Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from ep. 399 on Dan Dennett's Consciousness Explained (1991), now focusing on ch. 12-14, and again featuring Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Chris Heath. Sponsor: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health. We've given the basic outline of Continue Reading …
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Ep. 399: Dan Dennett’s Model of Mind (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from part one on Consciousness Explained, ch. 5, with some reference to ch. 12. Sponsor: Get your free trial at shopify.com/pel. Dennett seemed to be saying that the phi-phenomenon (where we see a dot as having moved and transformed into another dot, whereas it was really just Continue Reading …
Ep. 399: Dan Dennett’s Model of Mind (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Daniel C. Dennett's Consciousness Explained (Ch. 1, 5, and a bit of 12; ep. 400 will complete ch. 12 along with 13). Featuring Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Chris Heath. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. What is the mind? Dennett claims Continue Reading …
Ep. 398: Donald Davidson on Mind vs. Body (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We finish up "Mental Events" (1970) and move on to "Actions, Reasons, and Causes" (1963), still with guest Chris Heath. Start with part one. Davidson gives us some more technical ways to think about the difference between the mental sphere and the physical. The failure of behaviorism to Continue Reading …
Ep. 398: Donald Davidson on Mind vs. Body (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On "Mental Events" (1970) and "Actions, Reasons, and Causes" (1963), featuring Mark, Wes, and returning guest Chris Heath. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. Davidson was roughly in the "ordinary language" camp of analytic philosophy, Continue Reading …
Ep. 397: Federalist Papers LIVE (Part Two)
Subscribe to get the full Citizen Edition of this episode now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We now have a free-form discussion in light of what was raised in part one about the Federalist Papers and Frederick Douglass' Fourth of July Speech: What should we do about the problems identified? Is the system broken beyond repair? Was it built with fatal flaws in it? Is Continue Reading …
Ep. 397: Federalist Papers LIVE (Part One)
Subscribe to get the full Citizen Edition of this episode now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. To celebrate our nation's 250th birthday, we gathered in front of a lovely audience near Madison WI to discuss Federalist Papers 70, 78, 39, 54, 10 by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison from 1787-1788, Anti-Federalist Papers 78-80 (aka Brutus 11 and 15), and Frederick Continue Reading …
Ep. 396: Peirce on Knowledge (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from part one on "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. We start by looking more closely at the idea that all mental Continue Reading …
Ep. 396: Peirce on Knowledge (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On essays by Charles Sanders Peirce: "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities," both from 1868. Featuring Mark, Wes, Seth and Dylan. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. Are Continue Reading …
Ep. 395: C.S. Lewis Argues for Christianity (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from part one on Mere Christianity (1952), starting with book 2, "What Christians Believe." Lewis argues that the problem of evil, far from showing that there is no good God, shows that we are endowed with that moral sense that judges the world to be evil, which was Lewis' proof for Continue Reading …
Ep. 395: C.S. Lewis Argues for Christianity (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Mere Christianity, a 1952 book crafted from radio broadcasts delivered from 1941-1944. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan and Seth. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel. Lewis tries to argue to a general audience that Christianity provides a Continue Reading …
Ep. 394: Hegel on Faith vs. The Enlightenment (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We conclude our treatment for the moment of the Spirit section of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (sec. 527-73). This directly continues part one, though we began on this tear back with ep. 386 in late Feb., so that's a five-month stretch on basically the same book, either reading it or Continue Reading …
Ep. 394: Hegel on Faith vs. The Enlightenment (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), sec. 527-73, i.e. "Faith and Pure Insight" and "The Struggle of Enlightenment with Superstition." Sponsors: Don’t get caught running yesterday’s security on today’s web: visit nordlayer.com/browser. Get a $1/month e-commerce trial Continue Reading …
Ep. 393: Kant vs. Hegel (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Concluding our treatment of Ch. 2 of Hegel's Faith and Knowledge (1802). Having spent part one discussing Kant, now we're back to more knowledgably deal with Hegel's critique of him. Sponsors: Don’t get caught running yesterday’s security on today’s web: visit nordlayer.com/browser. Visit Continue Reading …
Ep. 393: Kant vs. Hegel (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing on Ch. 2 of Hegel's Faith and Knowledge (1802) about Kant, and throwing in some of the material being critiqued from Kant's Critique of Judgment (1790), chiefly sec. 76 and 77. Featuring Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan. As discussed in our last episode, Hegel objected to Kant's Continue Reading …
Ep. 392: Early Hegel Elevates Reason (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from part one on Faith and Knowledge (1802), Ch. 1 and 2. We start off by discussing how beauty might give us a window into things-in-themselves according to the Romantics, who were in part following Kant's lead. Also, what version of the ontological argument for the Continue Reading …
Ep. 392: Early Hegel Elevates Reason (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Faith and Knowledge (1802), Ch. 1 and 2. Famously, Kant critiqued Reason to effectively forbid theology and metaphysics, and a young G.W.F. Hegel was not happy about that. In this self-published essay written five years before the Phenomenology of Spirit, he argues against the Continue Reading …
Ep. 391: Habermas Defends Modernity (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content, including a supporter-exclusive part three. Continuing from part one on The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Ch. 1, 2, and 5 with guest John Ganz. We get further into the text itself, examining Habermas' characterizations of Hegel's characterizations of modernity and how Hegel's Continue Reading …
Ep. 391: Habermas Defends Modernity (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Jürgen Habermas’ The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity (1985), lectures 1, 2, and 5. Guest historian/pundit John Ganz joins Mark, Wes, Seth and Dylan to discuss Habermas' characterization of modernity, which is approximately what Hegel was criticizing as The Enlightenment. Habermas Continue Reading …
Ep. 390: Diderot Debates a Cynic (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing from part one on Rameau's Nephew, getting further into Rameau's philosophy and practices and trying to figure out what this anti-hero can tell us about ethics, given that he displays the virtue of being candid about his own vices. Sponsors: Don’t get caught running yesterday’s Continue Reading …