We are rejoined by Drew Pinsky to discuss philosophical, psychological, and sociological readings on suicide. Is suicide ever morally permissible? If it's a symptom of mental illness rather than a chosen behavior, is it even appropriate to morally evaluate it? Last time Drew joined us, he helped us add clinical depth to an area that we'd already talked about Continue Reading …
Ep. 205: Suicide with Dr. Drew (Durkheim et al) (Citizen Edition)
We are rejoined by Drew Pinsky to discuss philosophical, psychological, and sociological readings on suicide. Is suicide ever morally permissible? If it's a symptom of mental illness rather than a chosen behavior, is it even appropriate to morally evaluate it? Last time Drew joined us, he helped us add clinical depth to an area that we'd already talked about Continue Reading …
Louis C.K., Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche on How to Suffer and Be Happy
Why does happiness so often present itself as a problem? A tremendous amount of our cultural discourse now seems geared toward achieving happiness, realizing happiness, or consuming moments of happiness. A fully realized commerce in self-help books and medications offers to prop us up in our unending aspirations toward perpetual happiness. One would assume that life and Continue Reading …
Listen to the Full-Capacity Ep. 115 Aftershow
After our technical debacle last time that resulted in us having only one Citizen listener attending, this time Danny Lobell and I had a packed house to reflect on episode 115 on Schopenhauer and music. Jonathan Segel was good enough to rejoin us to show off his infant daughter and rail about Beethoven. Previous guest Dave Buchanan brought Pythagoras into the picture, and Continue Reading …
Ep 115 Aftershow: Schopenhauer and Music
Featuring Danny Lobell, Mark Linsenmayer, Jonathan Segel, Dave Buchanan, David Prentiss, Kevin Peffley, Kevin Middleton, Anthony Durity, Todd Costa, and Sebastian Roll. Recorded May 18, 2015. Watch on YouTube. Read more about it. Listen to Episode 115 before listening to this. Continue Reading …
Episode 115: Schopenhauer on Music with Guest Jonathan Segel (Citizen Edition)
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 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 …
Topic for #115: Schopenhauer on Music & Art (w/ Jonathan Segel)
On 4/19/15, we recorded the second part of our current treatment of Arthur Schopenhauer, this time covering chiefly music, but also aesthetics more generally, situating appreciation of the different types of art within Schopenhauer's weird metaphysics of the Will as described in episode #114. Our guest Jonathan Segel has been the long-time violinist/etc. for one of my Continue Reading …
Listen to Ep. 114 Aftershow
Sunday afternoon we recorded the aftershow for on our episode 114 covering Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation (sometimes called The World as Will and Idea). Host Danny Lobell (whom you can hear ad nauseam on his own podcast, Modern Day Philosophers with such guests as Gilbert Godfried, Marc Maron, Louis Black, Aisha Tyler, Wyatt Cenac, etc. etc.) Continue Reading …
Ep 114 Aftershow: Schopenhauer’s Metaphysics
Featuring new host Danny Lobell, Seth Paskin, and Tara Leigh Bell. Recorded May 3, 2015. Read more about it. Listen to episode 114 first. Continue Reading …
Schopenhauer’s Idealism: How Time Began with the First Eye Opening
On the Schopenhauer discussion (ep #114), I referred to his view qua idealist that, really, there was no world per se before the first perceiver, but also that science is correct in investigating ancient history, i.e. the world before perceivers. How could both of these claims be true? This is a general problem that idealism must address, summed up adequately by the old Continue Reading …
Episode 114: Schopenhauer: “The World Is Will” (Citizen Edition)
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 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 …
Topic for #114: Schopenhauer on Will
On 4/8 and 4/19 we took two stabs at one of the biggie tomes of philosophical history, Arthur Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation, covering first metaphysics, and then aesthetics (focusing to a good degree on music). For Ep. #114, we read all of Book II (of Volume 1, which is really the book proper published in 1818, the other volumes having come out far Continue Reading …
Originality, Music and Noise: Some References
I am a regular listener of the show, and my dad, Jonathan White, has even been a guest (episode 72, "Terrorism"). I am a music history professor at Mercer University and became very excited when the discussion on episode 94 focused on music and, in particular, two major issues: 1) music and noise; 2) music and the cult of originality (which in turn suggests an exploration of Continue Reading …
Episode 94: Schopenhauer on Reading, Writing, and Thinking
On Arthur Schopenhauer's essays, "On Authorship and Style," "On Thinking for Oneself," and "On Genius" (all published 1851). Is the best way to do philosophy (or any art) to self-consciously build on the work of others to advance the genre? Schopenhauer says no! Geniuses are solitary, original, authentic, naive thinkers. They write because they have something to say, not Continue Reading …
Episode 94: Schopenhauer on Reading, Writing, and Thinking
On Arthur Schopenhauer's essays, "On Authorship and Style," "On Thinking for Oneself," and "On Genius" (all published 1851). Is the best way to do philosophy (or any art) to self-consciously build on the work of others to advance the genre? Schopenhauer says no! Geniuses are solitary, original, authentic, naive thinkers. They write because they have something to say, not Continue Reading …
Topic for #94: Schopenhauer on Reading, Writing, and Thinking
First, a sad story: on 4/27, we recorded a discussion of Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia with Slate's Stephen Metcalf. It went fairly well (Stephen was impressed, and gave us a nice traffic bump by promoting us on his Culture Gabfest podcast), but within the next couple of days, the hard drive on which my part and much of the guest's part were recorded on went Continue Reading …
Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Kant
[Editor's Note: Thanks to new blogger David Crohn for this glimpse into one aspect of Nietzsche's relationship with his idol.] In ep. 84 PEL touches briefly on Nietzsche's criticism of Schopenhauer—or rather, the ways Schopenhauer's readers have, according to Nietzsche, accepted the weakest aspects of his philosophy first (aphorism 99). Nietzsche was a great admirer of Continue Reading …
Schopenhauer on Love
Here's a nice little video, part of the "Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness" series, discussing Schopenhauer's earnest but very unromantic theory of love, the point of which is to propagate the species (i.e. the will to life!). Watch on youtube. Did you know that tall people are attracted to short people so that their children won't turn out to be giant freaks? Continue Reading …