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Welcome to an extra special, intentionally public edition of Nightcap to catch you up on what Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan are all up to personally and intellectually and hash out what we want to potentially cover on the show over the next year.
The next full episode (on Malebranche) will be released next week.
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Image by Solomon Grundy. Audio editing by Tyler Hislop of Pixelbox Media.
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G’day, good reflections, love the show,
I was thinking about other ways, apart from Peter Adamson, that one may get a more wholistic feel for other philosophical traditions (particularly East-Asia, which is my interest). I audited (free) a while ago, in a fairly skimmingly way, since I already knew quite a bit on the subject, an online course by Edward Slingerland on Classical Chinese (Warring States) philosophy (here; https://www.edx.org/course/chinese-thought-ancient-wisdom-meets-modern-scienc). He was quite engaging, he had his own take on things and it never got terribly deep but as an entertaining overview it works well as a resource.
Frustratingly other courses I see (here; https://www.edx.org/course/humanity-and-nature-in-chinese-thought and here; https://www.edx.org/course/the-path-to-happiness) seem to be going over Warring States philosophy yet again, rather than supplying something for Medieval, Early Modern or Contemporary Chinese philosophy!
There are of course some big histories of Chinese Philosophy that cover the whole sweep, such as Fung Yu-lan’s ‘A History of Chinese Philosophy’, but these are major undertakings in their own right!
Japanese philosophy is quite interesting (at least I think so), but there’s even less of a way into it at a generalist level (except for SEP and IEP articles, naturally), one could get the absolutely essential (for those interested in the field, which is to say it is essential for very few people) but rather massive ‘Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook’, and observe how the editors have organised the tradition and read until you come across a thinker that pulls your interest.
I don’t think I am qualified to speak at all on Indian philosophy except to say that there is indeed much rigorous thought that cannot be classified as mystical. Perhaps you should keep an eye out for a knowledgeable guest to act a guide?
As for Korean, Tibetan, Vietnamese or Persian philosophy, I can’t help at all! I just thought I’d mention them as all having their own philosophical cannons.
For Early Modern Philosophy, perhaps consider some overlooked women philosophers, Anne Conway’s ‘The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy’ looks interesting, though I must admit this is a work on my reading list I have yet to get too.
Someone mentioned Political Philosophy, I think, anyway I much enjoyed the podcast ‘History of Ideas’ by David Runciman (here; https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/history-of-ideas), he speaks very intelligently about certain works in Political Philosophy, some of which I wasn’t aware of, might give you some ideas.
Looks like I’ve written too much, apologies, Happy New Year and all that, are we still saying that? Probably not.
Hi Theodore, lots of great recommendations here, thanks!
I certainly didn’t mean to leave out Japanese philosophy; we could use an actual ep on Zen for sure, as well as the Kyoto school.
If you’re thinking of doing Zen it probably makes sense to do it before you look at the Kyoto school. Dogen would be the most relevant Zen thinker if you were doing Zen with the Kyoto school in mind. Perhaps you would be interested in looking at Dogen’s essay on uji (being-time) to see if it might fit your use (it’s short, central to Dogen’s thinking, but can be frustratingly opaque, I recall the secondary literature a little better than the text itself). At least two (probably more) translations are accessible free online, here; http://www.jstor.org/stable/44361530 (this one with a rather enthusiastic running commentary) and here; https://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Dogen_Teachings/Shobogenzo/011uji.pdf
What a pleasure to listen to this. Two quick thoughts:
1) I’ve had that Susanne Langer book on my shelf, too, ever since I read Bryan Magee’s praise of Langer in Confessions of a Philosopher — another book I read after seeing it recommended somewhere on the PEL website. Anyway, I would appreciate an episode on Philosophy in a New Key if you ever find a way to that.
2) On the topic of another play/performance episode — I just did a classroom production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros with my high school AP students. It was a lot of fun. There is some philosophical meat there, I think, and you may find it entertaining to record and discuss.
Of course, the podcast is also enjoyable for what you come up with that I wasn’t expecting. Looking forward to 2022. Happy new year!
Hi Wayne, Ionesco is a great idea. I’ll look into it!