The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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Episode 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part Two)

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Concluding Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885).

What’s the wise way to live? We start in earnest into part three, treating the “spirit of gravity,” where socially imposed values cover over your uniqueness; omni-satisfaction vs. being choosy; “Old and New Tablets,” where Nietzsche explores various ethical and meta-ethical issues (e.g., is self-overcoming a matter of one-time self-actualization or is it continual?); and more on the Overman and eternal recurrence.

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End song: “Upright Man” by Rachel Taylor Brown, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #91.

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Episode 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part One)

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On the remainder of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885).

How can we keep our spirits up and avoid nihilism? We consider Nietzsche’s “solution” of eternal recurrence, why he uses a poetic, allegoric style, and more.

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Episode 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Citizen Edition)

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On the remainder of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885).

How can we keep our spirits up and avoid nihilism? We consider Nietzsche’s “solution” of eternal recurrence, why he uses a poetic, allegoric style, and his “new tablets” that tell us what habitual and destructive ideas we have to flush out of our systems before we can be vital and creative. And don’t count on reaching overman status; innovators are generally sacrifices to the future and only get the goal half right.

End song: “Upright Man” by Rachel Taylor Brown, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #91.

Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part Two)

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Continuing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, books 1 and 2 (1883).

We talk through Nietzsche’s symbolism (tightrope walkers and gravediggers and snakes, oh my!), the path toward the overman, his screed against the state, the Will to Power as the will to overcome oneself by reconciling oneself with the past, and more.

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Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Part One)

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On Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, books 1 and 2 (1883).

What is wisdom? In this text whose style parodies the Bible, we get pithy advice and allegorical imagery to guide us away from self-defeating, life-denying attitudes and orient us toward creative self-overcoming (i.e., exertion of the Will to Power). The Last Man who no longer knows how to give birth to a dancing star is a rotten egg!

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Episode 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (Citizen Edition)

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On Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, books 1 and 2 (1883).

What is wisdom? In this text whose style parodies the Bible, we get pithy advice and allegorical imagery to guide us away from self-defeating, life-denying attitudes and orient us toward creative self-overcoming (i.e., exertion of the Will to Power). The Last Man who no longer knows how to give birth to a dancing star is a rotten egg!

End song: “Sacrilicious” by Hedflux, i.e., Steve Young, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #92.

Episode 208: Epicurus on Seeking Pleasure (Part Two)

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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.

Listen to part one first or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Tickets are now available for PEL Live: See partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live.

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)

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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)

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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!

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

Come see us live in NYC on Apr. 6. Read more at partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live.

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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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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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