This is a short preview of the full 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 more Continue Reading …
Episode 82: Karl Popper on Science (Citizens Only)
On Conjectures and Refutations (1963), the first three essays. What is science, and how is it different than pseudo-science? From philosophy? Is philosophy just pseudo-science, or proto-science, or what? Popper thinks that all legitimate inquiry is about solving real problems, and scientific theories are those that are potentially falsifiable: they make definitely Continue Reading …
Bergmann as Philosopher (Before All that “New Work” Stuff)
We're barely more than a day away right now from our interview with Frithjof, which he says he's "thrilled" about, and I'm certainly looking forward to as well, though I can picture any number of things going less than ideally as I introduce these two known elements (Frithjof on the one hand and Seth/Wes/Dylan on the other) to each other. For me, this period of preparation has Continue Reading …
Topic for #82: Karl Popper on Scientific Method
Listen now to Dylan Casey introduce these essays. On 9/3/13 we'll be discussing the first three essays in Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963). The book is a retrospective in part, presenting the ideas in the philosophy of science that had established his reputation back in the 1930s. The first essay, "On the Sources of Knowledge and Continue Reading …
If It’s Got an Unpronounceable Name, It Must Be an Amazing Treatise
Or German. Or both! The Introductory Philosophy Readings Not School group had a meeting of the minds and decided that we'd like to pursue Kant, so for August we'll be dipping into the Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics. I, personally, am of the opinion that my proposal was preempted by those who are slowly growing wise to my puckish tendencies for text selection (a brief Continue Reading …
Episode 78: Ayn Rand on Living Rationally (Citizens Only)
On Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1967) and "The Objectivist Ethics" (1961). First Rand grounds everyday human knowledge, largely by dismissing the concerns of other philosophers (even those whom she unknowingly parrots) as absurd. Then she uses this certainty to argue for her semi-Nietzschean vision of Great Men who master their emotions and rely only on Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 78: Ayn Rand on Living Rationally
This is a short preview of the full 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 more Continue Reading …
Topic for #78: Ayn Rand on Living Rationally
Listen to the episode. Bowing to repeated listener requests for an Ayn Rand episode, on the eve of 6/9/13 the regular PEL foursome started our discussion, got tired after a couple of hours, and recorded some more on 6/13. We plan to edit the result heavily enough to reduce the amount of frustrated kvetching ("Is that actually supposed to be an argument? Why does she think Continue Reading …
The Leap of Faith: The Creative Element of Science
[Editor's Note: Thanks to new contributor Rob Graumans for this one!] Scientific realists are known to have a positive epistemic attitude towards the content of our best scientific theories and models. The exact interpretation of this philosophical tenet can, however, differ dramatically between each of its proponents. Some of these base their idea of the truthfulness of Continue Reading …
Audiobook: W.V.O. Quine’s “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”
Mark Linsenmayer reads the 1951 article, discussed on our episode 66. Read about the essay. Continue Reading …
Theistic Objectivism (more on Dallas Willard)
This post is a follow-up on my Dallas Willard post from a few days ago. A couple of reader comments on that (on the blog and Facebook) shamed me into re-listening to the second half of Willard's lecture and newly listen to the Q&A afterwards. I can now say that his positive story is not anywhere as oversimplistic as I was implying, and in fact I agree with several of his main Continue Reading …
Dallas Willard on Nietzsche and Jesus
Here's another Nietzsche lecture, from Stanford's Veritas forum, which you can listen to as a podcast (iTunes link) or watch a video: Watch it on Vimeo. Dallas Willard is an unapologetic Christian, and pursues a post-modern tack similar to the one I cited in my review of the Philosophy for Theologians podcast: Modern philosophy tried to ground knowledge on non-revelatory, Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 61: Nietzsche on Truth and Skepticism
This is a short preview of the full 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 more causally. Continue Reading …
Episode 61: Nietzsche on Truth and Skepticism (Citizens Only)
On Friedrich Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" (1873). For Wes Alwan's summary of this essay, go here). What is truth? This essay, written early in Nietzsche's career but unpublished during his lifetime, is taken by many to make the extreme claim that there is no truth, that all of the "truths" we tell each other are just agreements by social Continue Reading …
Topic for #61: Nietzsche on Truth
Listen to the episode. We discussed Nietzsche's conception of truth as presented in his essay "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense," written in 1873 but unpublished until after his death with guest Jessica Berry of Georgia State University, who published Nietzsche and the Ancient Skeptical Tradition just last year. This Nietzsche essay has been extremely influential for Continue Reading …
Peter Kail’s Hume Overview on the Elucidations Podcast
Folks looking for a clear, concise Hume review with some nice additional details after our epistemology and ethics episodes on him would benefit from this Elucidations episode featuring Oxford Lecturer Peter Kail. Kail gives a more comprehensive biography than we did, covers induction (note that we also discussed this issue a bit on our Nelson Goodman epsiode), reason, Continue Reading …
Diet Soap (C. Dereck Varn and Doug Lain) on Epistemology
I've been talking to Dereck (aka Skepoet) about coming on as a guest with us (on Saussure), and I noticed this new episode of Diet Soap features he and Doug Lain in a wide-ranging conversation on skepticism and its relation to phenomenology. One interesting point to add to the PEL deliberations on the growth of the self is from the post-structuralists (I guess) on consciousness Continue Reading …
Episode 48: Merleau-Ponty on Perception and Knowledge (Citizens Only)
Discussing Maurice Merleau-Ponty's "Primacy of Perception" (1946) and The World of Perception (1948). What is the relation of perception to knowledge? In M-P's phenomenology, perception is primary: even our knowledge of mathematical truths is in some way conditioned by and dependent on the fact that we are creatures with bodies and senses that work the way they do. Science Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 48: Merleau-Ponty on Perception and Knowledge
This is a 33-minute preview of a 1 hr, 42-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 …
Daniel Coffeen on Bergson’s Matter and Memory
One of the name-drops on the Sartre episode is Henri Bergson, a philosopher who was in vogue in France at the time Sartre wrote, famous among other things for promoting and anti-atomic epistemology. Kant, for instance, thought that we get our idea of number out of time, meaning that time is essentially something we can count. For Bergson, time is a flow: if we break it up for Continue Reading …