On Book II (ch. 22-33) of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), discussed by Mark, Wes, and Dylan. Simple ideas (as discussed in ep. 258) get complex rather quickly, perhaps as soon as you put them into words, and certainly as soon as you put them into a system. If I perceive the color blue, or a passing thought in my mind, a simple idea of this appears Continue Reading …
Episode 30: Schopenhauer on Explanations and Knowledge (Citizens Only)
Discussing Arthur Schopenhauer's On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, published in 1847 (as an expansion of his doctoral thesis from 1813). What kinds of explanations are legitimate? S. thought that causal and logical explanations are often confused, resulting in philosophical errors. In laying out the four types of explanation -- the four versions of Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 30: Schopenhauer on Explanations and Knowledge
This is a 33-minute preview of a 2 hr, 14-minute episode.Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat Continue Reading …
Topic for #30: Schopenhauer’s Twist on Kant’s Epistemology
Schopenhauer is widely known for being influenced by Buddhism's claim that life is suffering and for in turn influencing Nietzsche, but his major influence is Kant. On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, was originally written (in 1813) as S's dissertation but was later expanded and clarified for proper publication (in 1847). He considered this his core Continue Reading …
Nagarjuna speaks!
This cheeseball video (which I refer to in the podcast as the source of my pronunciations of "Nagarjuna" and "Madhyamika") reveals that Nagarjuna had a midwestern accent and some goofy iMovie effects at his disposal. He likes using the same font as Avatar, too. And is that a ney flute I hear? Hell, yeah! My design in doing a Buddhism episode was really to look at Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 27: Nagarjuna on Buddhist “Emptiness”
This is a 32-minute preview of a 1 hr, 44-minute episode.Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat Continue Reading …
Episode 19: Kant: What Can We Know? (Citizens Only)
On Immanuel Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783), which is a shorter, dumbed-down version of his Critique of Pure Reason. Do we have any business doing metaphysics, which is by definition about things that we could not possibly experience? Kant says that yes, we can, to a limited extent, but that everyone before him did it wrong, because they didn't Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 19: Kant: What Can We Know?
This is a 31-minute preview of our vintage 2 hr, 5-minute episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email Continue Reading …
Episode 17: Hume’s Empiricism: What Can We Know? (Citizens Only)
On David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748). David Hume thinks that all we can know are our own impressions, i.e. what our moment-to-moment experiences tell us. Funny thing, though: he thinks that no experience shows us one event causing another event. We only experience one thing happening, then another, and these sequences tend to display a lot of Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 17: Hume’s Empiricism: What Can We Know?
This is a 31-minute preview a vintage 2 hr, 5-minute episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and Continue Reading …