The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

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Ep. 239: Montesquieu Invents Political Science (Citizen Edition)

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On The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Charles Louis de Secondat, aka Baron de Montesquieu.

What keeps a society functioning? Montesquieu, though of course not the first political philosopher, was perhaps the first to systematically explore correlations between characteristics of a government, its people, its climate, dominant industries, religion, and other factors. Some of his ideas directly influenced the American Constitution, and some of them are very very weird.

End song: “King of the Hill” by MINUTEMEN. Listen to Mark interview Mike Watt on Nakedly Examined Music #108.

Ep. 238: Lingering Questions

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Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth summarize thoughts about our recent series on social construction, gender and sex, and Judith Butler’s notion of “grievable lives.” Should we stop covering so much contemporary work and/or political topics?

End song: “The Size of Luv” by Mark Lint from Mark Lint’s Dry Folk (2018).

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Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Part Two)

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Continuing on Benjamin’s “Critique of Violence” (1921).

Mark, Wes, and Seth keep trying to figure out this difficult essay. Is Benjamin really advocating a workers’ revolution to end the state, or just reflecting on a hypothetical to explore the limits of the concept of violence?

According to Judith Butler’s interpretation of the essay, the takeaway is the alternative to motivation through force, i.e. speech, which Benjamin (in other essays) gives some religious significance, but the way he actually concludes the essay is in a discussion of “divine violence” as somehow transcending means-end analysis and the corruption inherent in violence.

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End song: “Jericho” from hackedepiciotto, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #116.

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Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Part One)

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On “Critique of Violence” (1921). What is violence? Benjamin gives us a taxonomy: law-creating, law-preserving, mythological, and divine. Then he deconstructs his own distinctions to demonstrate that all state power is rotten through its being founded on and continually re-established by violence or the threat of it.

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Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Citizen Edition)

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On “Critique of Violence” (1921). What is violence? Benjamin gives us a taxonomy: law-creating, law-preserving, mythological, and divine. Then he deconstructs his own distinctions to demonstrate that all state power is rotten through its being founded on and continually re-established by violence or the threat of it.

End song: “Jericho” from hackedepiciotto, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #116.

Ep. 236: Judith Butler Interview: “The Force of Nonviolence”

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On The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind (2020).

What is it to be nonviolent in political activity? Most ethics allow for self-defense, but Judith has a problem with defining “self” as well as “violence,” and offers a full critique of the individualism that underlies typical Western approaches to both ethics and politics.

Mark, Seth, and Wes interview Judith about these issues and the connection to Gender Trouble.

End song: “Dancing with Death,” discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #111 with Marty Willson-Piper.

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Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part Three)

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Concluding “Gender Trouble” (1990), with just Mark, Wes, and Seth going carefully through pt I, sec v: “Identity, Set, and the Metaphysics of Substance,” and pt III, sec iv: “Subversive Bodily Acts: Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions.”

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End song: “I’m a Boy” by Lys Guillorn as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #44.

Please support the fight against leukemia at partiallyexaminedlife.com/cancer.

Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part Two)

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More Gender Trouble (1990) with Jennifer Hansen. We get into the metaphysics of substance (is gender an attribute that a person has, or is there a better way to describe the situation?), performatives, Beauvoir vs. Irigaray on femininity, and the available mechanisms for changing gender norms.

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Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Citizen Edition)

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On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how?

Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as “performed,” as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. Her idea of social construction is so totalizing that even biological sex itself is constructed. With guest Jennifer Hansen.

End song: “I’m a Boy” by Lys Guillorn as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #44.

Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part One)

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On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how?

Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as “performed,” as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. Her idea of social construction is so totalizing that even biological sex itself is constructed. With guest Jennifer Hansen.

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Ep. 234: Beauvoir on Romance in “The Second Sex” (Part Two)

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Concluding Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen.

We continue on the ailments of women under patriarchy as well as the existential problems that we’re all subject to. Are we doomed to isolation, or does existentialism allow for intimacy? Is marriage in “bad faith”? We also talk narcissism, abjection, and the film Marriage Story.

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End song: “Easier than Leaving” by Michaela Anne, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #114.

Please contribute to the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society through Mina Linsenmayer’s campaign at partiallyexaminedlife.com/cancer.

Ep. 234: Beauvoir on Romance in “The Second Sex” (Part One)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen. What is love under patriarchy? We all want to achieve solidity in another’s eyes, but the Othered woman wants to live through the man, and the man sees the woman as his rejected corporeal character. Party time!

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Ep. 234: Beauvoir on Romance in “The Second Sex” (Citizen Edition)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen. We explore the maladies of love, try to figure how B’s picture relates to modern romance and what her positive prescription for good love is, and use the recent film A Marriage Story as a case study.

End song: “Easier than Leaving” by Michaela Anne, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #114.

Ep. 233: Plato’s “Protagoras” on Virtue (Part Two)

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Continuing on the dialogue, where Socrates argues that Protagoras doesn’t actually know what virtue is, because he thinks that the various virtues (especially courage) are distinct, a claim that Socrates refutes in several (logically suspect) ways.

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End song: “Make It Clear” by Feelies; hear Glenn Mercer on Nakedly Examined Music #41.

Ep. 233: Plato’s “Protagoras” on Virtue (Part One)

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On the Platonic dialogue written around 380 BCE about an encounter between Socrates and one of the leading Sophists of his day.

What is virtue (“the political art” according to Protagoras), and can it be taught? What are the relations of the various virtues to each other? Do they really amount ultimately to one and the same thing, i.e., wisdom? In this entertaining dialogue, Socrates and Protagoras swap positions, and Socrates seems to parody the Sophists’ style.

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Ep. 233: Plato’s “Protagoras” on Virtue (Citizen Edition)

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On the Platonic dialogue written around 380 BCE about an encounter between Socrates and one of the leading Sophists of his day.

What is virtue (“the political art” according to Protagoras), and can it be taught? What are the relations of the various virtues to each other? Do they really amount ultimately to one and the same thing, i.e., wisdom? In this entertaining dialogue, Socrates and Protagoras swap positions, and Socrates seems to parody the Sophists’ style.

End song: “Make It Clear” by Feelies; Mark interviewed Glenn Mercer on Nakedly Examined Music #41.

Ep. 232: Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (Part Two)

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Continuing Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) with guest Jennifer Hansen.

How does one become a Subject and how do women traditionally get shut out of this process? We get into Vol. 2, “Lived Experience” where Beauvoir details how this drama unfolds in various stages of life. Also, religion, logic, the relation of biology to situation, and more. How do we modernize Beauvoir’s critique given the evolution in women’s positions since the book was written?

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End song: “Wrong Side of Gone” by Beth Kille as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #13.

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Ep. 232: Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (Part One)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): the intro, conclusion, “Woman’s Situation and Character” and parts of “Lived Experience,” with guest Jennifer Hansen.

According to Beauvoir, Woman is historically conceived of by society (and herself) as “Other,” as not a Subject who creates and makes decisions. Her life is predetermined, revolving around marriage and child-bearing, and is so deformed by this situation.

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Ep. 232: Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (Citizen Edition)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): the intro, conclusion, “Woman’s Situation and Character” and parts of “Lived Experience,” with guest Jennifer Hansen.

According to Beauvoir, Woman is historically conceived of by society (and herself) as “Other,” as not a Subject who creates and makes decisions. Her life is predetermined, revolving around marriage and child-bearing, and is so deformed by this situation.

End song: “Wrong Side of Gone” by Beth Kille as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #13.

Ep. 231: Descartes’s “Discourse” on Wisdom and Certainty (Part Two)

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Continuing on Descartes’s Discourse on Method, looking closely at part 4 (his proto-Meditations) and his “provisional” Stoic ethics.

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End song: “My Real Fantasy” By Joe Louis Walker, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #110.

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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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