The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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Episode 208: Epicurus on Seeking Pleasure (Citizen Edition)

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On the extant fragments of Epicurus (341–270 BCE) dealing with ethics, including his “Letter to Menoceus,” “The Principal Doctrines,” and “The Vatican Collection of Epicurean Sayings.” Plus Tim O’Keefe’s Epicureanism (2010) and Martha Nussabum’s The Therapy of Desire (1994).

How are we supposed to act once we understand nature as atoms bouncing and swerving around in the void, temporarily producing order through fortuitous collisions? Ruling out demanding gods means ethics is dictated by human nature: we avoid pain and pursue pleasure. However, we’re very bad at this, and Epicurus wants to fix all of us!

End song: “The Language of the Body” by Ant-Bee as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #68.

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Episode 207: Herder on Art Appreciation (Citizen Edition)

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On Johann Gottfried von Herder’s “The Causes of Sunken Taste among the Different Peoples in Whom It Once Blossomed” (1775), “On the Influence of the Belles Lettres on the Higher Sciences” (1781), “Does Painting or Music Have a Greater Effect? A Divine Colloquy” (1785), and some of Critical Forests: Fourth Grove (written 1769). With guest rock god John “Jughead” Pierson.

What is aesthetic taste, and why do some societies (e.g., ancient Greece) seem rife with genius while others are not? Herder has some definite ideas about aesthetic, sensual education as grounding for abstract thinking, rages against attempts to copy another culture’s art forms, and likes melody over harmony. Plus he coined the term “zeitgeist”!

End song: “Dear Resonance” by John’s band Even In Blackouts. Hear him interviewed about his music on Nakedly Examined Music #58.

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Episode 206: Lucretius’s Epicurean Physics (Citizen Edition)

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On Lucretius’s poem about Epicurean science: On the Nature of Things aka De Rerum Natura from the first century BCE.

How does the world work? Lucretius presents a system that is surprisingly modern, and raises philosophical issues that are still on point today: What are the basic building blocks of the universe? How could these give rise to minds? What ethical views does a mechanistic worldview imply?

End song: “Came Round” by Mark Lint. Read about it and get the new album.

Keep an eye out for the follow-up discussion where Mark and Wes go into more details from the text.

Episode 205 Follow-Up: Durkheim and Explanation Types (Citizens Only)

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Following on our discussion with Dr. Drew, Mark and Wes discuss Emile Durkheim’s Suicide (1897), getting into more of the details of his account and in particular exploring comparative modes of explanation: Are there really “sociological facts” distinct from mere generalizations about psychological facts?

This leads us to more discussion of the legitimacy of psychoanalytic explanations (and more details about Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror) vs. those of evolutionary psychology. Are either of these scientific in the manner of physics, or are they rather closer to speculative philosophy?

Episode 205: Suicide with Dr. Drew (Durkheim et al) (Citizen Edition)

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We are rejoined by Drew Pinsky to discuss philosophical and psychological readings on suicide by Seneca, Arthur Schopenhauer, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, Albert Camus, plus some 2017 survey papers on the state of research into predictors of suicide.

Is suicide ever morally permissible? If it’s a symptom of mental illness rather than a chosen behavior, is it even appropriate to morally evaluate it?

End song: “Disappear” by Chris Cacavas as heard on Nakedly Examined Music #87.

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Episode 204: The Bhagavad Gita’s Hindu Theology (Citizen Edition)

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On the classic Hindu text (ca. the third century BCE), part of the Indian Epic poem Mahabharata, attributed to Vyasa, using Keya Maitra’s 2018 translation/commentary.

What is it to live wisely? What grounds duty? Listen as the supreme God Krishna convinces archer hero Arjuna that it’s OK for him to kill his relatives because, you know, reincarnation and determinism and caste-related duties. With guest Shaan Amin.

End song: “Om Hari Om 1” by Tim Jordan Kirtan feat. Michael Manring. Hear Michael on Nakedly Examined Music #31.

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Episode 203: Kristeva vs. Lovecraft on Horror and Abjection (Citizen Edition)

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More on Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror (1980) plus H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” (1928).

Mark, Seth, and Dylan reflect on the nature of horror, how well Lovecraft’s story captures it, and how well Kristeva explains it. Plus, more clarity on the establishment of self and how Kristeva advances over Freud.

End song: “The Other” by Mark Lint feat. Lucy Lawless. Read about it and support the project.

Episode 202: Julia Kristeva on Disgust, Fear and the Self (Citizen Edition)

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On Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980), ch. 1 and 2.

What is horror? Kristeva’s book is about a process she calls “abjection,” where we violently reject things like corpses, bodily wastes and other fluids, and the Lovecraftian unnameable that lurks at the edge of our awareness.

The book is also all about the self, suggesting modifications to Freud’s Oedipal complex and Lacan’s mirror-stage story. With guest Kelley Citrin.

End song: “Eyes of Fire” by Jill Freeman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #28.

Watch out for Mark’s Close Reading/follow-up on this text, coming soon!

Episode 201 Follow-Up: More on Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations” (Citizens Only)

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Mark and Seth get further into the specifics of Marcus’s metaphysics and how this is supposed to relate to behavior. Can his directives really come solely “from reason” as he claims? How does this interact with the behaviors that we pursue (appropriately, according to Marcus) “by nature,” i.e., without conscious deliberation required? Seth is concerned with how individualistic the philosophy is. Mark is concerned that if you discard the metaphysics (as modern skeptics largely do), why should you expect the rest of the philosophy to be coherent?

Listen to episode 201 first.

Episode 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)

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On The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (ca. 180 CE) plus Ryan’s The Daily Stoic (2016).

What does Stoicism look like in practice, in both ancient and modern contexts? You might think that eschewing the shallow, out-of-our control trappings of fame and wealth in favor of personal cultivation would make one unambitious, but Ryan uses Marcus as a prime example of how to be a Stoic while trying to accomplish great things.

End song: “Any Way the Wind Blows” by MIR; listen to Mark talk with Asif Illyas on Nakedly Examined Music #33.

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Episode 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Citizen Edition)

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On “What Is Enlightenment” by Immanuel Kant (1784), “On Enlightening the Mind” by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and “What Is Enlightenment” by Michael Foucault (1984).

At the end of the historical period known as the Enlightenment, a Berlin newspaper asked what exactly that is, and Kant and Mendelssohn responded. Both were concerned with whether too much enlightenment among the public can cause social unrest, and so whether there should be freedom of speech and opinion. Foucault thinks that we’re not yet Enlightened, that it’s an ongoing process of critique.

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End song: “Holy Fool” by Love and Rockets. Listen to singer Daniel Ash on Nakedly Examined Music #35.

Episode 199: Guest Elizabeth Anderson on Private Government (Citizen Edition)

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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.

Episode 198 Follow-Up: More on Plato’s “Parmenides” (Citizens Only)

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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?

Episode 198: Plato’s Forms in the “Parmenides” (Citizen Edition)

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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.

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

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