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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. 296: Heidegger Questions Being (Part One)

June 27, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. This close reading of sections near the beginning of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1926) is a direct sequel to ep. 32, which provides an overview of his project. In this episode and 297, we read and discuss particular textual passages, so you can experience along with us what it's like to read this text with its  Continue Reading …

REISSUE-Ep 32: Heidegger on Being (w/ new Intro)

June 20, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get more vintage episodes like this and an expanded version of this new introduction. Discussing Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927) back in 2011, mostly the intro and Ch. 1 and 2, featuring Mark, Seth, and Wes. But first, a retrospective introduction by all four of us. When philosophers try to figure out what really exists (God? matter? numbers?),  Continue Reading …

Ep. 295: Kant on Preventing War (Part Two)

June 11, 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 Immanuel Kant's essay "Perpetual Peace," we go further into how Kant's politics relate to his ethics and consider his actual policy proposals: each state must be a republic, i.e. somehow representative with separation of powers, and countries should  Continue Reading …

Ep. 295: Kant on Preventing War (Part One)

June 6, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus the supporter-only part 3 that will come out next week. On Immanuel Kant's essay "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch" (1795). Do nations have the "right" to go to war? What principles ground just international relations, and are there structures and agreements that we can embrace to prevent prevent future wars?  Continue Reading …

Ep. 294: Quine on Science vs. Epistemology (Part Two)

May 30, 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 "Epistemology Naturalized" (1969), we work further through the text, getting into what this new psychology-rooted epistemology might look like. Sponsors: Get access to comprehensive software monitoring and 100GB of data free at NewRelic.com/pel.  Continue Reading …

Ep. 294: Quine on Science vs. Epistemology (Part One)

May 23, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus a supporter-only part 3. On W.V.O. Quine's "Epistemology Naturalized" (1969), featuring Mark, Wes, and Seth. Sponsors and Plugs: Maximize the impact of your charitable giving via GiveWell.org; choose "podcast" and enter "Partially Examined Life."Get a free T-shirt with your first order at  Continue Reading …

Ep. 293: Donna Haraway on Feminist Science (Part One)

May 9, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective" (1988), "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" (1985), "A Game of Cat’s Cradle: Science Studies, Feminist Theory, Cultural Studies"  Continue Reading …

Ep. 292: Langer on Symbolic Music (Part One)

April 24, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 8-10 ("On Significance in Music," "The Genesis of Artistic Import," and "The Fabric of Meaning" respectively), plus ch. 7, "The Image of Time," from her Form and Feeling (1953). Is music a language? If it's "expressive," what exactly  Continue Reading …

Ep. 291: Cassirer and Langer on Myth and Ritual (Part One)

April 11, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Ernst Cassirer's his An Essay on Man (1944), ch. 6-7, and Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 6-7. This discussion featuring Mark, Wes, and Seth follows the introduction of these books and the argument that we are primarily symbolic creatures in ep. 290. Why do  Continue Reading …

Ep. 290: Susanne Langer on Our Symbol-Making Nature (Part One)

March 28, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 1-5, plus as background most of us looked at Langer's main influence Ernst Cassirer via his An Essay on Man (1944), ch. 1-5. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. What is human nature, and why does natural science have such trouble studying it?  Continue Reading …

Ep. 289: Aesthetic Sense Theory: Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume (Part One)

March 14, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On David Hume's "The Standard of Taste" (1760) and its two main influences: The Moralists: A Philosophical Rhapsody (1709) by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, aka the third Earl of Shaftesbury, Part III section 2 "Beauty," and An Inquiry Concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design (1725) by  Continue Reading …

Ep. 288: Scruton on Ethical Art (Part One)

February 28, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 4 Comments

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Roger Scruton's Beauty (2009), ch. 5-9, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. The latter half of the book completes the survey of types of beauty that we discussed last episode by considering issues in our appreciation of artworks, and then develops a moral and political argument for  Continue Reading …

Ep. 287: Roger Scruton on Beauty (Part One)

February 14, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Beauty (2009), ch. 1-4, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Scruton just died in Dec. 2020; he had taught aesthetics for more than 30 years, and this book provides an overview of issues in the philosophy of art. The chapters we read this time include an overview chapter, then  Continue Reading …

REISSUE-Ep 16: Arthur Danto on Art (w/ New Intro)

February 7, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 4 Comments

To anticipate our imminent return to studying aesthetics, Mark, Seth and Dylan newly introduce our very first episode in this area from way back in March 2010, featuring Mark, Seth and Wes discussing three chapters of Danto's The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art (1986): the title essay, "The Appreciation and Interpretation of Works of Art," and "The End of Art." What  Continue Reading …

Ep. 286: Malebranche on Causality and Theology (Part One)

January 23, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get Parts 2 and 3 of this episode. You can hear previews of parts two and three. Hear this part ad-free. On Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion (1688), dialogues 5-7, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Continuing from ep. 285, we've gathered more of the pieces of Malebranche's picture of epistemology, metaphysics, and science to explain his most famous  Continue Reading …

Ep. 285: Nicolas Malebranche on Knowledge (Part One)

January 9, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. On Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion (1688), dialogues 1-4, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Malebranche presents a rationalist epistemology that is more like an early modern version of Plato than anyone else we've read. He comes chronologically between Descartes and Leibniz, and provided some  Continue Reading …

PEL Special: Nightcap New Year’s Party to Welcome 2022

January 3, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

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. The next full episode (on Malebranche) will be released next week. Listen to this episode ad free. Image by Solomon  Continue Reading …

Ep. 284: Mark Twain’s Philosophy of Human Nature (Part One)

December 20, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. On "What Is Man" (1905) by Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan and Seth. This rare bit of philosophy wasn't published until after Twain's death (maybe because it was too bleak?), but apparently reflects the mechanistic, cynical take on humanity that informed his literary works. Twain was  Continue Reading …

Ep. 283: Alain Badiou on Love (Part One)

December 5, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On "What Is Love," which is ch. 11 of Conditions (1992), supplemented by In Praise of Love (2009 with Nicolas Truong), with Mark, Wes, Dylan and Seth. In our episode introducing Badiou, we said that love is a "truth procedure," and here we see (sort of) what this means. Love is about  Continue Reading …

Ep. 282: Alain Badiou: What Is Philosophy? (Part One)

November 21, 2021 by Mark Linsenmayer 11 Comments

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Conditions (1992), Ch. 1 "The (Re)turn of Philosophy Itself," featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Badiou is arguing against contemporary post-structuralist French philosophers like Derrida and Foucault whom he characterizes as denying the existence of truth. Philosophy as a  Continue Reading …

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  • Evan on Episode 130: Aristotle’s “De Anima”: What Is Life?
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