The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

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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. 261: Derek Parfit on Personal Identity (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing on Reasons and Persons, ch. 10-13. Start with part one.

We get into more of Parfit’s examples, including his responses to Bernard Williams’ physicalist argument. Plus, split brains, In short, the concept of personal identity breaks down when applied to tricky cases, and and so we should be reductionists about personal identity: We get rid of that concept and just talk about the facts about physical and psychological continuity instead.

Ep. 261: Derek Parfit on Personal Identity (Part One for Supporters)

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On Reasons and Persons (1984), ch. 10-13. What makes a person persist over time?

After using various sci-fi examples to test the Lockean (personhood=psychological continuity), physicalist (same brain=same person), and Cartesian (same soul=same person) theories, Parfit concludes that the whole notion is incoherent and isn’t actually what we care about when wondering “will I die?”

Ep. 260: Locke on Moral Psychology (Supporters Only)

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One last take on John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), covering Book II, ch. 21 and 28.

What makes a moral claim true? Do we have free will? What makes us choose the good, or not? In this coda to our long treatment of Locke’s opus, we bring together all he has to say about morality, which is strangely modern yet also just strange.

PEL Nightcap Early January 2021

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An extra-long Nightcap looking forward to PEL coverage in 2021, with some political dialogue on the state of the country and what we might want to do about it. Plus, we respond to listener emails: Will doing philosophy put a crimp in your science career (or other prep for your legit day job)?

Ep. 259: Locke Clarifies Misleading Complex Ideas (Citizen Edition)

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On Book II (ch. 22-33) of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

Simple ideas get complex quickly when you put them into words, and can give rise to various philosophical problems that are either easily cleared up when you figure out how the complex idea is built out of simple ideas, or if they can’t be so broken down, then we really don’t know what we’re talking about and should just shut up. We take on relations, cause and effect, personal identity, and more.

Ep. 258: Locke on Acquiring Simple Ideas (Citizen Edition)

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On the first half of Book II of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

How do we get our ideas? Simple ideas must come in through perception, but this doesn’t just mean the senses; also reflection on our own minds, and this added layer of complexity allows us to bring in memory, concepts, time, and more.

Ep. 257: Locke Against Innate Ideas (Citizen Edition)

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On Book I of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

How do we know things? Locke thought all knowledge comes from experience, and this might seem uncontroversial, but what are the alternatives? We consider the idea that there are some ideas we’re just born with and don’t need to learn. But what’s an “idea,” and how is it different from a principle? Clearly we have instincts (“knowhow”) but is that knowledge? We consider occurrent vs. dispositional nativism, the role of reason, and what Locke’s overall project is after.

Ep. 256: Kropotkin’s Anarchist Communism (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing on Peter Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread (1892).

If Kropotkin is right that mutual aid is a natural tendency and so communism is very much feasible, why hasn’t it happened already? We consider K’s version of the “you didn’t build that” argument, plus guaranteed minimum income, identity and criminal justice in a stateless world, religion, and more.

Ep. 256: Kropotkin’s Anarchist Communism (Part One for Supporters)

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On Peter Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread (1892). If we want an egalitarian society, do we need the state to accomplish this? Kropotkin says no, that in fact the state inevitably serves the interests of the few, and that if we got rid of it, our natural tendencies to cooperate would allow us through voluntary organizations to keep everyone not only fed and clothed, but able to vigorously pursue callings like science and art.

Is this naïve? Can we concretely even “imagine no possessions” and “there’s no countries”? Kropotkin has actuarial tables to show you that sure, we can feed everyone, and he presents examples of group action that he think show that we’re perfectly capable of mass organization without the state.

PEL Nightcap Late October 2020 (Citizens Only)

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We talk about why we left academia and what our current stances are toward it now. Dylan relates his true life Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance adventure. We talk a bit about PEL decision-making, pandemic coping, and back in the day in grad school at U. Texas.

Ep. 254: Michael Sandel Interview: Against Meritocracy (Part One for Supporters)

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On The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? (2020).

Do people get the wealth and status they deserve? And if they did, would that be good? Michael critiques the meritocracy: It’s not actually fair, leaves most people feeling humiliated, and makes those on the top arrogant and disconnected. The commitment to meritocracy is shared by both political parties and helps explain our current dysfunction.

PEL Nightcap Early October 2020 (Citizens Only)

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We talk about the decision to pull part 2’s behind the paywall, whether we’re “woke” in treating policing, Butler, etc. Wes confesses to anti-wokeness, Mark hypothesizes re. whether we can classify a practice as racist if it’s part of a racist tradition. Seth investigates Femsplainers and Jordan Peterson.

PEL Nightcap Late September 2020 (Citizens Only)

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We answer listener emails and/or reflect on what secondary sources we use, anarchism, having on as guests adherents of the philosophy we’re discussing, which reading that we’ve covered that’s pleasantly surprised each of us the most, and how to front-load our episodes so that non-paying listeners are more OK with only hearing part one.

Ep. 252: Habermas on Communication as Sociality (Part Two for Supporters)

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Continuing from part one on Jürgen Habermas’ “Actions, Speech Acts, Linguistically Mediated Interactions, and the Lifeworld” (1998), with guest John Foster.

We get into the details on the validity claims built into speech, how this provides the foundation for society, and Habermas’ the multi-layered “life-world.”

To listen to this, become a supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Listen to a preview.

Ep. 251: Simone Weil’s Ideal Society (Citizen Edition)

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On “Theoretical Picture of a Free Society” (1934).

What’s the ideal living situation for us all, given the peculiarities of human nature? Weil describes fulfillment as coming from being able to picture goals and plans and knowingly put them into effect, so social groups need to maximize that power by being small and cooperative.

End song: “Libreville” by Bill Bruford, as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #25.

PEL Nightcap Early September 2020 (Citizens Only)

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The fourth in our series of fun, supporter-only, extra fun off-week discussions. Here we anticipate our Habermas reading, talk about our favorite podcast apps, non-gendered pronouns, the (sub)Text launch, and we discuss listener feedback asking about the history of “rights,” and blasting the approach in our early episodes. What kinds of criticism are worth responding to?

PEL Nightcap Late August 2020 (Citizens Only)

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More listener email and postings about things we could potentially cover. Edith Stein? Dietrich von HIldebrand? Fichte? Schelling? F.H. Bradley? Eric Hoffer? What’s everybody’s favorite era of philosophy? One listener suggests we do another political one surrounding the upcoming election. Or maybe redo things we covered many years ago.

But first, more about podcast and lecture listening habits. Hear Wes on vacation without his real microphone!

Ep. 250: Simone Weil on Human Needs (Citizen Edition)

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On “The Needs of the Soul” from The Need for Roots (1943) and “Meditation on Obedience and Liberty” (1937).

What are our needs that should then drive what kind of society would be best for us? Weil says we need liberty yet obedience, equality yet hierarchy, security yet risk… and none of these words mean quite what you’d think. And to start off, why do the many obey the few?

End song: “Even Though the Darkest Clouds” by liar, flower. Mark interviewed singer KatieJane Garside on Nakedly Examined Music #127.

PEL Nightcap Early August 2020 (Citizens Only)

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Our supporter exposure continues! This time we talk about whether we should do more non-Western philosophy, and if not, does that make us racist? Also, maybe more episodes on communications and rhetoric? Or finally personal identity? Also, outreach to supporters re. PEL Live Remote 2020 and ongoing topic suggestions.

Ep. 249: Dewey on Education and Thought (Citizen Edition)

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On John Dewey’s How We Think (1910) ch. 1 and Democracy and Education (1916) ch. 1, 2, 4, and 24.

What model of human nature should serve as the basis for education policy? Dewey sees learning as growth, and the point of education as to enable indefinite growth. With guest Jonathan Haber.

End song: “Too Far to Turn Around” by The Ides of March, whose leader Jim Peterik appears on Nakedly Examined Music #126.

Ep. 248: Racism and Policing (Al-Saji, Merleau-Ponty, et al) (Citizen Edition)

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On Alia Al-Saji’s “A Phenomenology of Hesitation” (2014) bits of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception (1945) and Linda Martín Alcoff’s Visible Identities (2006), plus Alex Vitale’s The End of Policing (2017).

Is there subconscious racism, and how might we root it out and fix our policing problems? Ex-cop Phil Hopkins joins to look at how phenomenology can help.

End song: “Every Man’s Burden” by Dusty Wright, who appears on Nakedly Examined Music #89.

Ep. 247: Aristotle on Rhetoric and Emotions (Citizen Edition)

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On the Rhetoric (ca. 335 BCE) book 1, ch. 1–6 and book 2, ch. 1–5, 18–24.

What role does persuasion play in philosophy? Aristotle (contra Plato) argues it can and should be used for good: in law courts, political debates, public speeches. He describes the arguments forms used in rhetoric (“enthymemes”) and analyzes the emotions that an audience might have so that speakers know what points are worth dwelling on and how to best argue them.

End song: “Reason with the Beast” by Shriekback, whose leader Barry Andrews was interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #107.

Ep. 246: Susan Sontag on Interpreting Art (Citizen Edition)

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On Sontag’s essays “Against Interpretation” (1964), “On Style” (1965), and “The Death of Tragedy” (1963).

What is it to understand a work of art? Sontag objects to critics’ need to decode or translate literature into it’s “meaning” or “content,” divorcing it in the process from how this content is embodied. She argues that this content vs. form distinction isn’t tenable; that the style of a work is an essential part of experiencing it. Like Nietzsche, Sontag thinks we’re too analytical, too divorced from our instincts, and a direct encounter with art is essential to enliven us.

End song: “Mela” by Julie Slick, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #115.

Ep. 245: Fashion (Derrida, Foucault, Sontag) w/ Shahidha Bari (Citizen Edition)

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On Jacques Derrida’s “The Animal That Therefore I Am” (1999), Michel Foucault’s “The Ethics of the Concern of the Self As A Practice of Freedom” (1984), Susan Sontag’s “On Style” (1965), and our guest Shahidha’s book Dressed: A Philosophy of Clothes (2020).

Philosophy devalues appearance in favor of depth and soul, but our changing dominant metaphysics (there is no “underneath” but rather a complex built out of appearance itself) should have changed this. Our guest Shahidha Bari provided us with readings that elaborate this change, arguing for our continuity with animal nature (Derrida), the ethical importance of care of the self including appearance (Foucault), and the illegitimacy of the distinction between style and content (Sontag).

End song: “Clothe Me in Ashes” by K.C. Clifford, interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #121.

Ep. 243: Aristotle’s “Poetics” on Art and Tragedy (Citizen Edition)

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These notes from 335 BCE are still used in screenwriting classes. Aristotle presents a formula for what will move us, derived from Sophocles’s tragedies.

What is art? A. describes it as memesis (imitation), and tragedy imitates human action in a way that shows us what it is to be human. A. has lots of advice about how to structure a plot optimized to our sensibilities. Join Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth to see if you think he’s right.

End song: “Structure of a Tragedy” by Mark Lint (2020).

Ep. 241: Political Philosophy and the Pandemic (Citizen Edition)

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How should we think politically about the current global crisis? Do extreme circumstances reveal truths of political philosophy or do they reinforce whatever it is we already believe? Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan talk about applying philosophical insights to real-life situations rife with unknowns, John Rawls’s veil of ignorance and Adam Smith on our interconnectedness, utilitarianism, libertarianism, and more. A source we used was “How Coronavirus Is Shaking Up the Moral Universe” by John Authers.

End song: “Date of Grace” by Rob Picott, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #80.

Ep. 240: David Lewis on Possible Worlds and Language Games (Citizen Edition)

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On Ch. 4 of Lewis’s book Counterfactuals (1973) and the essays “Scorekeeping in a Language Game” (1979) and “Truth in Fiction” (1978).

What makes a sentence about possibility true? Lewis thinks that we need possible worlds that really exist in order to make sense of our modal intuitions. He uses this possible-world talk to make sense of conversations and the worlds created by fiction writers. With guest Matt Teichman from Elucidations.

End song: “Real Life” by Matt Wilson, as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #118.

Ep. 239: Montesquieu Invents Political Science (Citizen Edition)

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On The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Charles Louis de Secondat, aka Baron de Montesquieu.

What keeps a society functioning? Montesquieu, though of course not the first political philosopher, was perhaps the first to systematically explore correlations between characteristics of a government, its people, its climate, dominant industries, religion, and other factors. Some of his ideas directly influenced the American Constitution, and some of them are very very weird.

End song: “King of the Hill” by MINUTEMEN. Listen to Mark interview Mike Watt on Nakedly Examined Music #108.

Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Citizen Edition)

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On “Critique of Violence” (1921). What is violence? Benjamin gives us a taxonomy: law-creating, law-preserving, mythological, and divine. Then he deconstructs his own distinctions to demonstrate that all state power is rotten through its being founded on and continually re-established by violence or the threat of it.

End song: “Jericho” from hackedepiciotto, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #116.

Ep. 236: Judith Butler Interview: “The Force of Nonviolence” (Citizen Edition)

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On The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind (2020).

What is it to be nonviolent in political activity? Most ethics allow for self-defense, but Judith has a problem with defining “self” as well as “violence,” and offers a full critique of the individualism that underlies typical Western approaches to both ethics and politics. Mark, Seth, and Wes interview Judith about these issues and the connection to Gender Trouble.

End song: “Dancing with Death,” discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #111 with Marty Willson-Piper.

Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Citizen Edition)

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On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how?

Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as “performed,” as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. Her idea of social construction is so totalizing that even biological sex itself is constructed. With guest Jennifer Hansen.

End song: “I’m a Boy” by Lys Guillorn as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #44.

Ep. 234: Beauvoir on Romance in “The Second Sex” (Citizen Edition)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen. We explore the maladies of love, try to figure how B’s picture relates to modern romance and what her positive prescription for good love is, and use the recent film A Marriage Story as a case study.

End song: “Easier than Leaving” by Michaela Anne, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #114.

Ep. 233: Plato’s “Protagoras” on Virtue (Citizen Edition)

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On the Platonic dialogue written around 380 BCE about an encounter between Socrates and one of the leading Sophists of his day.

What is virtue (“the political art” according to Protagoras), and can it be taught? What are the relations of the various virtues to each other? Do they really amount ultimately to one and the same thing, i.e., wisdom? In this entertaining dialogue, Socrates and Protagoras swap positions, and Socrates seems to parody the Sophists’ style.

End song: “Make It Clear” by Feelies; Mark interviewed Glenn Mercer on Nakedly Examined Music #41.

Ep. 232: Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (Citizen Edition)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): the intro, conclusion, “Woman’s Situation and Character” and parts of “Lived Experience,” with guest Jennifer Hansen.

According to Beauvoir, Woman is historically conceived of by society (and herself) as “Other,” as not a Subject who creates and makes decisions. Her life is predetermined, revolving around marriage and child-bearing, and is so deformed by this situation.

End song: “Wrong Side of Gone” by Beth Kille as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #13.

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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