The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

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Episode 196: Guest Simon Blackburn on Truth (Part Two)

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Continuing with Simon on his book On Truth (2018).

We move to part two of the book, where we get down to the procedures used to obtain truth in art, ethics, and science. Yes, truth is objective, but it’s not best described as correspondence, and in fact this elaboration of how truth is actually obtained is more enlightening than any abstract definition meant to cover all the different types of truth-seeking.

Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition, and also Wes’s bonus conversation on Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. Please support PEL!

End song: “with you/for you” from the new cold/mess EP by Prateek Kuhad, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #79.

Sponsors: Visit Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save at partiallyexaminedlife.com/savealife, and thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL.

Episode 196: Guest Simon Blackburn on Truth (Part One)

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The Cambridge/etc. prof joins Mark, Wes, and Dylan to discuss his book On Truth (2018).

What is truth? Simon’s view synthesizes deflationism and pragmatism to avoid relativism by fixing on the domain-specific procedures we actually engage in to establish the truth of a claim, whether in ethics, science, art, or whatever. A gift of clarity after two episodes threshing through the jungles of analytic philosophy!

Don’t wait for part 2! Get the full, unbroken Citizen Edition now, as well as Wes’s discussion on Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.

Sponsors: Listen to the Hi-Phi Nation podcast at hiphination.org, and explore Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save at partiallyexaminedlife.com/savealife.

Episode 196: Guest Simon Blackburn on Truth (Citizen Edition)

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The Cambridge/etc. prof joins Mark, Wes, and Dylan to discuss his book On Truth (2018).

What is truth? Simon’s view synthesizes deflationism and pragmatism to avoid relativism by fixing on the domain-specific procedures we actually engage in to establish the truth of a claim, whether in ethics, science, art, or whatever. A gift of clarity after two episodes threshing through the jungles of analytic philosophy!

End song: “with you/for you” from the new cold/mess EP by Prateek Kuhad, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #79.

Episode 195: Truth-The Austin/Strawson Debate (Part Two)

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Continuing on “Truth” by J.L. Austin and “Truth” by P.F. Strawson, both from 1950. We proceed to the Strawson article, which critiques the notion of a “fact” as explaining why a sentence might be true. A “fact” is not a thing in the world! So what do we add when we change “The cat is on the mat” to “‘The cat is on the mat’ is true”?

Listen to Part One first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Troof” by Shawn Phillips, as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #77.

Sponsors: Listen to the Hi-Phi Nation podcast at hiphination.org, and visit lightstream.com/PEL for a discounted loan.

Episode 195: Truth-The Austin/Strawson Debate (Part One)

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On two articles in the “ordinary language” tradition of philosophy called “Truth” from 1950 by J.L. Austin and P.F. Strawson.

Is truth a property of particular speech acts, or of the propositions expressed through speech acts? Does truth mean correspondence with the facts, or does the word “fact” make this definition totally uninformative? Does saying “is true” add any information content to a sentence over and above just stating that sentence?

Don’t wait a week to hear about Strawson! Get the full, unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition of this discussion. Please support PEL!

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Episode 195: Truth-The Austin/Strawson Debate (Citizen Edition)

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On two articles in the “ordinary language” tradition of philosophy called “Truth” from 1950 by J.L. Austin and P.F. Strawson.

Is truth a property of particular speech acts, or of the propositions expressed through speech acts? Does truth mean correspondence with the facts, or does the word “fact” make this definition totally uninformative? Does saying “is true” add any information content to a sentence over and above just stating that sentence?

End song: “Troof” by Shawn Phillips, as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #77.

Bonus: Sub-Text #1: Poesis as Revenge Forsaken in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” (Part One)

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Wes Alwan and Bill Youmans discuss the 1611 play about revenge, forgiveness, and authorship. Or maybe it’s about exploitation, or how we react to changes in status, or perhaps how a liberal education can give you magical powers!

Note: Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how.

Episode 194: Alfred Tarski on Truth (Part Two)

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Continuing on Tarski’s “The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics” (1944), Hartry Field’s “Tarski’s Theory of Truth” (1972), and Donald Davidson’s “The Folly of Trying to Define Truth” (1977).

What was Tarski really doing? What are the implications of his project? Does it even make sense to define “truth,” and what should a definition look like?

Listen to part one first, or get the ad-free Citizen Edition. Look out for the Citizen-only bonus discussion of Shakespeare’s Tempest, posting soon! Please support PEL!

End song: “In Vino Vertias” by Sunspot; Mark interviewed Mike Huberty on Nakedly Examined Music #64.

Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

Episode 194: Alfred Tarski on Truth (Part One)

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On Tarski’s “The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics” (1944), Hartry Field’s “Tarski’s Theory of Truth” (1972), and Donald Davidson’s “The Folly of Trying to Define Truth” (1977).

What is truth? Tarski gives a technical, metaphysically neutral definition for truth within a particular, well-defined language. So how does that apply to real languages? He thought he was defining truth (a semantic concept) in terms of more primitive (physical?) concepts, but Field and Davidson think that actually, truth as a general concept is indefinable, even though it’s still helpful for Tarski to have laid out the relations among various semantic concepts.

Help us keep more episodes ad-free by supporting us! You can get the Citizen Edition of this episode and not have to wait for part 2, and also soon listen to Wes’s discussion of Shakespeare’s Tempest!

Episode 194: Alfred Tarski on Truth (Citizen Edition)

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On Tarski’s “The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics” (1944), Hartry Field’s “Tarski’s Theory of Truth” (1972), and Donald Davidson’s “The Folly of Trying to Define Truth” (1977).

What is truth? Tarski gives a technical, metaphysically neutral definition for truth within a particular, well-defined language. So how does that apply to real languages? He thought he was defining truth (a semantic concept) in terms of more primitive (physical?) concepts, but Field and Davidson think that actually, truth as a general concept is indefinable, even though it’s still helpful for Tarski to have laid out the relations among various semantic concepts.

End song: “In Vino Vertias” by Sunspot; Mark interviewed Mike Huberty on Nakedly Examined Music #64.

Episode 193: The Theory and Practice of Liberal Education w/ Pano Kanelos (Part Two)

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Continuing with the current St. John’s College president on articles on liberal education by Jacob Klein, Sidney Hook, and Martha Nussbaum.

What’s the practical application of a liberal education? Is it really liberating or indoctrinating? We continue discussion of the Great Books model.

Listen to part 1 first or get the ad-free Citizen Edition along with the follow-up discussion. Please support PEL!

End song: “Preservation Hill” by The Bevis Frond; Mark interviewed Nick Saloman on Nakedly Examined Music #75.

Sponsor: Listen to the Outside the Box podcast.

Episode 193: The Theory and Practice of Liberal Education w/ Pano Kanelos (Part One)

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The president of St. John’s College, Annapolis joins us to discuss Jacob Klein’s “The Idea of a Liberal Education” (1960) and “On Liberal Education” (1965), plus Sidney Hook’s “A Critical Appraisal of the St. John’s College Curriculum” (1946) and Martha Nussbaum’s “Undemocratic Vistas” (1987).

What constitutes a liberal education? Should we all read the Western canon? Klein (and our guest) think that we need to wonder at the familiar, to explore the ancestry of our current concepts in order to avoid their sedimentation.

Don’t wait for part two; get the full, unbroken Citizen Edition now; you’ll also get (soon) a bonus discussion. Please support PEL!

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Episode 193: The Theory and Practice of Liberal Education w/ Pano Kanelos (Citizen Edition)

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The president of St. John’s College, Annapolis joins us to discuss Jacob Klein’s “The Idea of a Liberal Education” (1960) and “On Liberal Education” (1965), plus Sidney Hook’s “A Critical Appraisal of the St. John’s College Curriculum” (1946) and Martha Nussbaum’s “Undemocratic Vistas” (1987).

What constitutes a liberal education? Should we all read the Western canon? Klein (and our guest) think that we need to wonder at the familiar, to explore the ancestry of our current concepts in order to avoid their sedimentation.

End song: “Preservation Hill” by The Bevis Frond; Mark interviewed Nick Saloman on Nakedly Examined Music #75.

Episode 192: “The Closing of the American Mind”: Allan Bloom on Education (Part Two)

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Continuing on Allan Bloom’s 1987 book critiquing the current fragmented structure of the university that promotes technical and professional education over the ability to think philosophically. Does Bloom’s vision require aristocracy, or can a Great Books education be available for all?

Listen to part 1 first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Your Citizenship will also get you access to an exclusive follow-up discussion. Please support PEL!

End song: “Greatness (The Aspiration Song)” by Colin Moulding’s TC&I, explored on Nakedly Examined Music #74.

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL, the Outside the Box podcast, St. John’s College at partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjc, and lightstream.com/PEL for a loan.

Episode 192: “The Closing of the American Mind”: Allan Bloom on Education (Part One)

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On Allan Bloom’s 1987 best-selling polemic. What is the role of the university in our democracy? Bloom thinks that today’s students are conformist, relativistic, and nihilistic, and that great books and thinking for thinking’s sake are the cure.

Continued on part 2, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now, plus an exclusive follow-up discussion. Please support PEL!

Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

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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