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
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
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)
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)
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.
Listen to part one first, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
End song: “Tiny Broken Boats” by Arrica Rose, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #66.
Sponsors: Get $25 off dog-walking at rover.com/partiallyexamined, promo code partiallyexamined. Get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at squarespace.com, offer code PEL. Try TextExpander’s snippets at textexpander.com/podcast and get 20% off your first year. Check out Seth Godin’s Akimbo podcast sethspodcast.com.
Episode 185: Ethics in Homer’s “Odyssey” Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part One)
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?
Don’t wait for part 2! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!
Sponsors: Visit Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED and thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Order Danny Lobell’s comic at fairenoughcomic.com.
Episode 185: Ethics in Homer’s “Odyssey” Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Citizen Edition)
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?
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)
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.
Listen to part one first or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
End song: “Hiding from the Face of God”; hear Mark talk to singer/songwriter Jeff Heiskell on Nakedly Examined Music eps. 5 and 63.
Sponsors: Visit simplecontacts.com/pel with promo code PEL for $30 off, and Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code PEL.
Episode 181: Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Part One)
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.
Don’t wait for part 2! Get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!
Visit Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED.
Episode 181: Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Citizen Edition)
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.
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 178: Nietzsche as Social Critic: “Twilight of the Idols” (Part Two)
Continuing on Nietzsche’s 1888 book. Is there any ground from which we could judge life as a whole to be good or bad? Is N. more about saying “yes” to life or saying “no” to all the numerous things that piss him off? We also talk Becoming, whether producing great art is more important than being nice to everyone, and whether Nietzsche is ultimately someone we’d want to hang around.
End song: “Oblivion” by Tyler Hislop, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #24.
isten to part 1 first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition
Make sure to pick up a 2018 PEL Wall Calendar!
Visit MUBI.com/PEL for 30 days of free curated movies, BarkBox.com/PEL for a free month with a plan.
Episode 178: Nietzsche as Social Critic: “Twilight of the Idols” (Part One)
On Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1888 book summarizing his thought and critiquing the founding myths of his society. He defends “spiritualized” instinct and frenzied creativity, but also Napoleon and war. We try to figure out what kind of social critic he’d be today. Would we actually like him?
Sponsors: Get up to $50 off a DNA kit at 23andme.com/pel. Visit MUBI.com/PEL for 30 days of free curated movies, BarkBox.com/PEL for a free month with a plan, and Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED.
Episode 178: Nietzsche as Social Critic: “Twilight of the Idols” (Citizen Edition)
On Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1888 book summarizing his thought and critiquing the founding myths of his society. He defends “spiritualized” instinct and frenzied creativity, but also Napoleon and war. We try to figure out what kind of social critic he’d be today. Would we actually like him?
End song: “Oblivion” by Tyler Hislop, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #24.
Episode 177: Guest Russ Roberts on Adam Smith and Libertarian Economics (Part Two)
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?
Listen to part 1 first or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL! Learn how to install the Citizen feed on your mobile device. The 2018 Wall Calendar is now available to order!
End song: “Needle Exchange” by Fritz Beer, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #2.
Visit MUBI.com/PEL for 30 days of free curated movies. Check out The Panpsycast podcast at thepanpsycast.com.
Episode 177: Guest Russ Roberts on Adam Smith and Libertarian Economics (Part One)
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?
Continue with part 2 or get the full, ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
Listener discounts: Visit lovepop.com/pel for 3D pop-up cards; simplecontacts.com/pel, promo code PEL; MUBI.com/PEL for curated movies; and Squarespace.com, offer code EXAMINED.
Episode 177: Guest Russ Roberts on Adam Smith and Libertarian Economics (Citizen Edition)
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?
End song: “Needle Exchange” by Punchy; listen to singer/songwriter Fritz Beer interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #2.
How Could Scalar Consequentialism Ever Lose at Chess?
Scalar consequentialism is an ethical theory that has us always choose the better option. That’s very much the way that today’s computer chess programs play. There’s a lot to learn from the study of their games against human chess players who use a different approach.
The Walk to Kallipolis
A philosophical dialogue on the nature of art.
What Epictetus Really Thinks Is in Our Power
Stoicism proposes an ongoing discipline of deliberately withdrawing one’s desires and aversions from external matters and applying them to what lies within one’s own person. Getting this distinction right—what is in our power and what is not—turns out to be integral to understanding and practicing Stoic philosophy as a way of life.
Episode 150: Guest Peter Singer on Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Mark and Wes interview perhaps the world’s most influential living philosopher, then the full foursome discusses. Our focus is his ongoing work rooted in his 1971 essay “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” about the warped priorities of our consumerist society: We spend money on luxuries while innocent children overseas die from inexpensively preventable causes. For more about Peter, see www.petersinger.info.
End song: “Ann the Word” by Beauty Pill (2015), explored in Nakedly Examined Music #19.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 7
- Next Page »