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You can also see them organized by topic. For episodes marked "Preview," you can access the full episode at our store, or you could become a PEL Citizen and get them from our Free Stuff for Citizens page.

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Ep. 309: Wittgenstein On Certainty (Part One)

January 23, 2023 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. Discussing the notes Ludwig Wittgenstein made at the end of his life in 1951 that were published as On Certainty in 1969, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Check out the Overthink podcast and Conversations with Coleman. Attend our live show in NYC on April 15. These were in direct response to the essays by G.E.  Continue Reading …

Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two)

January 16, 2023 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get both parts of this episode ad free along with tons of bonus content including first crack on tickets to PEL Live April 15 in Manhattan. Continuing from part one, we quickly complete our treatment of G.E. Moore’s "Proof of the External World" (1939) and move on to consider "Certainty" (1941). Sponsors: Check out the Weird Studies podcast at  Continue Reading …

Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part One)

January 9, 2023 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On G.E. Moore’s "Proof of the External World" (1939) and "Certainty" (1941), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Similar to the essay we covered in our last episode, Moore is defending common sense realism against idealists who claim that the external world is not mind-independent but is instead made up of ideas,  Continue Reading …

Ep. 307: G.E. Moore Defends Common Sense (Part Two)

January 2, 2023 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get both parts of this episode ad free, plus a supporter exclusive PEL Nightcap discussion. Continuing from part one on "A Defense of Common Sense" (1925), now down to Mark, Wes, and Dylan. We get into the nitty gritty of Moore's argument: Against idealism, Moore argues that physical facts are in now way dependent on mental facts; for instance, the  Continue Reading …

Ep. 307: G.E. Moore Defends Common Sense (Part One)

December 26, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On "A Defense of Common Sense" (1925), featuring Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan. Various philosophers will tell you that the only thing you experience is your own ideas, and hence the world outside of your mind is something wholly unknowable, or if it is knowable, it must be because those supposedly physical objects are  Continue Reading …

Ep. 306: Dworkin and the Dobbs Decision (Part Two)

December 19, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free, plus a supporter exclusive Part 3. Continuing from part one on Ronald Dworkin's "Unenumerated Rights: Whether and How Roe Should be Overruled" (1992) and the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2021) decision featuring guest Robin Linsenmayer. Sponsors: Visit StoryWorth.com/pel to save $10 making it easy for your loved  Continue Reading …

Ep. 306: Dworkin and the Dobbs Decision (Part One)

December 12, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. Does the U.S. Constitution guarantee the right to an abortion? Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth are joined by lawyer/sister Robin Linsenmayer to discuss Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2021) and Ronald Dworkin's "Unenumerated Rights: Whether and How Roe Should be Overruled" (1992). We previously considered  Continue Reading …

Ep. 305: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” (Part Two)

December 5, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free, plus a supporter exclusive Part 3. Continuing from part one on McCarthy's 1985 novel, we discuss whether the plentiful, explicit violence in the book is actually gratuitous or whether it's central for presenting the book's philosophy. What makes the book supposedly unfilmable? The Partially Examined Life is sponsored by  Continue Reading …

Ep. 305: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” (Part One)

November 28, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 4 Comments

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On McCarthy's 1985 anti-Western novel, featuring Wes, Seth, and Dylan. How does violence play a role in the way the world works? The novel tells a historically based story of the 19th century Glanton gang who were hired as scalp hunters by the Mexican government but then went on a rogue massacre. It's told from the  Continue Reading …

Ep. 304: Dworkin v. Hart on Legal Judgment (Part Two)

November 21, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get both parts of this episode ad free, plus a supporter exclusive PEL Nightcap discussion. Continuing from part one on Roland Dworkin's "The Model of Rules" (1967) and Scott J. Shapiro's "The 'Hart-Dworkin' Debate: A Short Guide for the Perplexed" (2007), plus some of Dworkin's "Hard Cases" (1977). We go through some responses by Hartians to Dworkin's  Continue Reading …

Ep. 304: Dworkin v. Hart on Legal Judgment (Part One)

November 14, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On Ronald Dworkin's "The Model of Rules" (1967) and Scott J. Shapiro's "The 'Hart-Dworkin' Debate: A Short Guide for the Perplexed" (2007). How do judges make decisions in hard cases? When the law "runs out" and doesn't definitively decide, e.g., whether we have a general "right of privacy," do judges then just draw  Continue Reading …

Ep. 303: H.L.A. Hart on the Foundations of Law (Part Two)

November 7, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free, plus a supporter exclusive Part 3. Continuing from part one on "Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals" (1958) and The Concept of Law (1961), ch. 5 and 6. If law is not based on morality, then why obey the law? Hart claims that it's just a fact that most of us feel most of the time that we should obey the law. If this  Continue Reading …

Ep. 303: H.L.A. Hart on the Foundations of Law (Part One)

October 31, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On "Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals" (1958) and The Concept of Law (1961), ch. 5 and 6. What's the relationship between law and morality? If law isn't founded on morality, what is it founded on? Hart was a leading figure in the philosophy of law, and wrote in the tradition of legal positivism that goes  Continue Reading …

Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part Two)

October 24, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free, plus a supporter exclusive Part 3, which you can preview. Continuing from part one on The Praise of Folly (1509) with guest Nathan Gilmour. Can foolishness actually make us more prudent, which sounds like its opposite? Well, having the wisdom to avoid all trouble keeps us from getting experience that would be helpful in acting  Continue Reading …

Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part One)

October 17, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. On Desiderius Erasmus' The Praise of Folly (1509), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Nathan Gilmour from the Christian Humanist podcast. Does foolishness enhance life? The Dutch Renaissance Catholic theologian known for his disputes with Martin Luther criticized the church from the inside, using gentle satire that  Continue Reading …

Ep. 301: Is Abortion Morally Permissible? (Part Three)

October 10, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

Subscribe to get all three parts of this episode ad free, plus a supporter exclusive Nightcap discussion about representation in discussions like this (i.e. are only women qualified to talk about the morality of abortion?), which you can preview. Jenny Hansen joins us for our final part of this discussion, covering "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion" by Mary Anne  Continue Reading …

Ep. 301: Is Abortion Morally Permissible? (Part Two)

October 3, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get Parts 1, 2, and 3 ad-free right now. We continue from part one on Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" (1971), and then add Don Marquis' "Why Abortion is Immoral" (1989) and we begin our treatment of Mary Anne Warren's "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion" (1973), which we'll conclude in part three of this discussion. We pry further  Continue Reading …

Ep. 301: Is Abortion Morally Permissible? (Part One)

September 26, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

Subscribe to get parts 1, 2 and 3 of this now, ad-free. We discuss some widely read papers about the morality of abortion, starting here with a selection from the Roe v. Wade decision (1973) and Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" (1971). Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Roe tried to sidestep the philosophical question of the current personhood of a  Continue Reading …

Ep. 300: Nietzsche on Relating to History (Part Two)

September 19, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free, plus a supporter exclusive Part 3, which you can preview. Continuing from part one on “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1874), we get into the antiquarian use of history and the critical approach to history and Nietzsche's humanistic goals in his essay. One surprising notion that Nietzsche throws in is that even  Continue Reading …

Ep. 300: Nietzsche on Relating to History (Part One)

September 12, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. In this special live-streamed show, we discuss Friedrich Nietzsche's “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1874), which is Untimely Meditations #2, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. What is the healthiest way to relate to our history? More generally, should we live lives driven purely by reason,  Continue Reading …

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