Recorded 7/9/23. For the first time, we're presenting the unedited version of this to all you supporters on video, if you'd prefer to watch us than listen. Mark, Wes, and Seth trade a few tech-gone-wrong stories and give a preliminary response to a request that we cover some philosophy of technology on the show. We've already done plenty of philosophy of mind that covers Continue Reading …
Citizen Feed Episodes: Paywalled and Ad-Free
Available only to PEL Citizens: All of our paywalled and ad-free regular episodes in a single feed. That includes paywalled full episodes from the back catalogue, Nightcap and (Starting in September 2020) Part 2 of all episodes. You can add this feed to the podcast app of your choice by following the instructions here. You can download them, listen to them here, or get them on the podcast app of your choice by following the instructions here. Not a Citizen? Join here.
Ep. 321: August Schlegel on Beauty (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on our excerpt from Theory of Art (ca. 1800), we get more into the text, covering Schlegel's critique of various elements of Kant's philosophy of art. We start with the distinction between free and accessory beauty: Are there some perceptions of beauty that are entirely divorced from a notion of the purpose or type of thing that we're perceiving as Continue Reading …
Ep. 321: August Schlegel on Beauty (Part One for Supporters)
Covering the elder Schlegel brother's Theory of Art (ca. 1800), as excerpted in Theory as Practice: A Critical Anthology of Early German Romantic Writings. August Wilhelm Schlegel was five years older than Friedrich, and was also a well known art critic of his time. This text is a Romantic response to Kant's Third Critique, and we looked back at Kant's comments on the Continue Reading …
Ep. 320: Friedrich Schlegel on Romanticism (Part Three for Supporters)
Mark and Wes conclude our discussion of the younger Schlegel brother by going through more of his critical fragments, largely published in 1797 in the journal Lyceum tier schonen Kunste. Start with parts one and two. We relate appreciation of art to appreciation of purposiveness a la Shaftesbury, try to figure out what Schlegel means by "wit," the place of otherness in a Continue Reading …
Ep. 320: Friedrich Schlegel on Romanticism (Part Two for Supporters)
We continue on Schlegel's "Dialogue on Poesy" (1799) and "Concerning the Essence of Critique" (1804). How can Romantic art always aim at some common source of our humanity yet also require originality? How can having some sort of common mythology help artists be original in this way, and how can we embrace mythology as modern people? We try to figure out this "Speech on Continue Reading …
Ep. 320: Friedrich Schlegel on Romanticism (Part One for Supporters)
On selected fragments from 1797-1801, "Dialogue on Poesy" (1799), and "Concerning the Essence of Critique" (1804). What makes art "Romantic"? Friedrich Schlegel (and his older brother August Schlegel, whom we'll read for ep. 321) were both art critics based in Jena, Germany, which was also where Fichte, Schelling, Schiller, and even Goethe were based at the time. The Continue Reading …
Ep. 319: Schiller on Experiencing Beauty (Part Three for Supporters)
In our final word on Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), we cover letters 24-27 in more detail than we had time for in supposedly finishing with this reading in part two. Schiller talks first about hypothetical Reason, where Reason doesn't actually pull us toward Kantian morality, but just lets us get what we want more effectively. By granting us Continue Reading …
Ep. 319: Schiller on Experiencing Beauty (Part Two for Supporters)
Starting with letter 20 in On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), we tell more of the story of how art is supposed to get us from sensation to thinking. This continues from part one and ultimately from ep. 318. As a Romantic, Schiller's aesthetic theory is very central to his take on epistemology and human nature. For Kant (whose aesthetic theory Schiller is working off Continue Reading …
Ep. 319: Schiller on Experiencing Beauty (Part One for Supporters)
On the second half of Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), with Mark, Wes, and Dylan. You might want to listen to ep. 318 first. While the overall argument is still that an education in appreciating art can transform the masses from desire-driven savages into rational beings worthy of representative government, starting around letter 14 through the Continue Reading …
Ep. 318: Friedrich Schiller on the Civilizing Potential of Art (Part Three for Supporters)
Mark and Wes dive deeper into the text of the first several letters of On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795). Start with part one. Are verbal descriptions of art destined to fall short? Beauty for Kant (and hence Schiller) is semi-conceptual, in that it uses the cognitive tools that are employed in making concepts, but doesn't actually come up with a concept; instead the Continue Reading …
Ep. 318: Friedrich Schiller on the Civilizing Potential of Art (Part Two for Supporters)
We continue (from part one) working through letters 1-15 of On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), helped by Markus Reuter. By the end of this, we get a clearer picture of what Schiller means by the experience of Beauty. We have a sensuous drive on the one hand to fill our experience with material stuff, and a form drive on the other that raises us up (a la Plato) to wonder Continue Reading …
Ep. 318: Friedrich Schiller on the Civilizing Potential of Art (Part One for Supporters)
Can art make us better people? Musician Markus Reuter joins Mark, Wes, and Seth to discussion the first half of On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795). Schiller was a famous poet of early German Romanticism, and this book is partly political philosophy and partly philosophy of art. The work takes the form of a series of letters. We read 1-15 for this discussion and will cover Continue Reading …
Ep. 317: Character Philosophies in Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov” (Part Two for Supporters)
To conclude our discussion of the novel, we turn to the philosophies of Dmitri and Ivan. Start with part one, or better yet, ep. 316. Dmitri is fixated on honor and its conflict with his romantic desires, and this causes him to make all sorts of terrible decisions that drive much of the plot of the novel. Ivan is a more complicated case, because so much of his motivations Continue Reading …
Ep. 317: Character Philosophies in Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov” (Part One for Supporters)
Exiting the high-pressure live situation of our last episode, Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan ponder the 1869 novel in a more leisurely way. First, we revisit the prime "problem of evil"-related arguments in the book, and then look at textual passages to see how the various brothers deal with the problems of existence in an imperfect world. The Christian story says that evil and Continue Reading …
Ep. 316: Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov”: PEL Live in NYC (Citizen Edition)
On Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1880 novel, focusing mostly on the "Rebellion" and "Grand Inquisitor" chapters, featuring Mark, Wes, Seth and Dylan at the Caveat in Lower Manhattan. How can we reconcile ourselves to the existence of evil and suffering? The character Ivan Karamazov gives an argument that we just can't. This is a variation of the classic argument from evil against the Continue Reading …
PEL Nightcap April 2023
Recorded 4/3/23 as we prepped for our live show, Mark, Wes and Dylan talk about The Last of Us and possible future episodes on animal ethics and/or animal consciousness, the death drive, plus the already tentatively scheduled episodes about the Romantics and Kierkegaard. In the course of this, we consider the relationship between philosophy and scientific fact. The Martha Continue Reading …
PEL Live Brothers K Video for Q&A by 4/22
Hey, supporters. Thanks to anyone who came out to our show last Saturday or bought a streaming ticket. This was a pretty short show by PEL episode standards, so we're going to beef up part two (and three?) of our upcoming episode by answering questions from you, the supporters at home. We plan on recording these on Sunday morning, so please email them to us by Saturday: Continue Reading …
Ep. 315: Mengzi (Mencius) on Virtuous Leaders (Part Two for Supporters)
To conclude our treatment of this seminal Confucian text, we consider a particularly puzzling passage about ethics and then move to politics and economics. Start with part one, or better yet, with part one of ep. 314. The passage 7A17 says only "Do not do what you would not do. Do wish what you would not wish. Only be like this," and we found an article by David Nivison (p. Continue Reading …
Ep. 315: Mengzi (Mencius) on Virtuous Leaders (Part One for Supporters)
Following up on our previous discussion, we go further into the collected teachings of this early Confucian (aka Ruhist) from the late 4th century BCE. What's the best way to be a virtuous person and hence (on the ancient Chinese view, contra someone like Machiavelli) an effective leader? We review and elaborate Mengzi's moral psychology, which is based on humaneness that Continue Reading …
Ep. 314: Mengzi (Mencius) on Moral Psychology (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on the teachings of Mengzi from ca. 350 BCE. Our guest has gone, and so Mark, Wes, Dylan and Seth dive into textual quotes, starting with verse 2A6 which says that we all have "sprouts" of humaneness, rightness, propriety, and wisdom. In a move that was not actually in Confucius, Mengzi claims that everyone is basically good, in that we all have these Continue Reading …