Subscribe to get this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive final part to this discussion, which you can preview. Exiting the high-pressure live situation of our last episode, Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan ponder the 1869 novel in a more leisurely way. First, we revisit the prime "problem of evil"-related arguments in the book, and then look at textual passages to see how the Continue Reading …
Ep. 317: Character Philosophies in Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov” (Part Two for Supporters)
To conclude our discussion of the novel, we turn to the philosophies of Dmitri and Ivan. Start with part one, or better yet, ep. 316. Dmitri is fixated on honor and its conflict with his romantic desires, and this causes him to make all sorts of terrible decisions that drive much of the plot of the novel. Ivan is a more complicated case, because so much of his motivations Continue Reading …
Ep. 317: Character Philosophies in Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov” (Part One for Supporters)
Exiting the high-pressure live situation of our last episode, Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan ponder the 1869 novel in a more leisurely way. First, we revisit the prime "problem of evil"-related arguments in the book, and then look at textual passages to see how the various brothers deal with the problems of existence in an imperfect world. The Christian story says that evil and Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 6: Judgment
Justice The philosopher Don Cupitt highlights that in the parables, “Jesus sharply criticizes and even ridicules ordinary people's ideas of justice and equity.” (2009, 78) Part of this radicalism, the Catholic Church teaches, is that “Jesus identifies with the poor of every kind and makes active love towards them the condition for entering the kingdom.” (1994, §544) Another Continue Reading …
Alan Watts on Buddhist and Christian Mythographies
http://youtu.be/w0FQoypdDTk Watch on YouTube. I liked the meta-discussion that kicked off the second PEL naturalized Buddhism episode, specifically on what knowledge we gain by assessing the supernatural "rules" contained within "religious" Buddhism. Even after rejecting a supernaturalist stance, there's value in reviewing the form of life revealed within Buddhism's Continue Reading …
Swinburne Contra Dawkins on Complexity and Creation
http://youtu.be/F9-GbZ6G3no Watch on YouTube. A name that popped up in Episode 43 and Episode 44 was that of Oxford philosophy professor Richard Swinburne. Swinburne has made his reputation positing analytic arguments in favor of Christian theism. As Robert pointed out toward the end of Episode 43, most Christians, even if sympathetic, would probably not find Swinburne's Continue Reading …
Topic for #39: Schleiermacher’s Liberal Piety
Friedrich Schleiermacher, a contemporary of Hegel, bought into Kant's views on ethics and the division between scientific and religious realms, but didn't like Kant's ultimate view of religion, i.e. that its only support is an indirect (and really pretty flimsy) appeal to what we have to as a practical matter believe for ethics to really make sense to us. Instead, for Continue Reading …
B.S. about Jesus and Buddhism
Could Jesus have been taken to India as a child and taught Buddhism? Hmmm? Hmmm? Here's something that apparently showed on the BBC at some point: Watch on youtube. OK, some silly speculation here (and more amusingly told in Christoper Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal),but a few points of comparison are made here between the teachings Continue Reading …
Christian Realism and Holy War
"Christian Realism" -- even Christians ought to struggle with David Brook's latest invention. How delightful to juxtapose other-worldliness and practicality! But to really understand it, replace "Christian" with "love" and "Realism" with "War." Meaning, "I love war, but I wage it only out of love." It's almost a self-parodying confirmation of Nietzsche's critique of the human Continue Reading …
Episode 11: Nietzsche’s Immoralism: What Is Ethics, Anyway?
Discussing The Genealogy of Morals (mostly the first two essays) and Beyond Good and Evil Ch. 1 (The Prejudices of Philosophers), 5 (Natural History of Morals), and 9 (What is Noble?). We go through Nietzsche's convoluted and historically improbable stories about about the transition from master to slave morality and the origin of bad conscience. Why does he diss Continue Reading …
Episode 11: Nietzsche’s Immoralism: What Is Ethics, Anyway?
Discussing The Genealogy of Morals (mostly the first two essays) and Beyond Good and Evil Ch. 1 (The Prejudices of Philosophers), 5 (Natural History of Morals), and 9 (What is Noble?). We go through Nietzsche's convoluted and historically improbable stories about about the transition from master to slave morality and the origin of bad conscience. Why does he diss Continue Reading …