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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
PEL Nightcap New Year’s Party to Welcome 2022
Welcome to an extra special, intentionally public edition of Nightcap to catch you up on what Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan are all up to personally and intellectually and hash out what we want to potentially cover on the show over the next year. Thanks so much for being a PEL supporter. We really appreciate you and hope that your 2022 makes you happier and wiser. The next Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late December 2021
Recorded 12/3/21. We announce the new Discord server, which has been out for a few weeks now for supporters like you to chat with each other (and occasionally us). Join it. We reflect back on Thanksgiving (yes, timely, I know... back in the old days before Omicron scared us so) and talk about not drinking any more. Follow us on Instagram! Does anyone want to volunteer to Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Mid December 2021
Recorded 11/19/21. Mark, Wes, and Dylan discuss the effort by our previous guest, the now-former president of St. John's College, Pano Kanelos, to create a "free speech" college in Austin. This includes discussion of the literary canon as a concept. Also, future Kant episodes? Watch a video interview with Pano. Here's the pugilistic article about this by Niall Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late November 2021
Recorded 11/5/21. Between our Badiou episodes, we talk about potential future philosophy of science episodes (Polanyi? Hempel? Maxwell? Pickering's Constructing Quarks? Hawking?) and philosophy of mathematics episodes. A bit on Badiou's "On Subtraction," that was suggested for our coverage but isn't going in either of our episodes. Then we talk sobriety, things our sponsors Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Mid November 2021
Recorded 10/22/21. Post-Feyerabend, Mark opines on the reading whose episode he missed. Wes wants to learn new languages as an adult, and we all convey what we've done in that respect. Should we do more philosophy of science? Maybe Donna Haraway, i.e. feminist philosophy of science? We anticipate our next episode on Badiou and why we're not having a guest for it. Seth Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early November 2021
Despite our now having released both Aristotle and Lakatos, this is an aftershow to our Bell episode, specifically talking more about the essay we discussed in part two, "The Rules of Racial Standing." What kind of discourse is Bell's recitation of these "rules" that he's observed in whose speech tends to make a political impact? In that discussion, John McWhorter came Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Mid October 2021
In the aftermath of Aristotle, Seth (who did the reading but missed the discussion) gives his impressions, and we look over the wide and strange range of texts attributed to Aristotle. We look forward to philosophy of science and more Aristotle (and Badiou) and think about our next potential celebrity philosopher and circle around yet again how many modern vs. historical Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late September 2021
Recorded 9/2/21. We talk about drugs: psychedelic experiences, microdosing, CBD, plus the drug of reading fiction (literary vs. popular). Then we talk about Alien (that Wes just recorded on for subText). Mackie on moral error theory. We anticipate our Aristotle's Categories episode. Plus vaccination and sorryantivaxxer.com. Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early September 2021
Recorded 8/16/21. Seth thinks about how to continue reading Hegel and some initial political ranting about Texas and gerrymandering ensues. We think about what to read in aesthetics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of sport. (Update: the sport episode is not happening soon.) For the main event, we try to see what we can remember about the philosophy of emotions. Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late August 2021
Recorded 8/6/21. Mark and Wes hear about Dylan's tick-encounter, discuss whether Wes can break his Hegel habit when we're done ready this, and whether we should have Robert Brandom come on the podcast. Update: I have reached out for him, but he did not reply. A listener reminds you all that Mark writes helpful summaries for each of the episodes on the website, so maybe you Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late July 2021
After some musings about summer vacation and sunburn, we talk about our preparation for Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. The plan since (virtually) finalized is that we'll record three episodes on the book: The first will come out next week on the Introduction (we didn't have time to talk about the Preface even though we read it). The second will be on the first two chapters: Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Mid July 2021
Recorded June 22, 2021. Wes is on vacation, Dylan is late. Mark and Seth start with some discussion of our former guest Lynda Olman's book called Sins against Science: The Scientific Media Hoaxes of Poe, Twain, and Others and her perhaps coming back to talk about feminist philosophy of science or more generally standpoint epistemology. Just as an update on the critical race Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late June 2021
Recorded June 9, 2021. We anticipate our Schelling reading and talk about comedy: Louis CK, Bo Burnham, and Hannah Gadsby. Can music lyrics be poetry? What if you put existing poetry to music? Finally, what's our relationship to owning books? The humor book Mark mentioned is Simon Critchley's On Humor. Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Late May 2021
Recorded on 5/14/21. We anticipate our German idealism discussions, starting with a two-session run on Fichte's The Vocation of Man. Here's the Stanford article if you want a Fichte overview. Then we talk Apocalypse Now. Wes' (sub)Text podcast recorded on this, presumably right after their most recent release, the book on which it was based. We talk about the appeal of Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Mid May 2021
Recorded on 4/27/21. Seth is late, causing us to question Slack as a mode of communication a la Postman and Nightcap as a worthwhile creation. But then we go ahead and have a pretty darn interesting conversation that started with audio books, went through improv comedy, and then thought about how improv techniques could apply to doing philosophy. Finally Seth grouses about Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap Early May 2021
Recorded on April 16 after our Neil Postman discussion. We start by talking about discussion options on our sites (read Jason's post that prompted this). Discord will be coming for all Citizens (when we get to it)! We then reflect on (half of us) having read Avicenna and whether we're ever going to finish even a minimal treatment of the Middle Ages (we will!). Should we Continue Reading …