Consider his claims: 1) We do not know what’s best for other people and 2) Since governance is ultimately founded on the threat of violence, the government should only exert its power regarding those things that we would ourselves defend with a gun. They sound reasonable, but are interestingly wrong.
Hume on Religion: A Video Introduction to PEL Ep. 167
Watch a video introduction to David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion where he considers the argument from design. Does experience ground the inference from the orderliness of nature to a divine creator?
Bojack Horseman and Aristotelian Self-Love
The popular Netflix show is rife with philosophical questions. “Can Aristotle teach Bojack a thing or two about self-love?” is one of them.
What Is It Like to Be Ourselves? A Debate on Consciousness and the Mind
Although we spend most of our lives in a state of consciousness, as soon as we subject it to more careful scrutiny we realize that we know very little about it—how does it actually happen? And how does conscious experience fit into our scientific picture of the world?
Rhythm 0, Marina Abramović, and Freudian Ambivalence
“If you leave decisions to the public, you can be killed.” A 1974 performance art piece by Marina Abramović explores our deepest human instincts.
Facing the Other: Performance Art and Emmanuel Levinas
A look at performance artist Marina Abramović might shed some light on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas.
The Hubris of Transhumanism
Is transhumanism just dangerous over-confidence in technology?
Song Self-Exam (Pilot and How-To): “Write Me Off” by Mark Lint
As an accompaniment to the Nakedly Examined Music podcast, I’m launching a project to collect song explanations from our musician listeners: Song Self-Exams. This video explains how to do one of these and explains one of my songs relevant to the project of the new podcast. The point is to really listen, to open yourself to a work, not to treat it like a commodity.
Topic for #125: Hannah Arendt on the Political, Private, and Social
On 9/26, 6:30 Eastern, tune in to watch us discuss Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition, Parts 1 and 2, about what we need out of public and private realms to be fully human, free individuals and not pawns of society.
Ep. 118 Aftershow (Preview) on Songwriting feat. ex-Camper Chris Molla
A highlight from our musician-packed breakdown of our songwriting episode. Featuring a third (ex-) member of Camper Van Beethoven, plus Chase Fiorenza, Mike Wilson, Maxx Bartko, Danny Lobell, Mark Linsenmayer, and (not heard on this preview) Adrian Cho and Fischerspooner’s Warren Fischer. We discuss authenticity, the state of the music biz, humor in music, and more.
And now for something completely serious
A video of a classic Pre-Pythonic dialogue.
Historical File 12-1
“The Second Renaissance” is a must watch for Sci-fi and philosophy nerds alike. It’s the perfect gateway drug for discussions of human intelligence, ego, historic recurrence, phenomenology, and a dozen other philosophical topics that are not hurt by their inclusion in a robot war.
New Work Entrepreneurs (and a Now-Bountiful YouTube Channel)
Folks that were interested in our Frithjof Bergmann episodes last fall about New Work should subscribe to the New Work YouTube channel, of which I am the proprietor, with Frithjof’s encouragement and cooperation. All of the videos previously created on this topic for bloggingheads have been reedited and put in a playlist here, and I Continue Reading …
A Heap of David Brin Links
If you wanted to hear or read more from David, the place to start is his blog Contrary Brin. Here also is a collection of articles, nicely categorized, which in turn links to this collection of interviews. A couple of the topics he touched on with us include the “disputation arenas” and self-righteousness as an Continue Reading …
Not School Group Proposal: Zizek!
For March I’m proposing a Not School reading group on Zizek. The group will read a 25-page transcript of a talk he gave at the International Journal of Zizek Studies 2012 conference. It is, I think, a very nice summary of some of his key philosophical positions and where his current theoretical interests lie. The Continue Reading …
Mark and Frithjof on Community Production at Bloggingheads.tv
Watch at Bloggingheads.TV In this follow-up to our first video, Frithjof Bergmann discusses the concept of community production in more depth. To what extent is this actually happening now? Is it actually cheaper to produce goods in this setting than via mass production? Who pays for all of this? Some lingering questions get answered. -Mark Continue Reading …
Mark and Frithjof on Bloggingheads.tv
In light of our podcast discussions here and here, I’m helping Frithjof Bergmann launch what will hopefully be a series of shorter video discussions on New Work at bloggingheads.tv. We made our first recording yesterday, and it has already been posted: Watch at Bloggingheads.tv There shouldn’t be much new here for PEL listeners who’ve already Continue Reading …
Robert Skidelsky on Work
Robert Skidelsky in How Much is Enough?: Money and the Good Life (2012) uses a 1930 essay from John Maynard Keynes (which you can read here) as a jumping-off point to argue, like Bergmann, that productivity gains enabled by past technological advances make it totally reasonable that we now should be working fewer hours than Continue Reading …
Topic for #83: Frithjof Bergmann on the Job System
Listen to Mark’s introduction to this topic via our Precognition mini-episode. On Saturday, 9/21, we’re scheduled to interview Frithjof Bergmann, Professor Emeritus from the University of Michigan, about his book New Work, New Culture (published in German in 2004 and due for English-language release this year). I’ve written on this topic several times on this Continue Reading …
‘Don’t Act. Just Think’: A short comment on Slavoj Zizek’s critique of Activism
[From Sotiris Triantis] Slavoj Zizek – in a video titled ‘Don’t Act. Just Think’ – suggests that in the social and political realm we should not act but think. It’s an odd, somewhat counter-revolutionary thesis. Historical change has always been brought about by collective action. A more useful model might be: ‘First Think, Then Continue Reading …
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