An introduction to and summary of Frithjof Bergmann's New Work, New Culture, read by Mark Linsenmayer. The full episode on this topic can be found here. Read a transcript. Continue Reading …
Episode 82: Karl Popper on Science (Citizens Only)
On Conjectures and Refutations (1963), the first three essays. What is science, and how is it different than pseudo-science? From philosophy? Is philosophy just pseudo-science, or proto-science, or what? Popper thinks that all legitimate inquiry is about solving real problems, and scientific theories are those that are potentially falsifiable: they make definitely Continue Reading …
Precognition of Ep. 82: Popper
A summary of the first three essays in Karl Popper's collection Conjectures and Refutations, read by Dylan Casey. We recommend listening to this before the full episode. Read more about the topic and get the text. Listen to the episode. Read a transcript. Continue Reading …
Episode 81: Jung on the Psyche and Dreams (Citizens Only)
On Carl Jung's "Approaching the Unconscious" from Man and His Symbols, written in 1961. What's the structure of the mind? Jung followed Freud in positing an unconscious distinct from the conscious ego, but Jung's picture has the unconscious much more stuffed full of all sorts of stuff from who knows where, including instincts (the archetypes) that tend to give rise to Continue Reading …
Precognition of Ep. 81: Jung
An introduction to Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols, read by Wes Alwan. Read more about the topic. Listen to the full episode. Read a transcript. Continue Reading …
Episode 80: Heidegger on Our Existential Situation (Citizens Only)
On Martin Heidegger's "Letter on Humanism" (1949). What's our place in the world? What is it, really, to be human? Heidegger thought that being human hinges on having a proper relationship to Being. What is Being? Well, it's something more basic than particular beings like people and tables and such, yet it being so close, Heidegger thinks it's hardest to see, and that we Continue Reading …
Precognition of Ep. 80: Heidegger
A short summary of Heidegger's "Essay on Humanism," read by Seth Paskin. Read more about the topic. Listen to the full episode. Read a transcript. Continue Reading …
Episode 79: Heraclitus on Understanding the World (Citizens Only)
Eva Brann discusses her book The Logos of Heraclitus (2011). What is the world like, and how can we understand it? Heraclitus thinks that the answer to both questions is found in "the logos," which is a Greek word with multiple meanings: it can be an explanation, a word or linguistic meaning, science, rationality (the Latin word is "ratio"), the principle of exchange between Continue Reading …
Episode 78: Ayn Rand on Living Rationally (Citizens Only)
On Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1967) and "The Objectivist Ethics" (1961). First Rand grounds everyday human knowledge, largely by dismissing the concerns of other philosophers (even those whom she unknowingly parrots) as absurd. Then she uses this certainty to argue for her semi-Nietzschean vision of Great Men who master their emotions and rely only on Continue Reading …
Episode 77: Santayana on the Appreciation of Beauty (Citizens Only)
On George Santayana's The Sense of Beauty (1896). What are we saying when we call something "beautiful?" Are we pointing out an objective quality that other people (anyone?) can ferret out, or just essentially saying "yay!" without any logic necessarily behind our exclamation? The poet and philosopher Santayana thought that while aesthetic appreciation is an immediate Continue Reading …
Episode 76: Deleuze on What Philosophy Is (Citizens Only)
On Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's What Is Philosophy? (1991). How is philosophy different from science and art? What's the relationship between different philosophies? Is better pursued solo, or in a group? Deleuze described philosophy as the creation of new concepts, whereas science is about functions that map observed regularities and art is about creating percepts Continue Reading …
Episode 75: Lacan & Derrida Criticize Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” (Citizens Only)
On Jacques Lacan's "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter'" (1956), Jacques Derrida's "The Purveyor of Truth" (1975), and other essays in the collection The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading. How should philosophers approach literature? Lacan read Edgar Allen Poe's story about a sleuth who outthinks a devious Minister as an illustration of his model of the Continue Reading …
Episode 74: Jacques Lacan’s Psychology (Citizens Only)
On Bruce Fink's The Lacanian Subject (1996) and Lacan's "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience" (1949). What is the self? Is that the same as the experiencing subject? Lacan says no: while the self (the ego) is an imaginative creation, cemented by language, the subject is something else, something split (at least Continue Reading …
Episode 73: Why Do Philosophy? (And What Is It?) (Citizens Only)
Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan share what drove them into philosophy and keeps them there. How is philosophy different than (or similar to) science? Than religion? Art? The consensus seems that philosophy, to us, is inevitable for the curious. It's just inquiry, unbounded (in principle at least) by any fixed assumptions. While scientific and religious endeavors can be Continue Reading …
Episode 72: Terrorism with Jonathan R. White (Citizens Only)
We're joined by an international terrorism expert to discuss how to define terrorism and whether it can ever be ethical. We read: -Donald Black's "The Geometry of Terrorism" (2004) -J. Angelo Corlett's "Can Terrorism be Morally Justified?" (1996) -Igor Primoratz's article on terrorism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2007, revised 2011) -Karl Heinzen's Murder Continue Reading …
Episode 71: Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” (Citizens Only)
On Buber's 1923 book about the fundamental human position: As children, and historically (this is his version of social contract theory), we start fully absorbed in relation with another person (like, say, mom). Before that point, we have no self-consciousness, no "self" at all, really. It's only by having these consuming "encounters" that we gradually distinguish ourselves Continue Reading …
Episode 70: Marx on the Human Condition (Citizens Only)
On Karl Marx's The German Ideology, Part I, an early, unpublished work from 1846. What is human nature? What drives history? How can we improve our situation? Marx thought that fundamentally, you are what you do: you are your job, your means of subsistence. All the rest, this culture, this religion, this philosophy, is just a thin layer over our basic situation. Ideas are Continue Reading …
Episode 69: Plato on Rhetoric vs. Philosophy (Citizens Only)
On Plato's Dialogue, "Gorgias" (380 BCE or so). Why philosophize? Isn't it better to know how to persuade people in practical matters, like a successful lawyer or business leader? Plato (speaking as usual through Socrates) thinks that the "art" of rhetoric (persuasive speeches) isn't an art at all, in the sense of something that requires an understanding of one's subject Continue Reading …
Not Ep 69: “Gorgias” Full Cast Audioplay (Part Two)
Continuing our reading of the Platonic dialogue, Socrates (Mark) and Callicles (Dylan) duke it out. Continue Reading …
Not Ep 69: “Gorgias” Full Cast Audioplay (Part One)
Three podcasters and two listeners join to read Plato's fabulous dialogue, which is discussed in PEL Episode 69. Listening to this will be MIGHTY good preparation for listening to that discussion. Socrates (Mark) and his pal Chaerephon (Eileen), at the behest of Callicles (Dylan), call on the famous orator/teacher Gorgias (Seth) to ask him what this oratory crap is all Continue Reading …