The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog
We discuss “Dazy Bones” and “Rat’s Opus” from that 2018 album, then look back to The Damned’s “History of the World (Part One)” from The Black Album (1980), then end by listening to Rat’s cover of the Kraftwerk classic “Autobahn” with The Germans from Do Not Fuck With the Germans (2003). Intro/outro: “Love Song” by The Damned from Machine Gun Etiquette (1979). For more, visit ratscabies.com.
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Continuing on Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).
Should the amount of respect that a worker gets be proportional to his or her market value? Our guest tells us more about how all citizens have the right to have their interests considered and what this means for how the relationship between employers and employees might change. We talk health care, income inequality, Tyler Cowen, libertarianism, and more.
Start with part one. We’ll do some post-guest discussion in part 3, but you needn’t wait: Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL.
If you enjoyed Mark’s music on our episodes 1–149, please contribute to the new album through patreon.com/marklint.
The U. of Michigan prof joins us to discuss Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about It) (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).
What is a government? Liz argues that this includes companies, and that we should thus apply political science concepts in evaluating their power. Her egalitarianism involves everyone retaining a minimum level of inalienable autonomy, and we should resist encroachments on this not just by the state but from employers as well.
Don’t wait for parts 2 and 3! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Listen to the Outside the Box podcast.
The U. of Michigan prof joins us to discuss Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about It) (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).
What is a government? Liz argues that this includes companies, and that we should thus apply political science concepts in evaluating their power. Her egalitarianism involves everyone retaining a minimum level of inalienable autonomy, and we should resist encroachments on this not just by the state but from employers as well.
End song: “Straight Job” by Rod Picott. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #80.
Byron is an in-demand session/touring bassist whose main band since 2004 has been NYC’s Ollabelle. We talk about “Losing You” and “Gypsy Wind” from his debut solo album, Disappearing Man (2018), plus “Gone Today” by Ollabelle from Riverside Battle Songs (2007), and finish with”Horizontal Man” by Lost Leaders from their 2014 eponymous album. Intro: “Heaven’s Pearls” by Levon Helm from Electric Dirt (2009). For more, visit byronisaacs.com.
Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon.
Mark and Seth continue our conversation from ep. 198 by going through the arguments in the second half of the dialogue.
This puzzling section is largely a monologue by the character Parmenides, with the stated aim of showing the implications from first, the assumption that the One exists, and then that the One does not exist. But is this really Parmenides’s One or the Platonic Form of Oneness? Can these be the same thing?
We get down to the specific questions considered in this perplexing Platonic dialogue: Are there Forms for all adjectives? Does the Form of a property itself have that property? How do Forms connect with particulars? How can we mortals have any connection to heavenly Forms anyway?
Listen to part one first or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition along with the follow-up episode. Please support PEL!
End song: “Young and Lovely” by Jherek Bischoff. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #65.
Sponsors: Visit ZipRecruiter.com/pel to try this hiring service for free. Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial. See moderndayphilosophers.net to hear the new season!
On the most peculiar Platonic dialogue, from ca. 350 BCE.
Are properties real things in the world, or just in the mind? Plato is known for claiming that these “Forms” are real, though otherworldly. Here, though, using Parmenides as a character talking to a young Socrates, Plato seems to provide objections here to his own theory. What’s the deal?
Don’t wait for part two! Get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now! Please support PEL!
Sponsor: Check out Sam Yang’s Must Triumph podcast at musttriumph.com.
On the most peculiar Platonic dialogue, from ca. 350 BCE.
Are properties real things in the world, or just in the mind? Plato is known for claiming that these “Forms” are real, though otherworldly. Here, though, using Parmenides as a character talking to a young Socrates, Plato seems to provide objections here to his own theory. What’s the deal?
End song: “Young and Lovely” by Jherek Bischoff. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #65.
Lindsay has released four albums and an EP of depressed alternative rock under the band name Gretchen’s Wheel since 2015, providing a modern model of accessible yet professional DIY recording.
We focus on Black Box Theory, covering “Untethered,” “Tatyana,” and “Plans,” plus “Save the Day” from Sad Scientist (2017). Intro: “Total Loss” from Fragile State (2015). For more, visit gretchenswheel.com.
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Can philosophy avoid theoretical speculation to focus solely on pursuit of the good life, or is that goal inherently problematic? Confining oneself to a particular branch of philosophy is something one should outgrow.
Continuing with guest Peter Adamson with “On Nature” (475 BCE).
We finally get to fragment 8, which describes why Being must be singular and eternal, given that the notion of Non-Being is nonsense. But how could we as individuals be asking these questions then? Does his “Way of Seeming” work to explain the appearances, as opposed to reality?
Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
End song: “Circle” by Gareth Mitchell, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #4.
Sponsors: Explore Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save at partiallyexaminedlife.com/savealife.
On the fragments referred to as “On Nature” from ca. 475 BCE, featuring guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy without Any Gaps podcast.
Parmenides gives “the Way of Truth,” which is that there is only Being, and talking of Non-Being is nonsense. So everything you experience is wrong!
Don’t wait for part two! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
Sponsors: Explore Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save at partiallyexaminedlife.com/savealife, and visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Get $15 off tickets at usegametime.com/pel, promo code PEL.
On the fragments referred to as “On Nature” from ca. 475 BCE, featuring guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy without Any Gaps podcast.
End song: “Circle” by Gareth Mitchell, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #4.
Nashville singer/songwriter/fiction-writer Rod laid sheet rock for years before releasing his first album in 2001; he has now released ten albums of vivid Americana.
We focus on his new double album Out Past the Wires, discussing “Take Home Pay” and “Date of Grace” (with intro/outro from “Be My Bonnie”), then look back to “Rust Belt Fields” from Welding Burns (2011) and finally listen to “You’re Not Missing Anything” from Hang Your Hopes on a Crooked Nail (2014). More at rodpicott.com.
Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon.
Have you gotten lost in our 200+ episodes? Don’t quite know where to dive into our back catalog? Due to several people nagging me over email in recent years, I’ve finally updated our Episodes by Topic page to carry us through the present day. This includes new tabs dedicated to the philosophy of language and to psychology, which we’ve now Continue Reading …
Continuing with Simon on his book On Truth (2018).
We move to part two of the book, where we get down to the procedures used to obtain truth in art, ethics, and science. Yes, truth is objective, but it’s not best described as correspondence, and in fact this elaboration of how truth is actually obtained is more enlightening than any abstract definition meant to cover all the different types of truth-seeking.
Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition, and also Wes’s bonus conversation on Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. Please support PEL!
End song: “with you/for you” from the new cold/mess EP by Prateek Kuhad, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #79.
Sponsors: Visit Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save at partiallyexaminedlife.com/savealife, and thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL.
Episode 2 of Wes’s new podcasting endeavor, featuring Mary from the Phi Fic podcast, who’s also the managing editor of the PEL blog.
The Cambridge/etc. prof joins Mark, Wes, and Dylan to discuss his book On Truth (2018).
What is truth? Simon’s view synthesizes deflationism and pragmatism to avoid relativism by fixing on the domain-specific procedures we actually engage in to establish the truth of a claim, whether in ethics, science, art, or whatever. A gift of clarity after two episodes threshing through the jungles of analytic philosophy!
Continued on part 2, or get the full, unbroken Citizen Edition, as well as Wes’s discussion on Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.
Sponsors: Listen to the Hi-Phi Nation podcast at hiphination.org, and explore Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save at partiallyexaminedlife.com/savealife.
The Cambridge/etc. prof joins Mark, Wes, and Dylan to discuss his book On Truth (2018).
What is truth? Simon’s view synthesizes deflationism and pragmatism to avoid relativism by fixing on the domain-specific procedures we actually engage in to establish the truth of a claim, whether in ethics, science, art, or whatever. A gift of clarity after two episodes threshing through the jungles of analytic philosophy!
End song: “with you/for you” from the new cold/mess EP by Prateek Kuhad, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #79.
Nakedly Examined Music is a podcast about making music: Why do we do it? Why do we do it the way we do it? Mark Linsenmayer interviews songwriters and composers famous and otherwise about specific recordings, which are presented in full on the podcast. 
