Update: I am planning a new course for fall, tentatively focused on the big books of early Continental Philosophy, e.g. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, Heidegger’s Being and Time, and Sartre’s Being and Nothingness. By necessity, the treatments of these will be very much introductory, but I’m still trying to figure out whether to have multiple sessions on these books or whether to just dart in to give you all a sampling and so be able to feature 8-10 different books (e.g. I could then include Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Gadamer’s Truth and Method). In any case, this new course would be appropriate both for those who already took my Core Texts in Philosophy course, but also to those who have never taken a course from me at all. The approach would be similar to that of the previous class: Meetings every other week, a not-overly-long reading that I want everyone to look at (that will have a podcast to listen to as well to help you on your way), with the invitation to read more or look at secondary literature if this is not your first time through or you otherwise have more energy.
I’ll have specific scheduling information up soon and will begin to collect names and availability so that I can figure out how many sections to offer and when.
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Mark Linsenmayer, your Partially Examined Life host, has gotten back to working with students (remotely), running a class for 30 people over 10 sessions in Fall 2023, and will now be repeating this same Core Texts in Philosophy course for a new group that could include YOU.
This will be beginner-friendly, but I also welcome students who are returning to these texts to deepen their understanding. Classes are guided discussion, giving you the opportunity to develop your speaking/summarizing skills just like on a PEL episode.
Classes will be limited to not more than 20 students and will be conducted over Zoom.
When is it?
I’m offering three sections (and there is still room in all of them for YOU). Each section consists of 10 sessions that last 1 hr 15 min. Whichever you sign up for, you can come to one of the others if you have a scheduling conflict.
- Fridays at 5pm ET/4pm CT
Jan. 19; Feb. 2, 16; Mar. 1, 15, 29; Apr. 12, 26; May. 10, 24
(Note: If unforeseen problems arise with one of these dates, like Mark gets COVID again or has a network outage, that class date will be shifted to the subsequent off-week.) - NEW: Saturdays at 11:30 ET/10:30 CT
…following the Fridays above, so the first class would be Jan. 20. - Mondays at noon ET/11am CT
…following the Fridays above, so the first class would be Jan. 22.
What are the readings?
- Death of Socrates (Apology/Crito/Phaedo)
- Plato’s Republic (his politics and theory of forms)
- Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
- Stoicism (selections from Epictetus/Seneca/Marcus Aurelius)
- Descartes’ Meditations (rationalism)
- Hume’s Enquiry (empiricism)
- Kant’s Epistemology (his Prolegomena)
- Kant’s Ethics (vs. other ethical approaches: utilitarianism, virtue ethics)
- Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
- Sartre/Beauvoir: “Existentialism Is a Humanism” and part of Ethics of Ambiguity
Do I actually have to read them? Is there homework? Tests?
Each week has at least one PEL episode associated with it, and I expect you to listen and have some thoughts. You should also try to at least start the readings to get a flavor. The more you’re able to read, the more you’ll learn.
Study questions are provided. If you’d like feedback on your writing or one-on-one time, you can purchase one-off tutoring sessions (typically $50 for the first hour, negotiated after that).
What if I can’t make it to one or more of the sessions?
Each session is recorded; you can watch them according to your schedule. Too much going on that week? Just skip it and come to the next one, or come to one of the other scheduled sessions that week.
How much does it cost?
$320 for the course (10 sessions). (If this is too steep for you, contact me about a possible payment plan or discount.)
I also expect you to maintain an active PEL Citizenship (whether through our website, Patreon, or Apple) through the duration of the class (so $5/month), as some of the episodes you’ll need to listen to are paywalled, and our Discord server used for optional additional discussion is also restricted to supporters.
If you’d like just the recordings of the course, without coming to the live sessions, the cost is $250.