What? More Haraway? Yes! More Lynda? No, this is Mark, Seth, and Dylan on a later day, returning to the Haraway's "Situated Knowledges" with some second thoughts... at least for 20 minutes until Dylan's network crapped out, so we wrapped up. We try our best to make her actual argument clear and give you a better sense of her language. How does an "agenda" in Haraway's sense Continue Reading …
Ep. 293: Donna Haraway on Feminist Science (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on "Situated Knowledges" and other essays with guest Lynda Olman. We try to get at the practical import of Olman's scheme and get further into her use of metaphors and what those mean for her critical stance. We also touch on how metaphors relate to myths, feminist sci-fi, how causal and networking language fits into all this, and more. Next Continue Reading …
Ep. 293: Donna Haraway on Feminist Science (Part One for Supporters)
On "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective" (1988), "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" (1985), "A Game of Cat’s Cradle: Science Studies, Feminist Theory, Cultural Studies" (1994), and "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin" (2015). Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap May 2022
Recorded 4-15-22. We are old, and we talk about Seth's back, Wes' e-bike, and Dylan's kettle bells. Dylan talks Station Eleven (the book). He has posted this comic to Slack about liberal arts education. We then re-visit how to understand meaning in music given our completion of Langer. Does the blues as played on a certain occasion have to "mean" something? After a Continue Reading …
Ep. 292: Langer on Symbolic Music (Part Two for Supporters)
Concluding from part one on Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (ch. 8-10). We continue discussion whether and how music is symbolic, contrasting Langer's take with Scruton's on Eduard Hanslick: you can't just consider music as "intransitively referential" or referring only to itself, because that's not reference at all.. Wes brings up Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Continue Reading …
Ep. 292: Langer on Symbolic Music (Part One for Supporters)
On Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 8-10 ("On Significance in Music," "The Genesis of Artistic Import," and "The Fabric of Meaning), plus ch. 7, "The Image of Time," from her Form and Feeling (1953). Is music a language? If it's "expressive," what exactly does it express? Langer focuses on music to get at the sorts of symbolism associated specifically Continue Reading …
Ep. 291: Cassirer and Langer on Myth and Ritual (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing our discussion from part one on the symbolic value of religion and its antecedents, primary at this point discussing Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key, ch. 7. We start out connecting this to psychoanalysis, and how what Langer calls "fantasies," i.e. symbolic visual images, serve to schematize our experiences. Langer's account may give us a route to say how Continue Reading …
Ep. 291: Cassirer and Langer on Myth and Ritual (Part One for Supporters)
On Ernst Cassirer's his An Essay on Man (1944), ch. 6-7, and Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 6-7. This discussion featuring Mark, Wes, and Seth follows the introduction of these books and the argument that we are primarily symbolic creatures in ep. 290. Why do people produce ritual, mythology, and religion? According to Cassirer and his follower Langer, Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap April 2022
Recorded 3/11/22. We have the war on our minds, and so are looking to cover Kant's Perpetual Peace soon, and maybe something on "just war theory" (feel free to share your recommendations). Perhaps we'll also look at Cassirer's The Myth of the State. Wes talks about conspiracy theories, and Seth brings up more books about fascism that we will not read. We talk some more about Continue Reading …
Ep. 290: Susanne Langer on Our Symbol-Making Nature (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 1-5. We start off by considering whether the hardware-software distinction with regard to our minds can help make sense of what Langer has proposed in saying that symbol-making is basic to us. Is she saying that we're more flexible (software-driven) than evolutionary biology would suggest, or does her claim that Continue Reading …
Ep. 290: Susanne Langer on Our Symbol-Making Nature (Part One for Supporters)
On Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 1-5, plus as background most of us looked at Langer's main influence Ernst Cassirer via his An Essay on Man (1944), ch. 1-5. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. What is human nature, and why does natural science have such trouble studying it? Cassirer's massive, three-volume Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (1923-1929) provides the Continue Reading …
Ep. 289: Aesthetic Sense Theory: Hume (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one, we get into more detail on David Hume's "The Standard of Taste" (1760). Hume starts out with a paradox: On the one hand, we believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; it's not a property of objects but of the interaction between an object and an observer. On the other hand, some works are obviously, objectively more beautiful than others, Continue Reading …
Ep. 289: Aesthetic Sense Theory: Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume (Part One for Supporters)
On David Hume's "The Standard of Taste" (1760) and its two main influences: The Moralists: A Philosophical Rhapsody (1709) by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, aka the third Earl of Shaftesbury, Part III section 2 "Beauty," and An Inquiry Concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design (1725) by Francis Hutcheson. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. How do we know what opinions about Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early March 2022
Recorded 2/11/22. We give some brief psychoanalytic follow-up to our Scruton eps, anticipate Langer (which we are doing soon!), read a very nice letter, then talk way too long about ratings/reviews. When Dylan finally joins us, he talks about his stay now in Santa Fe where he's talking to someone St. John's Eastern Classics program (he's actually now talked to a few people) Continue Reading …
Ep. 288: Scruton on Ethical Art (Part Two for Supporters)
Concluding our treatment of Roger's Scruton's Beauty (2009), ch. 5-9, from part one. We consider why we'd really be attracted to something that according to Scruton's account takes a lot of work. Dylan brings in architecture, which Scruton also wrote about, leading us to wonder about the form/function distinction and whether that standard in architecture (the fact that a Continue Reading …
Ep. 288: Scruton on Ethical Art (Part One for Supporters)
On Roger Scruton's Beauty (2009), ch. 5-9, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. The latter half of the book completes the survey of types of beauty that we discussed last episode by considering issues in our appreciation of artworks, and then develops a moral and political argument for why relativism about taste, i.e. the "democracy of tastes" that says that all aesthetic Continue Reading …
Ep. 287: Roger Scruton on Beauty (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on Beauty (2009), ch. 1-4. We critically examine Scruton's claim that apprehending beauty is cognitive and never merely sensory, which would rule out, e.g. there being beautiful smells or tastes. We also go into points from Scruton's chapters on natural beauty, human beauty, and everyday beauty. Appreciation of natural beauty seems to be something Continue Reading …
Ep. 287: Roger Scruton on Beauty (Part One for Supporters)
On Beauty (2009), ch. 1-4, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Scruton just died in Dec. 2020; he had taught aesthetics for more than 30 years, and this book provides an overview of issues in the philosophy of art. The chapters we read this time include an overview chapter, then treatments of human beauty, beauty in nature, and everyday beauty (e.g. decorations, fashion, Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early February 2022 (Danto Retrospective)
Recorded 1/17/22. Mark, Seth, and Dylan listened back to our first episode on the philosophy of art: our 2010 ep. #16 on Arthur Danto. We reflect on this in light of our preparation right now for discussing Roger Scruton's Beauty (2009), which since recording this we've decided to record two full discussions on. Here's the Jasper John's NY Times interactive article that Continue Reading …
Ep. 286: Malebranche on Causality and Theology (Part Three for Supporters)
We're concluding our treatment of Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion (1688), focusing on dialogue 6 where M. says why a proof of the existence of the external world isn't possible, yet we should believe it anyway on the basis of "revelation," which means both Biblical (the Bible talks about things created) but also the "natural revelation" that sensation itself Continue Reading …