, 2012 at 6:28 pmThe price of fame? Lol. I guess I’ll find out what that means in the Lawless episode. I’ve always thought fame/celebrity was a false god if there ever was one. I dig y’all cause your smarter and vastly better education than me and are philosophical. “I liked this site before it was cool”. Anyway, small suggestion since you’re doing your homework: really hammer this guy. And throw some curve balls. Ask him if LSD has played a role in his work.
sajon nola b. says
October 7, 2012 at 10:22 pmMeh, I was drinking. My more sober self says to ask responsible and intelligent questions and to do so respectfully and to demonstrate appreciation towards your renowned guest for taking the time to speak with you for the podcast. Sincerely.
notonewhit says
October 5, 2012 at 2:15 pmI just discovered your podcasts! I’ve been looking around for a long while for just this sort of high-level extended philosophical discussion. I feel like I stumbled on to the mother lode and now have much digging to get done. Congratulations on a job well done (I have only listened to Hegel and Freud so far).
Any chance you’ll be discussing Lacan?
Looking forward to Chalmers. Keep his feet to the fire, boys.
Marilynn L says
October 6, 2012 at 10:21 pmChalmers. Nice!
gravyboat says
October 8, 2012 at 1:06 pmWho the hell is Lucy Lawless?
Adam Y says
November 13, 2012 at 5:55 pmChalmer’s is great. He is one of the guys who first sparked my interest in philosophy, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy too. I’m really looking forward to this episode. I hope you guys didn’t rely too much on wikipedia as a source for this one though, unless he has finally managed to convince his fellow wikipedia contributors that he really is an authority on his own books.
Adam Y says
November 13, 2012 at 6:54 pmWow. I really need to start proofreading before I post.