We're starting a new Closereads series on an early, comparatively easy-reading Hegel essay called "The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate," (1798). Get all parts of it at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy. Continue Reading …
Ep. 329: Kierkegaard on Irony (Part Four for Supporters/Closereads Part Two)
Continuing from the previous installment, Mark and Wes conclude our read-through of the final section of The Concept of Irony, "Irony as a Controlled Element, the Truth of Irony." How can a controlled level of irony help us gain health and truth? Read along with us, starting at PDF p. 324 in the middle. Closereads supporters (see patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy) can Continue Reading …
Ep. 329: Kierkegaard on Irony (Part Three for Supporters/Closereads Part One)
Mark and Wes Closeread the conclusion to Soren Kierkegaard's On the Concept of Irony (1841), "Irony as a Controlled Element, the Truth of Irony." The discussion starts with the role of irony in good art, and then moves on to discuss the proper role of irony as an existential strategy in a well-grounded, thoughtful life. Read along with us, starting at PDF p. 321. You can Continue Reading …
Closereads: Hume on Passions (Part One)
Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get additional parts of this reading, as well as our previous and future installments of this new podcast. On Book II of A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), this time reading sections 1 and 2 in Part I, "Pride and Humility." How does David Hume deal with human emotions, given his empiricism that begins with the Continue Reading …
Closereads: Forms in Plato’s “Republic” (Part One)
Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get additional parts of this reading, as well as our previous and future installments of this new podcast. Toward the end of Book VI and into Book VII of the Republic, Plato gives a series of metaphors for the role "the good itself" plays in our knowledge and values. We read here starting at line 507b of the Continue Reading …
Ep. 325: Paul Grice on Meaning and Conversation (Part Three for Supporters/Closereads Part One)
Mark and Wes Closeread through the 1975 ordinary language philosophy paper. What are the assumptions behind everyday conversation? When someone violates a conversational norm by, e.g., giving too much information or stating something literally untrue, what are the strategies by which we try to make sense of what they're saying as still a sensible contribution to the Continue Reading …
Closereads: Epictetus’ “Discourses” (Part One)
Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get part 2 of this reading, as well as our previous and future installments of this new podcast. For the first time since 2015, we return to this foundational Stoic figure, reading through ch. 1 of this series of informal lectures written down by Epictetus' student Arrian in around 108 C.E. What is it about Continue Reading …
Ep. 324: Plato’s “Cratylus” on Language (Part Three/Closereads)
Mark and Wes do a Closeread on the latter part of the dialogue, where Socrates argues to Cratylus that even if names (words) were devised to somehow depict the things they stand for, that wouldn't guarantee that they ACCURATELY describe the world. You can't look at the definitions of words to learn about the world; you have to actually investigate the world directly. Follow Continue Reading …
Closereads: Reason in Hobbes’ “Leviathan” (Part One)
Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get parts 2 and 3 of this reading, as well as our previous and future installments of this new podcast. We've covered a lot of rationalists (I'm including the Romantics in this, strangely enough) and wanted to turn back to one of the original Enlightenment empiricists, Thomas Hobbes. His Leviathan (1651) is best Continue Reading …
Closereads on Emerson’s Oversoul: Audio and Video Podcast Premiere
Subscribe to get this discussion ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Are we underlyingly all really a single, unified organism? Or do we just have a lot in common? We begin unraveling this puzzling claim by reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1841 essay "The Over-Soul." Read along with us. This is the public premiere of a new weekly series by the most verbose of your PEL Continue Reading …
Closereads: Hegel on Spinoza (Part Three)
We conclude our Closeread of the Spinoza section from Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy (1830) by getting into some heavy metaphysical issues. Read along with us. Start with parts one and two. Watch the video: Sign up to the new Closereads Patreon: patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy, to get every episode of the new endeavor. We've provided this first series Continue Reading …
Closereads: Hegel on Spinoza (Part Two)
We're continuing from part one reading through the entry on Spinoza from Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy (1830). Read along with us. You can listen via the Citizen feed or watch the video: Note that this is a new project, not just more PEL, so to get all the episodes (parts 3 and 4 of this discussion), even if you're already a PEL Citizen through this Continue Reading …
Closereads: Hegel on Spinoza (Part One)
It's a brand new podcast! Closereads: Philosophy with Mark and Wes, where we read through and talk about a text line by line. Today we're starting the entry on Spinoza from Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy (1830). Read along with us. But you don't have to just listen: This is a video podcast... not that you have to watch the video, but maybe you'd like to. Continue Reading …