Ethics | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Episode 208: Epicurus on Seeking Pleasure (Part Two)

February 4, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

More on the ethics-related fragments of Epicurus and accounts by Martha Nussbaum and Tim O’Keefe.

What would a purely therapeutic philosophy consist of? Does philosophy as pursuit of pleasure mean that you eschew political action or other substantial goals? Mark, Wes, and Dylan try to figure out which of our desires are vain and whether society is compatible with human happiness.

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End song: “The Language of the Body” by Ant-Bee as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #68.

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Episode 208: Epicurus on Seeking Pleasure (Part One)

January 28, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 6 Comments

On the extant fragments of Epicurus (341–270 BCE) dealing with ethics, including his “Letter to Menoceus,” “The Principal Doctrines,” and “The Vatican Collection of Epicurean Sayings.” Plus Tim O’Keefe’s Epicureanism (2010) and Martha Nussabum’s The Therapy of Desire (1994).

How are we supposed to act once we understand nature as atoms bouncing and swerving around in the void, temporarily producing order through fortuitous collisions? Ruling out demanding gods means ethics is dictated by human nature: we avoid pain and pursue pleasure. However, we’re very bad at this, and Epicurus wants to fix all of us!

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Episode 208: Epicurus on Seeking Pleasure (Citizen Edition)

January 28, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

End song: “The Language of the Body” by Ant-Bee as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #68.

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PREVIEW-Ep 201 Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations” (Part Three)

November 5, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

Mark and Seth get further into the specifics of Marcus’s metaphysics and how this is supposed to relate to behavior. Can his directives really come solely “from reason” as he claims? How does this interact with the behaviors that we pursue “by nature,” i.e., without conscious deliberation required? Seth is concerned with how individualistic the philosophy is. Mark is concerned that if you discard the metaphysics (as modern skeptics largely do), why should you expect the rest of the philosophy to be coherent?

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Episode 201 Follow-Up: More on Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations” (Citizens Only)

October 29, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

Mark and Seth get further into the specifics of Marcus’s metaphysics and how this is supposed to relate to behavior. Can his directives really come solely “from reason” as he claims? How does this interact with the behaviors that we pursue (appropriately, according to Marcus) “by nature,” i.e., without conscious deliberation required? Seth is concerned with how individualistic the philosophy is. Mark is concerned that if you discard the metaphysics (as modern skeptics largely do), why should you expect the rest of the philosophy to be coherent?

Listen to episode 201 first.

The Limits of Philosophical Ethics

September 27, 2018 by Stephen Scher and Kasia Kozlowska Leave a Comment

An excerpt from the recently released book Rethinking Health Care Ethics, which explores, for an audience including health professionals, the limits of formal/philosophical ethics in helping them understand the ethical dimensions of their work.
The excerpt focuses on the distinction between formal and informal ethical discourse and the implications of that distinction for day-to-day clinical practice.

The Power of Empathy for Good in the World

September 14, 2018 by Christian B. Miller 2 Comments

An excerpt from the recently released book The Character Gap: How Good Are We?, which explores what “character” really means in today’s world and how good our character tends to be.
The excerpt focuses on the powerful impact that empathy can have on helping people in need.

Science, Secularism, and Religion, Part XXX: William Kingdon Clifford—The Ethics of Belief

July 5, 2018 by Daniel Halverson 1 Comment

Imagine a ship owner who sells tickets for transatlantic voyages. He is at the dock one day, bidding his ship farewell, when he remembers a warning he had received from his mechanics the week before, that the integrity of the ship’s hull was questionable and that it might not be seaworthy. But on some plausible grounds or other he forms Continue Reading …

Episode 187 Follow-Up: The Limits of Free Speech (Citizens Only)

April 5, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 20 Comments

Mark and Wes continue the discussion from ep. 187. We watched some Jordan Peterson, so we talk about his position a bit, and about the appropriateness of organizations encouraging certain kinds of speech, the offense principle, the difference (and overlap!) between good-faith arguments and insults, conspiracy theories, “incoherence arguments” like Fish’s (also used by Kant, Rand, and others), and “fundamental moral principles”: Does that concept even make sense given that any principle requires judgement and probably sub-principles to apply it to real situations?

End song: “Combine Man” by RHEMA, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #67.

Episode 185: Ethics in Homer’s “Odyssey” Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part Two)

March 12, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Continuing with Emily Wilson on her translation of the Greek epic poem. We discuss the oikos, or estate, built on violence, and its connection to xenia, or hospitality, which serves to forge military alliances. Also: status distinctions and the role of the gods in the text.

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End song: “Tiny Broken Boats” by Arrica Rose, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #66.

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Episode 185: Ethics in Homer’s “Odyssey” Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part One)

March 5, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

On the classic Greek epic poem, written ca. 750 BC and translated by our guest Emily Wilson in 2018.

Does this story of “heroes” have anything to teach us about ethics? Wilson wrote an 80-page introduction to her new translation laying out the issues, including “hospitality” as a political tool, the value for status and identity of one’s home (including your family and slaves), and the tension between strangeness and familiarity. Can time and change really be undone?

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Episode 185: Ethics in Homer’s “Odyssey” Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Citizen Edition)

March 4, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

On the classic Greek epic poem, written ca. 750 BC and translated by our guest Emily Wilson in 2018.

End song: “Tiny Broken Boats” by Arrica Rose, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #66.

Episode 181: Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Part Two)

January 22, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

Continuing on Eichmann in Jerusalem, on how ordinary people can do—or acquiesce to—horrific things. How do people rationalize this? What can we apply from this to ourselves? Also, how was genocide a new type of crime, and what’s the best rationale for punishing it? We talk justice, revenge, and ways that we too might be morally mass-confused.

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End song: “Hiding from the Face of God”; hear Mark talk to singer/songwriter Jeff Heiskell on Nakedly Examined Music eps. 5 and 63.

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Episode 181: Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Part One)

January 15, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 26 Comments

On Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963).

Are we still morally culpable if our entire society is corrupt? Arendt definitely thinks so, but has a number of criticisms of the handling of the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. The Israelis were committed to the view that Eichmann was a monster, when the reality, says Arendt, is more frightening.

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Episode 181: Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Citizen Edition)

January 15, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

On Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963).

End song: “Hiding from the Face of God” from Judybats 2000; listen to me interview singer/songwriter Jeff Heiskell on Nakedly Examined Music eps. 5 and 63.

Episode 177: Guest Russ Roberts on Adam Smith and Libertarian Economics (Part Two)

November 27, 2017 by Mark Linsenmayer 10 Comments

Continuing with the Econtalk host on the moral aspects of economics, focused by Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Should we sacrifice ourselves to the machine of the economy? How does Smith’s idea of virtue and talk of the “impartial spectator” line up with economic growth?

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End song: “Needle Exchange” by Fritz Beer, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #2.

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Episode 177: Guest Russ Roberts on Adam Smith and Libertarian Economics (Part One)

November 20, 2017 by Mark Linsenmayer 36 Comments

The host of Econtalk provides his take on our ep. 174 on The Wealth of Nations, and explores with us the idea of emergent economic order. Is the economy more like a machine or a garden or what?

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