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Discussion of “Antigone” Now Posted
PEL Citizens can now download the Not School Theater group’s discussion (which Mark showed up for most of), well in advance of the PEL episode on this topic. What philosophical insights lurk in Sophocles’s drama?
Not School Study Groups In July
We’ve got a number of attractive reading groups going this month, a couple of which are entirely new. It looks like almost every group will be starting fresh with a new text, so this should be a good month for members new and old who’ve never joined a group to try it out. If you’re not familiar with how Not Continue Reading …
A Wealth of Not School Offerings in June
Summer has arrived, and in case you can’t decide whether to take Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason or Franz Kafka’s The Trial to the beach with you, let me help: take them both and be prepared for Not School in June. Thinking of taking summer classes? Think better of it. That’s expensive, and for a measly $5 a month you can Continue Reading …
Not School Discussion on Bertolt Brecht Posted
The philosophy and theater group’s April reading was the essay “Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction” by Bertolt Brecht, which Phillip C., Carlos Franke and I recently discussed over Skype. As usual, we recorded the call, which you can listen to in the PEL Citizens section of the site as soon as you join up. In this essay, Brecht details many Continue Reading …
Not School Theater Group: Bertold Brecht’s “Theatre for Pleasure, Theatre for Instruction”
The Philosophy and Theater group takes on the 1936 essay by famed playwright Bertold Brecht about his innovative “epic theater.” Featuring Daniel Cole, Philip Cherny, and Carlos Franke. Recorded May 4, 2014.
Not School Discussion of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Last weekend the Philosophy and Theater Group had our monthly discussion, and this time Phillip Cherny and myself talked about Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a tremendously clever, meta-fictional play which fills offstage moments of Hamlet with absurdist hi-jinks. For the philosophically inclined, this play has fireworks from beginning to end, and Stoppard covers a lot of ground Continue Reading …
Not School Theater Group: Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead”
Discussing the tremendously clever, meta-fictional play which fills offstage moments of Hamlet with absurdist hijinks. Featuring Featuring Daniel Cole and Philip Cherny. Recorded March 9, 2014.
Not School Discussion of McCarthy’s “The Sunset Limited”
At the beginning of this month, Carlos Franke, Phillip C., and myself spoke about Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited on a Skype call. The call will be posted on the Free Stuff for Citizens page, which you can access as soon as youjoin up to become a PEL citizen. PEL tackled McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men back inepisode 63, so long Continue Reading …
Philosophy and Theater Not School Report: Equus
During December, the Philosophy and Theater Group read Equus by Peter Schaffer, and last Saturday group members Phillip C., Theo Monk, Jesse R., Carlos Franke and myself discussed the play over a recorded Skype call which has been posted PEL Citizens on the Free Stuff page. Equus is a fictional account of a real-life incident in which a young man Continue Reading …
“Liquid Surveillance As Post-Panopticâ€
Back in the Foucault episode, the PEL gentlemen and guest Katie McIntyre explored the concept of the panopticon. Their discussion stuck pretty closely to Foucault’s text, and current day surveillance only came up briefly, but we heard plenty about it throughout the rest of 2013. There’s the ongoing NSA saga, the encroaching “internet of thingsâ€(for your panopticondo?), new smart apparel Continue Reading …
Nick Mount on Samuel Beckett and Existentialist Drama
As our Philosophy in Fiction Not School group has begun to dig into Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting For Godot” this month, questions about how to interpret the play have started to crop up. Who or what is Godot, and why are these guys waiting for him? What do we make of the seemingly aimless and repetitive dialogue, the bare stage, and Continue Reading …
John Gray Against Progress
The idea of Progress has a rich philosophical history, but few in recent decades have addressed it as focally as English philosopher John Gray. Careful to clarify that he grants scientific and technological progress, Gray emphasizes that it’s political and ethical progress that are not assured. Gains in these domains occur cyclically, existing under the threat of reversal at any Continue Reading …
Rick Roderick and The Self Under Siege
A complaint I often hear from people averse to the subject of philosophy is that, as interesting as it can often be, it’s really sort of irrelevant to our daily lives. In such conversations Rick Roderick is always the guy who comes to my mind. It’s a criticism he himself made of certain philosophers from time to time, but not Continue Reading …