The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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

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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)

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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

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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

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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.

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

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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.

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Episode 178: Nietzsche as Social Critic: “Twilight of the Idols” (Part One)

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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?

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Episode 178: Nietzsche as Social Critic: “Twilight of the Idols” (Citizen Edition)

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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)

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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)

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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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About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

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