The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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Most Recent Episodes

Episode 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Part Two)

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Continuing on “What Is Enlightenment” by Immanuel Kant (1784), “On Enlightening the Mind” by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and “What Is Enlightenment” by Michael Foucault (1984).

We finish up Kant (the courage to know!) and lay out the Mendelssohn (cultivation vs. enlightenment) and Foucault (ironically heroize the present!). Will this conversation enlighten you? Who knows?

Listen to part one first or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL! Participate in the survey to help us plan our 10 year anniversary PEL Live event!

End song: “Holy Fool” by Love and Rockets. Listen to singer Daniel Ash on Nakedly Examined Music #35.

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NEM#84: Laura Davis Was “The Girl in the Back” (of the Student Teachers)

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Laura Davis-Chanin of the Phi Fic podcast drummed in the late ’70s NYC punk band The Student Teachers and has written about it in The Girl in the Back: A Female Drummer’s Life with Bowie, Blondie, and the ’70s Rock Scene (2018).

We discuss the book and listen to songs from Invitation To… The Student Teachers (2013): “Looks,” “Christmas Weather,” plus as an intro, “Channel 13.” Laura also co-wrote lyrics to two Blondie songs: we hear some of “Angels in the Balcony” from Autoamerican (1980) plus “Slow Motion” from Eat to the Beat (1979).

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Episode 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Part One)

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On “What Is Enlightenment” by Immanuel Kant (1784), “On Enlightening the Mind” by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and “What Is Enlightenment” by Michael Foucault (1984).

At the end of the historical period known as the Enlightenment, a Berlin newspaper asked what exactly that is, and Kant and Mendelssohn responded. Both were concerned with whether too much enlightenment among the public can cause social unrest, and so whether there should be freedom of speech and opinion. Foucault thinks that we’re not yet Enlightened, that it’s an ongoing process of critique.

Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live to help us plan the 10-year anniversary live event!

Don’t wait for part 2! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit ZipRecruiter.com/pel to try this hiring service for free. Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

Episode 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Citizen Edition)

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On “What Is Enlightenment” by Immanuel Kant (1784), “On Enlightening the Mind” by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and “What Is Enlightenment” by Michael Foucault (1984).

At the end of the historical period known as the Enlightenment, a Berlin newspaper asked what exactly that is, and Kant and Mendelssohn responded. Both were concerned with whether too much enlightenment among the public can cause social unrest, and so whether there should be freedom of speech and opinion. Foucault thinks that we’re not yet Enlightened, that it’s an ongoing process of critique.

Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live to help us plan the 10-year anniversary live event!

End song: “Holy Fool” by Love and Rockets. Listen to singer Daniel Ash on Nakedly Examined Music #35.

Episode 199: Elizabeth Anderson on Equality (Part Three: Discussion)

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Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan continue to discuss “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999) and how it lays foundations for Private Government (2017). What is democratic equality, and can a Rawlsian/liberal/neutral-with-regard-to-defining-the-good state consistently advocate for this ideal?

Our interview with Liz starts in Part One. You can get all three parts together, plus (soon) Wes’s new (sub)Text episode on Freud, with a PEL Citizenship or $5 Patreon pledge. Please support PEL!

Sign up at patreon.com/marklint to support new PEL music, as the Mark Lint’s Dry Folk album is completed this fall!

End song: “Straight Job” by Rod Picott. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #80.

NEM#83: Rat Scabies’s Damned Drumming

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We discuss “Dazy Bones” and “Rat’s Opus” from that 2018 album, then look back to The Damned’s “History of the World (Part One)” from The Black Album (1980), then end by listening to Rat’s cover of the Kraftwerk classic “Autobahn” with The Germans from Do Not Fuck With the Germans (2003). Intro/outro: “Love Song” by The Damned from Machine Gun Etiquette (1979). For more, visit ratscabies.com.

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Episode 199: Guest Elizabeth Anderson on Private Government (Part Two)

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Continuing on Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).

Should the amount of respect that a worker gets be proportional to his or her market value? Our guest tells us more about how all citizens have the right to have their interests considered and what this means for how the relationship between employers and employees might change. We talk health care, income inequality, Tyler Cowen, libertarianism, and more.

Start with part one. We’ll do some post-guest discussion in part 3, but you needn’t wait: Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL.

If you enjoyed Mark’s music on our episodes 1–149, please contribute to the new album through patreon.com/marklint.

Episode 199: Guest Elizabeth Anderson on Private Government (Part One)

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The U. of Michigan prof joins us to discuss Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about It) (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).

What is a government? Liz argues that this includes companies, and that we should thus apply political science concepts in evaluating their power. Her egalitarianism involves everyone retaining a minimum level of inalienable autonomy, and we should resist encroachments on this not just by the state but from employers as well.

Don’t wait for parts 2 and 3! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Listen to the Outside the Box podcast.

Episode 199: Guest Elizabeth Anderson on Private Government (Citizen Edition)

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The U. of Michigan prof joins us to discuss Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about It) (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).

What is a government? Liz argues that this includes companies, and that we should thus apply political science concepts in evaluating their power. Her egalitarianism involves everyone retaining a minimum level of inalienable autonomy, and we should resist encroachments on this not just by the state but from employers as well.

End song: “Straight Job” by Rod Picott. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #80.

NEM#82: Byron Isaacs Emerges from Bassland

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Byron is an in-demand session/touring bassist whose main band since 2004 has been NYC’s Ollabelle. We talk about “Losing You” and “Gypsy Wind” from his debut solo album, Disappearing Man (2018), plus “Gone Today” by Ollabelle from Riverside Battle Songs (2007), and finish with”Horizontal Man” by Lost Leaders from their 2014 eponymous album. Intro: “Heaven’s Pearls” by Levon Helm from Electric Dirt (2009). For more, visit byronisaacs.com.

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Episode 198 Follow-Up: More on Plato’s “Parmenides” (Citizens Only)

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Mark and Seth continue our conversation from ep. 198 by going through the arguments in the second half of the dialogue.

This puzzling section is largely a monologue by the character Parmenides, with the stated aim of showing the implications from first, the assumption that the One exists, and then that the One does not exist. But is this really Parmenides’s One or the Platonic Form of Oneness? Can these be the same thing?

Episode 198: Plato’s Forms in the “Parmenides” (Part Two)

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We get down to the specific questions considered in this perplexing Platonic dialogue: Are there Forms for all adjectives? Does the Form of a property itself have that property? How do Forms connect with particulars? How can we mortals have any connection to heavenly Forms anyway?

Listen to part one first or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition along with the follow-up episode. Please support PEL!

End song: “Young and Lovely” by Jherek Bischoff. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #65.

Sponsors: Visit ZipRecruiter.com/pel to try this hiring service for free. Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial. See moderndayphilosophers.net to hear the new season!

Episode 198: Plato’s Forms in the “Parmenides” (Part One)

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On the most peculiar Platonic dialogue, from ca. 350 BCE.

Are properties real things in the world, or just in the mind? Plato is known for claiming that these “Forms” are real, though otherworldly. Here, though, using Parmenides as a character talking to a young Socrates, Plato seems to provide objections here to his own theory. What’s the deal?

Don’t wait for part two! Get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now! Please support PEL!

Sponsor: Check out Sam Yang’s Must Triumph podcast at musttriumph.com.

Episode 198: Plato’s Forms in the “Parmenides” (Citizen Edition)

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On the most peculiar Platonic dialogue, from ca. 350 BCE.

Are properties real things in the world, or just in the mind? Plato is known for claiming that these “Forms” are real, though otherworldly. Here, though, using Parmenides as a character talking to a young Socrates, Plato seems to provide objections here to his own theory. What’s the deal?

End song: “Young and Lovely” by Jherek Bischoff. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #65.

NEM#81: Lindsay Murray Is Gretchen’s Wheel

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Lindsay has released four albums and an EP of depressed alternative rock under the band name Gretchen’s Wheel since 2015, providing a modern model of accessible yet professional DIY recording.

We focus on Black Box Theory, covering “Untethered,” “Tatyana,” and “Plans,” plus “Save the Day” from Sad Scientist (2017). Intro: “Total Loss” from Fragile State (2015). For more, visit gretchenswheel.com.

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon.

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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