Podcast Episode (Citizen) | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Ep. 271: Johan Gottlieb Fichte’s Transcendental Idealism (Part Two for Supporters)

June 6, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Continuing from part one on The Vocation of Man (1799), Book II.

In this preview, we clarify whether Fichte is trying to keep the notion of a “real world” beyond our experience or not. It’s part of the progression of the text that while at first he assumes that there must be something real behind this experienced world we as individuals create, he gives up that notion in the middle of Book II. So how does he get to his startling reversal? First he develops the notion of “intuition” as distinct from perception to explain how we perceive space. Really, we just have these point-to-point experiences of color, but we somehow unconsciously synthesize these into perception of a whole covered surface.

Ep. 271: Johan Gottlieb Fichte’s Transcendental Idealism (Part One for Supporters)

June 5, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On The Vocation of Man (1799), Books I and II. What is reality? Fichte’s armchair journey starts him considering nature and thus himself as determined, but then he backtracks to say that actually, experience doesn’t tell us whether we’re determined or free. In Book II, he argues that since our experience is always of something going on in ourselves, then all of our concepts like causality, the external world, and the self must be really just our own mental creations. So we’re free after all, yet everything is drained of significance! Tune into ep. 272 for the resolution of this drama!

Ep. 270: Classical Indian (Vedanta and Nyaya) Design Arguments for God (Part Two for Supporters)

May 21, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Continuing on God and the World’s Arrangement: Readings from Vedanta and Nyaya Philosophy of Religion after the departure of our guest, Stephen Phillips.

We’re all familiar with the design argument, so why wade through all these unfamiliar schools and archaic formulations? Mark, Seth, and Wes talk more about these readings in the Indian context of liberation, reason vs. revelation, and whether we might want to read anything else like this and under what conditions.

Ep. 270: Classical Indian (Vedanta and Nyaya) Design Arguments for God (Part One for Supporters)

May 21, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

On God and the World’s Arrangement: Readings from Vedanta and Nyaya Philosophy of Religion with one of its translators, Stephen Phillips.

Does nature require an intelligent designer? Śaṅkara (710 CE) and Vācaspati Miśra (960 CE), commenting on the Brahma-sūtra (ca. 200 CE) and Nyāya-sūtra (ca. 200 BCE), argue that it does against atheistic Buddhists, Sāṃkhya believers in a primordial matter that acts on its own, and the Mīmāṃsā conservatives who so venerated scripture that they ruled out a God who created it. But if we’re all Brahman (God), just trying to discover that we are and so escape the cycle of rebirth, then where is there room for a particular deity who created us?

Sneak Preview: Philosophy vs. Improv #1

May 19, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

A new limited (?) series is afoot in PEL-land: Mark joins with improvisational comedy instructor Bill Arnett for an exciting encounter between two areas of expertise. Will this week’s lesson in improv or philosophy have the most profound effect? NO TAKING TURNS.

Ep. 269: Arendt on Totalitarianism (Part Two for Supporters)

May 10, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

Continuing on “On the Nature of Totalitarianism” and On the Origins of Totalitarianism, ch. 13 (both from around 1953).

We further discuss the logic of totalitarianism and and its relevance for contemporary political movements. Has Arendt captured an authentic, novel danger, or is what she diagnoses more a modern manifestation of an old problem, or was it merely a horrific oddity of her historical period?

Ep. 269: Arendt on Totalitarianism (Part One for Supporters)

May 9, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On “On the Nature of Totalitarianism” and On the Origins of Totalitarianism ch. 13 (both from 1953).

Is totalitarianism just an especially virulent form of tyranny, or something unique to the modern age? Arendt says that unlike other forms of government, totalitarianism is not animated by an active psychological principle that motivates its participants. Instead terror is designed to make citizens incapable of agency altogether.

Ep. 268: Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” (Part Two for Supporters)

April 25, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer 8 Comments

Continuing on Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business with guest Brian Hirt.

Is it really the case that the written word is so much more suited for providing context than television, which after all does retain some of the virtues of the pre-literate speechifying culture that Socrates preferred over writing? We debate whether some of our favorite books could be made into decent films and consider Postman’s takes on TV news, politics, education, and religion.

Ep. 268: Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” (Part One for Supporters)

April 25, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

On Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) with guest Brian Hirt.

How does the form in which we receive media affect how we think? Education theorist Postman (building on Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message”) claimed that the advent of television has eroded our capacity to reason and given us the expectation that everything in the world must entertain. Is this a viable piece of social construction theory? How does the critique apply to the Internet age?

Ep. 267: Avicenna on God and Soul w/ Peter Adamson (Part Two for Supporters)

April 10, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Continuing on Avicenna’s argument for the existence of God and on the “flying man” argument for the soul’s immateriality.

We fill out Avicenna’s metaphysical picture: his concept of necessity, how knowledge means knowing necessary attributions (why self-knowledge can grasp the soul’s character), “mental existence,” infinity, and how God’s character established his uniqueness, simplicity, generosity, and other characteristics.

Ep. 267: Avicenna on God and Soul w/ Peter Adamson (Part One for Supporters)

April 10, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On selections and commentary about Avicenna’s argument from around 1020 C.E. for the existence of God as a necessary being, plus arguments to prove that God has the person-like properties that Islam imputes to him, and his “flying man” argument for the soul’s essential independence from matter. Featuring Mark, Dylan, and our guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy podcast.

Ep. 265: Plato’s “Phaedo”: Philosophy as Training for Death (Part Two for Supporters)

March 15, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Continuing on Plato’s dialogue depicting the death of Socrates.

We go into more detail re. arguments for the immortality of the soul, the theory of forms, and the different laws governing the realms of the senses and the intellect. If intellect is at base behind everything, then there simply must be an afterlife to reward good philosophers.

Ep. 265: Plato’s “Phaedo”: Philosophy as Training for Death (Part One for Supporters)

March 15, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On Plato’s middle dialogue depicting the death of Socrates (390 BCE) depicting the death of Socrates. Should philosophers fear death?

In the course of giving arguments for the immortality of the soul, we get an elaboration of the recollection theory of knowledge (from the Meno) into Plato’s first full account of Forms. But how literally are we supposed to take the words of Socrates as he comforts himself facing mortality?

Ep. 264: Plato’s “Timaeus” on Cosmology (Part Two for Supporters)

February 28, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Continuing on the Timaeus, we consider some quotes and details starting at the beginning of the dialogue where Plato argues for differences between the perceived, created, impermanent world and its perfect model. We cover time (established by the movement of the planets), space (a characterless but substantial “receptacle” to which Forms are applied to create matter), alternatives to Plato’s model of creation, and the ethical implications of the cosmology Timaeus describes.

Ep. 264: Plato’s “Timaeus” on Cosmology (Part One for Supporters)

February 28, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On the later Platonic dialogue from around 360 BCE.

How is nature put together? Plato speaks through the fictional Timaeus (not Socrates) to give a “likely story” about the universe, physics, and biology involving a Craftsman (Demi-Urge) who created everything based on a pre-existing perfect model (the Forms!). Timaeus derives his whole story from the principle that the world is good, and so the Craftsman must necessarily optimize creation, with any imperfections being introduced only by the necessity involved when a perfect blueprint gets embodied to create ever-shifting, impermanent matter.

Ep. 263: Lise Van Boxel’s “Warspeak” on Strategies for Valuing (Part Two for Supporters)

February 15, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Continuing on Warspeak: Nietzsche’s Victory Over Nihilism with guests Jeff Black and Michael Grenke.

We get more into the “agonistic” relationship Lise describes between the feminine principle of Becoming with the masculine principle of Being, plus the role of comedy, the relationship between author and reader, and the sovereign individual.

Ep. 263: Lise Van Boxel’s “Warspeak” on Strategies for Valuing (Part One for Supporters)

February 15, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On Warspeak: Nietzsche’s Victory Over Nihilism (2020) with Dylan, Seth, and guests Michael Grenke and Jeff Black.

What’s a viable counter-ideal to the asceticism that Nietzsche thought is so pervasive? Lise’s book works out strategies for re-valuing that emphasize Nietzsche’s positive comments about the feminine and the power of words.

Ep. 262: Nietzsche on Self-Denial (Part Two for Supporters)

January 31, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

Continuing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals (1887), “Third essay: what do ascetic ideals mean?”

We try to fit asceticism into Nietzsche’s overall ethical picture, examine his critique of the scientific attitude, explore the (partially positive) function of the priest, try briefly to apply N’s social critique to modern politics, and wrap up by discussing his perspectivism.