Steve is a one-man band, overdubbing his compositions both in jazz (steel drum!) and pop/rock (featuring his unique and sometimes disco-high voice). He's also drummed and/or fronted bands (The Bureau/BAMF!, Love Lies Dreaming, Fingers), and in fact co-fronted the college/indie psychedelic/eclectic band The MayTricks with Mark back the early '90s. The common thread through all Continue Reading …
NEM#6. Steve Petrinko: Self-Contained Stalwart
NEM#5. Jeff Heiskell: Positive Vérité
Jeff was the voice of JudyBats until '94, and is now Heiskell. He sings with character, or characters, always articulate, overly introspective, with intimacy issues. We discuss his current status as happy, self-funded, free-styled, hands-off yet obsessive compulsive solo artist (with a very intuitive supporting group!), as contrasted with his high-pressure, compromise-filled Continue Reading …
PEL Special: Nakedly Examined Music #1 with David Lowery
Our first spin-off podcast has launched successfully! PEL host Mark Linsenmayer talks to songwriters about why and how they do what they do: Call it applied philosophy, the specifics that go into making this most popular of our arts. And who better to kick things off than David Lowery, lead singer of both Camper van Beethoven and its more famous alt-rock child, Cracker? You Continue Reading …
NEM#4. Gareth Mitchell: Granular Creativity
I bring you the mysterious Gareth Mitchell, a post-rock academic and innovative guitarist who put out two albums of experimental soundscapes under the monicker Philosopher's Stone and now uses recorded splices of treated guitar (among other things) made into loops to meticulously construct electronic music, as on his upcoming album, 72, written in the wake of the death of his Continue Reading …
Episode 133: Erich Fromm on Love as an Art
On Fromm's The Art of Loving (1956). A Valentine's Day special topic! What is love, really? This psychoanalyst of the Frankfurt school thinks that real love is not something one "falls" into, but is an art, an activity, and doing it well requires a disciplined openness and psychological health. Love is the answer to the deep human need to rid ourself of isolation, but a mere Continue Reading …
NEM#3. Kevin Godley: Pure Play in the Devil’s Shoes
Kevin Godley is a multi-media master, having directed many of the coolest music videos you've ever seen. But before that, he was half of Godley & Creme and 1/4 of 10cc, singing, drumming, and mostly coming up with ideas, ideas, and more ideas. Today he runs Whole World Band, a platform for collaborative video creation, and recently released his iBook autobiography Continue Reading …
NEM#2. Fritz Beer: Knuckle Draggin’ To and Fro
Fritz maintains a cool, direct front-man persona even while engaging in self-help, snarling social commentary, and referencing classic literature. He aims to write simple, repetitive songs that catch you and hit you and make you their dog. He's been out there since the '80s, moving around the country from band to band, but consistently delivering the goods. On this episode Continue Reading …
Episode 132: Living Stoically with Seneca and Massimo
On selected "moral epistles" (from around 65 CE) by Lucius Annaeus Seneca: 4. On the Terrors of Death, 12. On Old Age, 49. On the Shortness of Life, 59. On Pleasure and Joy, 62. On Good Company, 92. On the Happy Life, 96. On Facing Hardship, and 116. On Self Control. We're joined by Massimo Pigliucci of the How to Be a Stoic blog, who for a long time was on the Rationally Continue Reading …
Episode 131: Aristotle’s “De Anima”: What Is the Mind?
Our second discussion of De Anima or On the Soul (350 BCE), this time on book 3. What is the intellect? In ep. 130, we talked about Aristotle's idea of the soul as the form of the body and about two of its functions or parts: the nutritive and the sensitive. Here we talk more about how sensation is supposed to work according to Aristotle, and how the sense organs interact Continue Reading …
NEM#1: David Lowery on Story Songs and Songs About Nothing
Welcome to the premiere episode of Nakedly Examined Music, where a songwriter and I go in depth on three of his or her songs. David is the lead singer of Camper van Beethoven and Cracker, and has of late been a music business professor and a major advocate for artists' rights, even testifying before Congress. The three songs we discuss are: "All Her Favorite Fruit," Continue Reading …
Episode 130: Aristotle’s “De Anima”: What Is Life?
On De Anima or On the Soul (350 BCE), books 1 and 2. We lead off with listener mail; Aristotle starts 18 minutes in. What can this ancient text tell us about biological life? Much of the interest and difficulty here is the very different conceptual schemes at play: What counts as a scientific explanation? Aristotle gives a highly general account about what, for all living Continue Reading …
Holiday Special 2015: Mark Lint’s “Songs from the Partially Examined Life” with Many Guest Greetings
PEL gets nostalgic, playing songs and bringing back guests from yesteryear. Both beloved former guests and some new behind-the-scenes friends of PEL chatted with Mark about what they're up to, and each of them took on a song to try to make sense of. Some of the many projects we discuss include: The 2016 PEL Calendar, with sweet philosophy art by Sterling Bartlett and Continue Reading …
Episode 129: Is Faith Rational?
Nathan Gilmour (Christian Humanist podcast) and Pastor Rob Dyer join Mark and Wes for to discuss the reasonableness of religious belief reading: Antony Flew, "The Presumption of Atheism" (1976) Norwood Russell Hanson, “The Agnostic’s Dilemma” (1971) Steven Cahn, "The Irrelevance of Proof to Religion" (1969) Alvin Plantinga, “Is Belief in God Properly Basic?” Continue Reading …
Episode 128: Hilary Putnam on Linguistic Meaning
On "The Meaning of Meaning" (1975). So if per Kripke (we're following the thread from #126), meaning is NOT a matter of having a description in your head, then what is it? Hilary Putnam reformulates Kripke's insight in terms of Twin Earths: If Earth-water is H2O, and on Twin Earth, they have something that looks just like water but is a different compound, then we wouldn't Continue Reading …
Episode 127: John Dewey on Experience and the World
On Experience and Nature (1925), through ch. 4. What's the relationship between our experience and the world that science investigates? Dewey thinks that these are one and the same, and philosophies that call some part of it (like atoms or Platonic forms) the real part while the experienced world is a distortion are unjustified. We need to remove the unjustified split Continue Reading …
Episode 126: Saul Kripke on Possibilities, Language & Science
On Naming and Necessity (1980). What's the relationship between language and the world? Specifically, what makes a name or a class term (like "tiger") pick out the person or things that it does? Saul Kripke wanted to correct the dominant view of his time (which involved speakers having some description in mind, and it's that description that hooks the word to the thing), and Continue Reading …
Not School Digest: Asimov, Camus, Jaspers, Brecht, Peirce, Historical Jesus
Discussion clips covering topic we haven't had time to cover on the podcast proper. Brief yourself on these topics via the enclosed 10–15 minute bursts, or become a PEL Citizen to listen to these bonus discussions in their full length. Mark is joined by Nathan Hanks to tell you how to get involved in a discussion yourself. First, learn about Isaac Asimov's story, "The Last Continue Reading …
Episode 125: Hannah Arendt on the Political & Private
On The Human Condition (1958), Prologue and Sections 1 and 2. How has our distinction between the private and public evolved over time? Arendt uses this history, and chiefly the differences between our time and ancient Athens, to launch a critique of modern society. In thinking about public, practical necessities like the economy, we've lost sight of the distinction between Continue Reading …
Q&A with the Partially Examined Life, Pittsburgh 9-25-15
What is it like to do philosophy in public? As prelude to our ep. 125 appearance at the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Network Conference on theory and public space, Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan sat down for questions by moderator Erica Freeman, conference host Justin Pearl, conference presenters Jeremy Northup and Jonathan Wurtz, Not School luminary Marilyn Lawrence, our Continue Reading …
Episode 124: The Stoic Life with Epictetus
On the Manual of Epictetus, aka The Enchiridion, from around 135 CE. What's a wise strategy for life? What is freedom? Stoicism says that the secret is mastering yourself. If you let yourself be perturbed by things that happen to you, then you're a slave to those external things. Your good lies only in the things you can (with practice) control, i.e., your own attitudes, Continue Reading …
Episode 123: Economics with Hayek and Sen (Intro by Seth Benzell)
On F.A. Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (1945) and Amartya Sen's On Ethics and Economics (1987). Is economics a pseudoscience? Certainly, trying to model a phenomenon mathematically and so predict, for example, the consequences of proposed legislation is better than acting blindly, but given the complexity of the system, are the simplifications required to create a Continue Reading …
Ep 121/122 Aftershow on Augustine feat. James Wetzel
Haven't had enough Augustine? Host Danny Lobell and Wes Alwan reflected on our recent discussions on Augustine's Confessions, with an actual Augustine scholar, James Wetzel of Villanova University, author of such books as Augustine and the Limits of Virtue (2008), Augustine: A Guide for the Perplexed (2010), and Parting Knowledge: Essays after Augustine (2013). Also on the call Continue Reading …
Episode 122: Augustine on Mind and Metaphysics
Yet more on The Confessions (400 CE), this time on books 10–13. What is memory and how does it relate to time and being? Augustine thinks that memory is a storehouse, but it contains not just the sensations we put in it, but also (à la Plato's theory of recollection) really all legitimate knowledge. It's our route to God, to real Being. Mark, Wes, and Dylan also discuss Continue Reading …
Episode 121: Augustine on Being Good
On The Confessions (400 CE), books 1–9. The question is not "What is virtue?" because knowing what virtue is isn't enough. The problem, for Aurelius Augustinus, aka St. Augustine of Hippo, is doing what you know to be right. However, we shouldn't expect our capacity to know to be operating well unless we're already oriented correctly, which for Augustine means toward God. Continue Reading …
Episode 120: A History of “Will” with Guest Eva Brann
We discuss Un-Willing: An Inquiry into the Rise of Will's Power and an Attempt to Undo It (2014) with the author, covering Socrates, Augustine, Aquinas, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Sartre, compatibilism, the neurologists' critque of free will, and more. What is the will? Is it an obvious thing that we all can see in ourselves when introspecting? If so, then why is there so much Continue Reading …
Episode 119: Nietzsche on Tragedy and the Psychology of Art
On Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy (1872), which was his first book. What's the connection between art and society? Nietzsche thought that you could tell how vital or decadent a civilization was by its art, and said that ancient Greek tragedy (like Antigone) was so great because it was a perfect synthesis of something highly formal/orderly/beautiful with the Continue Reading …
Episode 118: The Musical Life with Guests from Camper van Beethoven
Why write songs? What is it to have "integrity" as a musician? To be "authentic?" Is there anything wrong with playing pure pop songs, or aping styles created by those now dead? Our guests Victor Krummenacher and Jonathan Segel (of the famed indie band Camper van Beethoven) have a beef with the Internet society where music and other trappings of identity are now available Continue Reading …
Episode 117: Discussing Sophocles’s “Antigone”
About that ancient Greek tragedy (441 BCE)... What can we learn from it? Are its literary tropes and ethical conflicts so far removed from us that the best we can do is marvel at it? Heck, no! Classic literature is great fodder for philosophical discussion, and the doings of the play can be fruitfully related to our modern troubles with ethics and the state. Mark, Wes, and Continue Reading …
“Antigone” Read by PEL with Lucy Lawless and Paul Provenza
An unrehearsed, dramatic read-through of the text we'll be discussing on ep. 117, a Greek tragedy written around 441 BCE, telling the myth of the cursed line of Oedipus, mother-f*#king king of Thebes. Featuring Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan, plus special guest starts Lucy Lawless as Antigone, Paul Provenza as Creon, Alice Sinclair as Ismene, and John Castro as Haimon. After the Continue Reading …
Episode 116: Freud on Dreams
On Sigmund Freud's On Dreams (1902), a bit of The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and the lecture, “Revision of the Theory of Dreams” (1933). For Wes Alwan's Freud summaries, go here: https://www.philosophysummaries.com. Are dreams just a bunch of random crap? Freud says, no, they're actually the first and best way to figure out the structure of the mind, which Continue Reading …
Episode 115: Schopenhauer on Music with Guest Jonathan Segel
On Arthur Schopenhauer's The World As Will and Representation (1818), vol. 1, book 3, sections 34, 38-39, 40, 45, and focusing on 51 and 52, plus chapters 34 and 39 from vol. 3 (1844). This continues our previous discussion of book 2 and the beginning of book 3. Is music just pleasing, structured sound? Schopenhauer thinks it's much more than that: it's our way of Continue Reading …
Episode 114: Schopenhauer: “The World Is Will”
On Arthur Schopenhauer's The World As Will and Representation (1818), book 2. Sure, we know from our senses and science what the world looks like to creatures like us, but if you buy Kant's view that this "world as appearance" is a construct of our minds, what's the reality behind the appearance? Schopenhauer thinks that we can know this: The world is what he calls Continue Reading …
Episode 113: Jesus’s Parables
Drawing on John Dominic Crossan's The Power of Parable, mainly ch. 3 (2012), Paul Ricoeur's "Listening to the Parables of Jesus" (1974), and Paul Tillich's The New Being, ch. 1: "To Whom Much Is Forgiven..." (1955). Are these weird stories riddles, where if you figure out what they mean you get salvation? Are they homilies, telling you to go be like the Good Samaritan? Continue Reading …
Episode 112: Ricoeur on Interpreting Religion
On Paul Ricoeur's "The Critique of Religion" and "The Language of Faith" (1973). Last episode taught us about hermeneutics, but how can this best be applied to the text for which hermeneutics was originally developed, i.e. the Bible? For Ricoeur, it's a two-way street: We need to change our understanding of the text (i.e. read it historically, recognizing for example that it Continue Reading …
Episode 111: Gadamer’s Hermeneutics: How to Interpret
On Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method (1960, ch. 4), "Aesthetics and Hermeneutics" (1964), "The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem" (1966), and "Hermeneutics as Practical Philosophy" (1972). Hemeneutics is all about interpretation, primarily of texts, but of other things too, and Gadamer thinks that even if we learn all about the history and customs and probable Continue Reading …
Close Reading (Preview) of Heidegger on Truth
Mark Linsenmayer and Seth Paskin read and interpret Martin Heidegger's essay "On the Essence of Truth" (1943), first half. This is a 17-minute preview of a two-hour, 38-minute bonus recording, which you can purchase at partiallyexaminedlife.com/store or get for free with PEL Citizenship (see partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership). You can also purchase it at iTunes Store: Continue Reading …
Ep. 110 Aftershow (Preview) with Stephen West
Stephen West of the Philosophize This! podcast returns to host the Aftershow for PEL episode #110 on Alfred North Whitehead. In this preview you'll hear Stephen, Dylan Casey (who has a lot to say about process philosophy and science), and David Buchanan (guest from our Pirsig episode and PEL blogger). Later in the conversation they were also joined by Amough Sahu. This is a Continue Reading …
Close Reading (Preview) of Kant on the Sublime
Mark Linsenmayer and Wes Alwan read and interpret Kant's Critique of Judgment, sections 23-25. This is a 13-minute preview of a 72-minute bonus recording, which you can purchase at partiallyexaminedlife.com/store or get for free here with PEL Citizenship (see partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership). You can also purchase it at iTunes Store: Search for "Partially Examined Kant Continue Reading …
Episode 110: Alfred North Whitehead: What Is Nature?
On The Concept of Nature (1920). Whitehead thinks that old-timey metaphysics wrongly insists that what's fundamental in the world to be studied by science is things (substance) moving around in space and time. We don't actually experience any such thing as "substance," so on this view we end up with an uncrossable gap between the world of our experience and that of science. Continue Reading …
Precognition of Ep. 110: Whitehead
Mark Linsenmayer outlines Alfred North Whitehead's book The Concept of Nature (1920) on the relation between experience and science, and how to think about space, time, and objects. After listening to this, get the full discussion. Read more about the topic and get the text. PEL Citizens can download the transcript from the Free Stuff for Citizens page. Continue Reading …
Ep. 109 Aftershow (Preview) with Stephen West
Stephen West of the Philosophize This! podcast hosts a new PEL offering: An Aftershow to a PEL episode, in this case #109 on Karl Jaspers. Hear questions and comments from super-smart PEL listeners, Stephen, and Mark Linsenmayer. What does Jaspers mean by "transcendence?" Do you buy the claim that science doesn't give you a world-view? What is a world-view anyway? What are Continue Reading …
Episode 109: Jaspers’s Existentialism with Guest Paul Provenza
On Karl Jaspers's "On My Philosophy" (1941), featuring comedian/actor/director/author Paul Provenza. What's the relationship between science and philosophy? What about religion? Jaspers thinks that science gives you facts, but for an overarching world-view, you need philosophy. Living such a world-view requires Existenz, or a leap towards transcendence, which is of course Continue Reading …
Precognition of Ep. 109: Karl Jaspers
Mark Linsenmayer introduces Jaspers's essay, "On My Philosophy" (1941) on Existenz and the difference between philosophy, science, and religion. After you listen to this, get the full PEL discussion. Read more about the topic and get the text. PEL Citizens can download the transcript from the Free Stuff for Citizens page. Continue Reading …
Episode 108: Dangers of A.I. with Guest Nick Bostrom
On Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) with author Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at Oxford. Just grant the hypothetical that machine intelligence advances will eventually produce a machine capable of further improving itself, and becoming much smarter than we are. Put aside the question of whether such a being could in principle be conscious or Continue Reading …
Episode 107: Edmund Burke on the Sublime
On A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1756), parts I, II, and his later intro essay, "On Taste." Are people's tastes basically the same? Burke says yes: they're rooted in our common reactions to pain and pleasure, those two are not opposites, but simply quite different properties, each associated with a different set of Continue Reading …
Not Ep. 107: The 12 Interminable Days of Xmas: A Musical Extravaganza
Mark Lint and the PEL Orchestra present the longest, slowest, biggest, fattest, most surreal Christmas carol ever. First Mark explains for a minute what this is (you can read it here), then off we go on a long, strange trip, with different verses of the holiday classic arranged in styles from baroque to folk to metal to disco. Featuring Jonathan Segel (from Camper Van Continue Reading …
Episode 106: Pyrrhonian Skepticism According to Sextus Empiricus
On Outlines of Pyrrhonism , Book 1, from around 200 CE. Are our beliefs warranted? Skeptics following in the footsteps of Pyrrho (who lived just after Aristotle, around 300 BCE, but didn't leave us any writings, so Sextus, centuries later, has to fill us in) think that for any argument someone puts forward (at least about the nature of reality), you can come up with a Continue Reading …
Episode 105: Kant: What Is Beauty?
On Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment (1790), Pt. 1, Book 1. Kant thinks that finding something beautiful is different than merely liking it. It's a certain kind of liking, not dependent on your idiosyncratic tastes (like your preference for one color or flavor or tone over another) or on your moral opinions. He wants these judgments to be subjective in the sense that Continue Reading …
Episode 104: Robert Nozick’s Libertarianism
On Anarchy, State & Utopia (1974), ch. 1-3 and 7. What moral limits should we put on government power? Nozick thinks that the only legitimate functions of government are protection and enforcement of contracts. Contra Rawls, Nozick's "entitlement" version of justice doesn't look at income inequality or any other pattern of holdings, but only at whether holdings were Continue Reading …
Precognition of Ep. 104: Robert Nozick
Seth Paskin introduces Anarchy, State, and Utopia about libertarianism and the limits of legitimate government power. Watch for the full discussion to be released in a couple of weeks. Read more about the topic and get the book. Continue Reading …