The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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Available only to PEL Citizens: All of our paywalled and ad-free regular episodes in a single feed. That includes paywalled full episodes from the back catalogue, Nightcap and (Starting in September 2020) Part 2 of all episodes.  You can add this feed to the podcast app of your choice by following the instructions here. You can download them, listen to them here, or get them on the podcast app of your choice by following the instructions here. Not a Citizen? Join here.

Ep. 313: Mozi’s Political Ethics (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one on the central Mohist text, with guest Tzuchien Tho. Was Mozi really only concerned with material well-being? Is the lack of this well-being why people act badly? We talk more about Mozi's arguments against elaborate funerals and music (and art in general). Plus, we look at Mozi's words against war and whether his defense of some past wars makes  Continue Reading …

Ep. 313: Mozi’s Political Ethics (Part One for Supporters)

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On the central Mohist text, collecting the teachings of Mozi (aka Mo Tzu), from the Chinese Warring States period around 430 B.C.E., with guest Tzuchien Tho joining Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. The full book is very long, so we used the portions translated by Burton Watson in his Mo Tzu: Basic Writings (1963). Tzuchien was previously on our Confucius (aka Kongzi) episode, and  Continue Reading …

PEL Eulogies Nightcap Late March 2023

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Mark, Seth, and Dylan talk about what makes for a fitting tribute for those departed and mourning customs (which we've been thinking about in light of our Mozi and Mengzi episodes). We then talk about how and whether Daoism has made a practical difference in our lives. Watch the trailer for Griefwalker that Seth refers to. Pick up Eva Brann's new book, Pursuits of  Continue Reading …

Ep. 312: The Dao De Jing on Virtue (Part Two for Supporters)

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Concluding our discussion of the Daodejing with guest Theo Brooks. This continues directly from part one, but you should really start with ep. 311. Sections covered in this part of the discussion include: Next episode: We're reading another figure from the Chinese Warring States period: Mozi, specifically the Basic Writings selected and translated by Burton Watson.  Continue Reading …

PEL Self-Help Nightcap Early March 2023

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Recorded 2/10/23 between our two Daodejing discussions, the full foursome reflects on the interpretive challenges of that text and then consider the activity of reading philosophy and Daoism in particular as self-help. This issue should not of course be confused with the question, "Is studying philosophy beneficial for your live?" but sure enough, we pretty much slide into  Continue Reading …

PEL Mini-Nightcap and Announcements: Meet Theo!

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Who is this Theodore Brooks that has graced our presence on ep. 311 and who we liked enough to ask back for ep. 312? Note that Karyn Lai that Theo mentions is the prof. who's working with Peter Adamson on his History of Philosophy in China series. Watch her talk about the I Ching (Book of Changes), which though not in itself a work of philosophy is a foundational source for  Continue Reading …

Ep. 311: Understanding the Dao De Jing (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one with guest Theodore Brooks on the central Daoist text attributed to Laozi. We start with more discussion of practical vs. metaphysical interpretations of the first chapter. In either case, Laozi recommends not being too self-conscious; you want to be fully present in your activities, open to the subtle cues of your environment, without too much  Continue Reading …

Ep. 311: Understanding the Dao De Jing (Part One for Supporters)

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The Daodejing (or Tao Te Ching) from around 500 BCE, attributed considerably after its production to Laozi (or Lao Tzu according to an older but still prevalent style of transliteration; it just means "old master") is the fundamental text of Daoism (Taoism), but what they hell does it mean? Well, it depends on which of its hundreds of translators you ask. We selected the  Continue Reading …

PEL Nightcap February 2023

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Recorded 1/27/23. Mark, Wes, and Seth anticipate our upcoming Dao De Jing discussion, talk about Dostoevsky's life and what makes The Brothers Karamazov worth your time to read. But what about War and Peace? Is there a reason for us to not be covering this novel as the Russians are being so naughty war-wise now? Should we do an episode on Hebrew Biblical ethics to compare  Continue Reading …

Ep. 310: Wittgenstein On World-Pictures (Part Two for Supporters)

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Concluding our discussion of On Certainty, with guest Chris Heath. Listen to part one first. We spend more time with quotes from the book and try once again to figure out what Wittgenstein's philosophy of science is. We finally fill out Wes' take on conspiracy theories and how they relate to this text. How do people actually get convinced to change their minds about their  Continue Reading …

Ep. 310: Wittgenstein On World-Pictures (Part One for Supporters)

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We continue picking at Ludwig Wittgenstein's On Certainty (written 1951), with Mark, Wes, Dylan and Seth now supplemented by guest Chris Heath, who is a guy who's very into philosophy of science who runs a Discord philosophy server. This is really the fourth discussion in this series; we recommend you start with ep. 307 on G.E. Moore, or at least ep. 309 where we started  Continue Reading …

PEL Nightcap January 2023

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Recorded on 1/12/13, Mark, Wes, and Dylan first talk about our upcoming Dostyevsky live show (April 15 in NYC; we hope to have tickets on sale soon, and supporters will get first crack at them) and talk about our debate over translations of The Brothers Karamazov, as inspired by this article and this one. Here's the reddit page that actually pulls passages from both  Continue Reading …

Ep. 309: Wittgenstein On Certainty (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing our discussion from part one of On Certainty (1951), we do some close reading of the text. How does he actually respond to Moore's argument about his hand? How does he extend his account to talk about mathematical and scientific statements? Is Wittgenstein a pragmatist? You may want to review our episode on William James' pragmatist definition of truth. We  Continue Reading …

Ep. 309: Wittgenstein On Certainty (Part One for Supporters)

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Discussing the notes Ludwig Wittgenstein made at the end of his life in 1951 that were published as On Certainty in 1969, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. These were in direct response to the essays by G.E. Moore that we discussed in episodes 307 and 308, so we talk about the status of so-called "Moorean propositions" like "physical objects exist," "the world is more  Continue Reading …

Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one, we quickly complete our treatment of G.E. Moore’s "Proof of the External World" (1939) and move on to consider "Certainty" (1941). In the latter paper, Moore considers various "obvious" statements about his current situation (in my case now: I am writing this, I am sitting down, I have fingers, I am in my house on earth, etc.). These are all  Continue Reading …

Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part One for Supporters)

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On G.E. Moore’s "Proof of the External World" (1939) and "Certainty" (1941), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Similar to the essay we covered in our last episode, Moore is defending common sense realism against idealists who claim that the external world is not mind-independent but is instead made up of ideas, and also skeptics who claim that we can't know (or know with  Continue Reading …

PEL Nightcap 2022 Wrap-Up

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Recorded Dec. 11, 2022 by Mark, Wes, and Dylan before our first Moore discussion, so not an intentional holiday release, but we already had supporter audio for our Dobbs discussion, so you get this now. We start out with one more listener appreciation recording that I somehow overlooked before (from Dennis) and use this to reflect on whether our discussions are actually  Continue Reading …

Ep. 307: G.E. Moore Defends Common Sense (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one on "A Defense of Common Sense" (1925), now down to Mark, Wes, and Dylan. We get into the nitty gritty of Moore's argument: Against idealism, Moore argues that physical facts are in now way dependent on mental facts; for instance, the existence and position of the moon don't depend on anyone's beliefs about the moon. Reality is mind  Continue Reading …

Ep. 307: G.E. Moore Defends Common Sense (Part One for Supporters)

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On "A Defense of Common Sense" (1925), featuring Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan. Various philosophers will tell you that the only thing you experience is your own ideas, and hence the world outside of your mind is something wholly unknowable, or if it is knowable, it must be because those supposedly physical objects are actually somehow ideas as well. Moore defends our  Continue Reading …

Ep. 306: Dworkin and the Dobbs Decision (Part Three for Supporters)

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Concluding on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2021) Supreme Court decision. We talk more about the rationale for the decision and in particular the dissent by Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. How do the arguments made play into philosophers' fears about the tyranny of the majority in democracies? Is democracy the best and only way to protect our rights, or can  Continue Reading …

Ep. 306: Dworkin and the Dobbs Decision (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one on Ronald Dworkin's "Unenumerated Rights: Whether and How Roe Should be Overruled" (1992) and the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2021) decision featuring guest Robin Linsenmayer. Dworkin thinks that the distinction between enumerated and unenumerated rights really doesn't make sense. All legal language is vague and requires  Continue Reading …

Ep. 306: Dworkin and the Dobbs Decision (Part One for Supporters)

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Does the U.S. Constitution guarantee the right to an abortion? Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth are joined by lawyer/sister Robin Linsenmayer to discuss Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2021) and Ronald Dworkin's "Unenumerated Rights: Whether and How Roe Should be Overruled" (1992). We previously considered Dworkin's take on what judges do when law is ambiguous.  Continue Reading …

Ep. 305: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” (Part Three for Supporters)

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To conclude our discussion of Blood Meridian, we talk about the roles of maturation and regression in the novel. Plus, more on Judge Holden's philosophy and how our view of this should be affected by the fact that Holden is a hypocritical child molester, the (small) role of women in the novel, the character of the idiot, "white man's burden," and more. Do you think we  Continue Reading …

Ep. 305: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one on McCarthy's 1985 novel, we discuss whether the plentiful, explicit violence in the book is actually gratuitous or whether it's central for presenting the book's philosophy. What makes the book supposedly unfilmable? We then focus on the details of Judge Holden's philosophy. He posits that war is the purpose (the telos) of man. Man is essentially a  Continue Reading …

Ep. 305: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” (Part One for Supporters)

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On McCarthy's 1985 anti-Western novel, featuring Wes, Seth, and Dylan. How does violence play a role in the way the world works? The novel tells a historically based story of the 19th century Glanton gang who were hired as scalp hunters by the Mexican government but then went on a rogue massacre. It's told from the point of view of "The Kid," a 15-year-old member of the gang  Continue Reading …

PEL Nightcap November 2022: Listener Testimonials

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Recorded 10/26/22. We recently put out a call among our supporters for some short audio clips of folks telling us about their relationship to PEL, and here they are. Mark, Seth, and Dylan play and respond to all of these. We are grateful to those that submitted, and all of you! We also talk about a few responses to our last Nightcap on representation.  Continue Reading …

Ep. 304: Dworkin v. Hart on Legal Judgment (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one on Roland Dworkin's "The Model of Rules" (1967) and Scott J. Shapiro's "The 'Hart-Dworkin' Debate: A Short Guide for the Perplexed" (2007), plus some of Dworkin's "Hard Cases" (1977). We go through some responses by Hartians to Dworkin's initial attack, revisiting the issue of whether judges can employ moral considerations when making decisions, or  Continue Reading …

Ep. 304: Dworkin v. Hart on Legal Judgment (Part One for Supporters)

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On Ronald Dworkin's "The Model of Rules" (1967) and Scott J. Shapiro's "The 'Hart-Dworkin' Debate: A Short Guide for the Perplexed" (2007). How do judges make decisions in hard cases? When the law "runs out" and doesn't definitively decide, e.g., whether we have a general "right of privacy," do judges then just draw on their personal moral judgment in deciding cases? And if  Continue Reading …

Ep. 303: H.L.A. Hart on the Foundations of Law (Part Three for Supporters)

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On The Concept of Law (1961), ch. 6, "Foundations of a Legal System." This chapter goes into detail about Hart's "rule of recognition," which is what is supposed to foundationally make something legitimately a law in a given society. How can we identify something as a law? In Britain, Hart says it's when the Queen in Parliament declares something to be a law (note that I say  Continue Reading …

Ep. 303: H.L.A. Hart on the Foundations of Law (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one on "Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals" (1958) and The Concept of Law (1961), ch. 5 and 6. If law is not based on morality, then why obey the law? Hart claims that it's just a fact that most of us feel most of the time that we should obey the law. If this isn't the case, then Hart says there is no law in that society at all, whatever  Continue Reading …

Ep. 303: H.L.A. Hart on the Foundations of Law (Part One for Supporters)

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On "Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals" (1958) and The Concept of Law (1961), ch. 5 and 6. What's the relationship between law and morality? If law isn't founded on morality, what is it founded on? Hart was a leading figure in the philosophy of law, and wrote in the tradition of legal positivism that goes back to the British Utilitarians John Austin and before  Continue Reading …

Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part Three for Supporters)

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Mark, Wes, and eventually Dylan recap The Praise of Folly and get personal. At the end of the book, Erasmus seems to reverse himself and praises the asceticism (preference of the spiritual over the bodily) that he's been otherwise making fun of. After all, he is a Christian, so his Nietzschean critique of pretention and stolidity can't be entirely thoroughgoing. We also look  Continue Reading …

Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part Two for Supporters) 

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Continuing from part one on The Praise of Folly (1509) with guest Nathan Gilmour. Can foolishness actually make us more prudent, which sounds like its opposite? Well, having the wisdom to avoid all trouble keeps us from getting experience that would be helpful in acting more wisely in the long run. Erasmus (speaking with the voice of Folly) claims that foolishness in some  Continue Reading …

Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part One for Supporters) 

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On Desiderius Erasmus' The Praise of Folly (1509), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Nathan Gilmour from the Christian Humanist podcast. Does foolishness enhance life? The Dutch Renaissance Catholic theologian known for his disputes with Martin Luther criticized the church from the inside, using gentle satire that targeted everyone, including intellectuals like himself. The  Continue Reading …

PEL Representation Nightcap October 2022

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Mark, Wes, and Dylan explore the question, "Is it necessary for us to have representatives of an affected group with us as guests when we talk about an issue in philosophy that affects that group?" This specifically grew out of our abortion episode, for which we planned to have a female guest, but that fell through, and we (without hesitation) recorded it anyway. Was part three  Continue Reading …

Ep. 301: Is Abortion Morally Permissible? (Part Three for Supporters)

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Jenny Hansen joins us for our final part of this discussion, covering "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion" by Mary Anne Warren (1973) and returning in parts to "A Defense of Abortion" (1971) by Judith Jarvis Thomson to allow Jenny to weigh in on the points we made in parts one and two. She also talks a bit about the Planned Parenthood v. Casey 1992 case that changed the  Continue Reading …

Ep. 301: Is Abortion Morally Permissible? (Part Two for Supporters)

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We continue from part one on Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" (1971), and then add Don Marquis' "Why Abortion is Immoral" (1989) and we begin our treatment of Mary Anne Warren's "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion" (1973), which we'll conclude in part three of this discussion. We pry further into Thomson's distinction between the "indecent" and the  Continue Reading …

Ep. 301: Is Abortion Morally Permissible? (Part One for Supporters)

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We discuss some widely read papers about the morality of abortion, starting here with a selection from the Roe v. Wade decision (1973) and Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" (1971). Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Roe tried to sidestep the philosophical question of the current personhood of a fetus but did assert that the state has a legitimate interest in  Continue Reading …

Ep. 300: Nietzsche on Relating to History (Part Three for Supporters)

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Concluding on “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1874), featuring Mark, Wes, and Dylan. Begin with part one. We talk more about Nietzsche's warning against information overload, where history (including artistic history and philosophic history) can overwhelm current creative capabilities. Half-digested knowledge can just weigh us down, so we want to use  Continue Reading …

Ep. 300: Nietzsche on Relating to History (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one on “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1874), we get into the antiquarian use of history and the critical approach to history and Nietzsche's humanistic goals in his essay. One surprising notion that Nietzsche throws in is that even though we have described him in the past as a defender of human instincts, here he describes our human  Continue Reading …

Ep. 300: Nietzsche on Relating to History (Part One for Supporters)

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In this special live-streamed show, we discuss Friedrich Nietzsche's “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1874), which is Untimely Meditations #2, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. What is the healthiest way to relate to our history? More generally, should we live lives driven purely by reason, which includes a mature awareness of as much of our culture's  Continue Reading …

PEL Network Podcast FY2022 Reflections with Mark and Tyler

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It's a different sort of Nightcap to fill supporters' nights since the publication of ep. 300 got delayed by a week. (You can watch it unedited if you're impatient.) Our audio editor Tyler Hislop, probably the only human being who listens to every one of Mark's four podcasts, joins Mark to talk through his impressions of the evolving PEL, representation, our first year of  Continue Reading …

Ep. 299: Philosophy in Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” (Part Three for Supporters)

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Mark, Wes, and Dylan conclude our discussion of Shakespeare's play. We talk about the exchanges about art in the play: How does art relate to life and to commerce? This leads us to consider more generally Shakespeare's language and how we moderns can be good spectators of these plays. Are we meant to just get the gist, or is study and preparation necessary before  Continue Reading …

Episode 1: “The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” (2022 Re-Edit)

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Hey, folks. We're looking for audio clips of no more than 2 minutes reacting to this episode and/or telling about how PEL has affected your life. We'll patch some of these together to make some kind of ep. 300-accompanying release and/or maybe hold a recorded Zoom call with up to 10 of you to follow the public version of this episode. Send your submissions as mp3s to  Continue Reading …

Ep. 299: Philosophy in Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one, instead of Jonathan, now actor Sarah Manton (from our performance) joins us, plus Seth is back. We start out by re-litigating what Timon's problem is at the beginning of the play, which sets up his fall. Then we move to explicitly considering the Cynic school the historical figure of Diogenes. Is Timon really a Cynic? For a nice, concise  Continue Reading …

Ep. 299: Philosophy in Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” (Part One for Supporters)

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What role does money have in human psychology? This is one of several philosophical questions that William Shakespeare's least popular play explores, and Mark, Wes, and Dylan start off our rumination on these with special guest Sir Jonathan Bate, editor of this new complete edition of Shakespeare's plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company, who played Flavius in our  Continue Reading …

PEL Nightcap Episode 300 Retrospection

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Recorded 8/5/22 in anticipation of having reached this milestone. After sharing our current spiritual state and activities, we share some recommendations for diving back into our catalog: Dylan: Ep. 154 Sellars on the myth of the givenMark: Ep. 59 Macintyre's After VirtueSeth: Ep. 249 Dewey on educationWes: Ep. 183 Mill on liberty Mark talks about the podcasts he's been a  Continue Reading …

Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” Audioplay (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing our performance from part one of William Shakespeare's play, finishing things up with acts 4 and 5 plus some post-performance discussion with the cast. This is the part of the play where Timon either has gone crazy or become enlightened, such that he's trying to out-cynic the cynic philosopher Apemantus. Meanwhile, Socrates' former admirer Alcibiades has been  Continue Reading …

Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” Audioplay Feat. Jay O. Sanders, Michael Ian Black, and Michael Tow (Part One for Supporters)

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The PEL Players are back, with more players than ever, doing an unrehearsed reading of William Shakespeare's least popular play, co-written with Thomas Middleton in Shakespeare's later years, probably around 1605. The play is about money and cynicism, where a man gets to see where his friends go when his money runs out and let's say doesn't react well. This is our largest  Continue Reading …

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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