Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from ep. 399 on Dan Dennett's Consciousness Explained (1991), now focusing on ch. 12-14, and again featuring Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Chris Heath. Sponsor: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health. We've given the basic outline of Continue Reading …
Ep. 400: Dennett Rejects Qualia (Part One)
NEM#260: Jacqui Hunt (Single Gun Theory Singer) Now Master of Her Synth Domain
Jacqui rose to fame with the Australian electronic dance band Single Gun Theory (three albums released 1987, 1991, 1994), did some one-off collaborations (e.g. singing for Delirium), and released her first solo album in 2008. After some solo singles (and an album as one half of CiiVE), she's now released her second solo album, Desiderium. We discuss "Planet" (co-written with Continue Reading …
PvI#124: Navel Evaluation (Our Season 5 Finale)
We wrap up Mary's first year with the podcast, and changes are afoot for our upcoming season, but why? Let's explore to the point of physical discomfort! We act out an odd annual employee review, a dramatic pitch for a new play, and the navel-gazing club. We talk about celebrating and escalating, high points of season 5, how comedy is never a matter of "trying to be funny" Continue Reading …
Ep. 399: Dan Dennett’s Model of Mind (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from part one on Consciousness Explained, ch. 5, with some reference to ch. 12. Sponsor: Get your free trial at shopify.com/pel. Dennett seemed to be saying that the phi-phenomenon (where we see a dot as having moved and transformed into another dot, whereas it was really just Continue Reading …
Closereads: Donald Davidson on Self-Knowledge (Part One)
Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get previous and future installments of this podcast. On "First Person Authority" (1984). What warrants our superior knowledge of our own mental states, as oppose to those of others? Why is this not obvious? Read along with us. You can choose to watch this on video: Continue Reading …
Partially Examined Recap: August 2026
August at PEL began with political philosophy, as a live discussion of the Federalist Papers asked whether the American system is working as its architects intended or whether some of its problems were there from the beginning. The month then turned toward the philosophy of mind. A conversation on Donald Davidson offered one way of fitting reasons, causes, and mental events Continue Reading …
PMP#229: What’s Spider-Man Up To?
It's been 2019 since our last Spider-Man episode, so what's with the new film (Brand New Day), and the Spider-Verse, and Nicholas Cage being Spider Noir? Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al discuss in this, our SEASON FINALE! Follow us @law_writes, @sarahlynbruck, @MarkLinsenmayer. Due to supernatural events, the world has forgotten Al's social media presence. Get more at Continue Reading …
Ep. 399: Dan Dennett’s Model of Mind (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Daniel C. Dennett's Consciousness Explained (Ch. 1, 5, and a bit of 12; ep. 400 will complete ch. 12 along with 13). Featuring Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Chris Heath. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. What is the mind? Dennett claims Continue Reading …
Partially Examined Recap: July 2026
July at PEL took up some basic questions about knowledge, reason, and their limits. C.S. Lewis argued for Christianity on the basis of morality found in human experience, and the Hegel discussions returned to the conflict between faith and Enlightenment reason. From there, Peirce challenged the idea that we have immediate knowledge even of ourselves, while Galen Strawson’s Continue Reading …
NEM#259: Glenn Morrow (Bar/None): Songwriting Re-Emergence
Glenn was a central figure in the Hoboken punk scene, fronting the band "a" in the late '70s (no released albums) and then The Individuals (one album and an EP) in the early '80s. His next band, Rage to Live (two albums), was the first release from Bar/None records in 1986, and Glenn then joined the label as a partner and signed They Might Be Giants, Yo La Tengo, etc. He Continue Reading …
Ep. 398: Donald Davidson on Mind vs. Body (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We finish up "Mental Events" (1970) and move on to "Actions, Reasons, and Causes" (1963), still with guest Chris Heath. Start with part one. Davidson gives us some more technical ways to think about the difference between the mental sphere and the physical. The failure of behaviorism to Continue Reading …
Excerpt – Free Your Mind: New Philosophy
An exclusive for the Partially Examined Life community, Chapter 6 of my new book Free Your Mind: New Philosophy Chapter 6 - I Have Turned My Thoughts Towards Wisdom As the rest of us sat back down after our break, one man remained standing. I initially perceived him as generically White, but then I thought he might be Jewish, Arabic or even Latino. He had very dark Continue Reading …
PvI#123: Brain Spritzing w/ Bill Arnett and Jenny Hansen
Future co-host philosophy Jenny joins past co-host improviser Bill along with the usual rabble (Mark and Mary) for some tag-team mud swimming, hot takes about The Odyssey (we recorded this on July 23), and discussion and play about Bill's return to school, Maslow's hierarchy, gamified syllabi, some dweeby math stuff, and academic dishonesty. Our shared conversation space shall Continue Reading …
(sub)TEXT: A Map-Like Imagination in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (“The Moose”)
A poem about a map opens North and South, the first collection of the great twentieth century poet Elizabeth Bishop, and since, maps have been associated with her poetic vision—at once telescoping and binocular—and with the polarities and preoccupations of her work. The map’s privileged, sweeping, bird’s eye view of the earth is also hand-held, man-made, intimate. Depending on Continue Reading …
PMP#228: Spielberg’s Alien Fetish
We discuss the various films Steven Spielberg has released about alien encounters: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982), War of the Worlds (2005), and our inciting film, Disclosure Day. Of these, Spielberg had a story or writing credit for all but War of the Worlds, and they form a semi-coherent narrative between them. Featuring Mark, Continue Reading …
Closereads: Peirce’s New Categories (Part One)
Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get previous and future installments of this podcast. How shall we break down the universe into basic types of things? Peirce has an idiosyncratic way of thinking about this problem and coming up with his division, revolving around the steps and presuppositions involved in predicating something. the latter Continue Reading …
Ep. 398: Donald Davidson on Mind vs. Body (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On "Mental Events" (1970) and "Actions, Reasons, and Causes" (1963), featuring Mark, Wes, and returning guest Chris Heath. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. Davidson was roughly in the "ordinary language" camp of analytic philosophy, Continue Reading …
NEM#258: Dan Montgomery: Direct Communication
Dan was Ben Vaughn's sound-man and released his first solo album of Americana rock in 2004. We discuss "Busted" from his eighth album (produced by Vaughn), the just Dan-and-his guitar effort Dispatches from the Desert, then "Beaumont" from Cast-Iron Songs and Torch Ballads (2023), "Favorite Color" from Rosetta, Please (A Love Story) (2006). End song: "Lookin’ for a Fight" also Continue Reading …
Ep. 397: Federalist Papers LIVE (Part Two)
Subscribe to get the full Citizen Edition of this episode now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We now have a free-form discussion in light of what was raised in part one about the Federalist Papers and Frederick Douglass' Fourth of July Speech: What should we do about the problems identified? Is the system broken beyond repair? Was it built with fatal flaws in it? Is Continue Reading …
Announcement: Mark’s “Key Ideas in the Philosophy of Mind” Fall 2026 Class
Enrollment is now open for our new online class. It will be nine 75 min sessions, running from late Aug. to mid Dec., starting with Aristotle and Descartes but then spending the rest of the time on the most influential texts in this area since 1950: Alan Turing, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, John Searle, Hilary Putnam, etc. We're offering sections to fit the various time Continue Reading …