Brian Wilson leads a seminar on Albert Camus’s essay “The Myth of Sissyphus,” deepening our look into Camus following PEL episode 4. Recorded 8/8/16.
Ep 140/141 Aftershow on Simone De Beauvoir’s “Ethics of Ambiguity” feat. Jennifer Hansen
Mark and Danny Lobell welcome St. Lawrence University’s Jennifer Hansen to follow up on our episodes 140 and 141. Was Beauvoir really a Kantian? Do we find her description for founding ethics persuasive? Featuring PEL listeners Luke, Alex, Tiffany, Brittany, and Ken. Recorded 6/26/16.
What Do Existentialists Think about Love?
Given the existentialist emphasis on concrete personal experience, freedom, authenticity, responsibility, awareness of death, and personal determination of values, it is not surprising that existentialist philosophers should also consider the question of romantic love.
Truth and Authenticity in Michael Haneke’s Caché
The films of Austrian director Michael Haneke seem to start out “normally” and then slowly descend into an abyss—but what if that abyss is in fact living authentically? Could we see Haneke’s award-winning Caché (2005) as an exemplification of Sartrean existentialism? And what are some other philosophical influences in his work?
Episode 141: Beauvoir’s Existentialism: Moral and Political Dilemmas
More on The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), this time on part III. Ep. 140 laid out man’s “ambiguity,” but what does that mean in terms of practical decision making? B. talks about the practical paradoxes of dealing with oppression and what it might mean to respect the individual given that there’s no ultimate, pre-existent moral rulebook to guide us, nothing we can point to to excuse the sacrifice of someone to a “greater good.”
Become a PEL Citizen to listen to the the Aftershow featuring Beauvoir scholar Jennifer Hansen.
End song: “Indiscretion (Mess Things Up)” from the 1993 Mark Lint album Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses.
Episode 141: De Beauvoir’s Existentialism: Moral and Political Dilemmas (Citizen Edition)
More on The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), this time on part III. Ep. 140 laid out man’s “ambiguity,” but what does that mean in terms of practical decision making? De B. talks about the practical paradoxes of dealing with oppression and what it might mean to respect the individual given that there’s no ultimate, pre-existent moral rulebook to guide us, nothing we can point to to excuse the sacrifice of someone to a “greater good.”
Continued from ep. 140. After this, listen to the the Aftershow featuring Jennifer Hansen.
End song: “Indiscretion (Mess Things Up)” from the 1993 Mark Lint album Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses.
Beauvoir, Freedom, and Feminism
What’s the connection between existentialism and feminism in Simone de Beauvoir’s work?
Episode 140: Beauvoir on the Ambiguous Human Condition
On The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), parts I and II. We return to existentialism! Instead of describing our predicament as “absurd,” de Beauvoir prefers “ambiguous”: We are a biological organism in the world, yet we’re also free consciousness transcending the given situation. Truly coming to terms with this freedom means not only understanding that you transcend any label, but also recognizing that your freedom requires the freedom of others. The full foursome discuss whether this attempt to ground an existentialist ethics works.
End song: “Reasonably Lonely,” by Mark Lint.
Episode 140: De Beauvoir on the Ambiguous Human Condition (Citizen Edition)
On The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), parts I and II. We return to existentialism! Instead of describing our predicament as “absurd,” de Beauvoir prefers “ambiguous”: We are a biological organism in the world, yet we’re also free consciousness transcending the given situation. Truly coming to terms with this freedom means not only understanding that you transcend any label that you or anyone else has put on you, but also recognizing that your freedom requires the freedom of others. The full foursome discuss whether this attempt to argue for an existentialist ethics works.
End song: “Reasonably Lonely,” by Mark Lint.
Ep 109 Aftershow: Karl Jaspers
Our first Aftershow! Host Stephen West of the the Philosophize This! podcast is joined by Mark Linsenmayer, Alan Cook, Nick Halme, Kam Gill, Amogh Sahu, and Aaron Watson. Recorded January 25, 2015.
Episode 109: Jaspers’s Existentialism with Paul Provenza (Citizen Edition)
On Karl Jaspers’s “On My Philosophy” (1941), featuring comedian/actor/director/author Paul Provenza. What’s the relationship between science and philosophy? What about religion? Jaspers thinks that science gives you facts, but for an overarching world-view, you need philosophy. Living such a world-view requires Existenz, or a leap towards transcendence, which is of course religion’s stock and trade, though Jaspers is not a fan of dogmatism.
End song: “Another Way to Fall,” by New People, from The Easy Thing (2009). Download the album.
Episode 109: Jaspers’s Existentialism with Guest Paul Provenza
On Karl Jaspers’s “On My Philosophy” (1941), featuring comedian/actor/director/author Paul Provenza
Precognition of Ep. 109: Karl Jaspers
Mark Linsenmayer introduces Jaspers’s essay, “On My Philosophy” (1941) on Existenz and the difference between philosophy, science, and religion.
Precognition of Ep. 109: Karl Jaspers
Mark Linsenmayer introduces Karl Jaspers’s existentialist tract, “On My Philosophy.” (1941)
Topic for #109: Karl Jaspers’s Existentialism on Science vs. Philosophy
We were joined by comedian Paul Provenza to talk about Jaspsers’s essay “On My Philosophy” about the existentially necessary philosophical leap beyond what science can justify. Hint: The alternative is not embracing religious dogma.
Not School Discussion of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Last weekend the Philosophy and Theater Group had our monthly discussion, and this time Phillip Cherny and myself talked about Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a tremendously clever, meta-fictional play which fills offstage moments of Hamlet with absurdist hi-jinks. For the philosophically inclined, this play has fireworks from beginning to end, and Stoppard covers a lot of ground Continue Reading …
Not School: Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Nausea”
Featuring Mark Linsenmayer, Sean Webb, Stan Martin, and Yannick Kilberger. Recorded January 26, 2014.
One of the seminal texts of existentialism, but very slow and hard to get through as an actual book. While ordinarily we see objects as meaningful as things with history and often purpose, we can set that aside and see them instead as brute and meaningless. We can’t handle that, aren’t meant to handle that, and so instead of this being a machine-like, unemotional way of experiencing things, it is (for Roquentin) intolerably icky.
Sartre’s “No Exit” Read with Lucy Lawless & Jaime Murray
In support of our ep. #87 discussing Sartre, the PEL Players present our 2nd annual dramatic reading of a work of philosophical theater.
Not Ep. 87: Sartre’s “No Exit” Read with Lucy Lawless & Jaime Murray
The PEL Players present our 2nd annual dramatic reading of a work of philosophical theater.
End song: “No Exit” by Mark Lint
Episode 87: Sartre on Freedom and Self-Deception
On Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Existentialism is a Humanism” (1946), “Bad Faith” (pt. 1, ch. 2 of Being & Nothingness, 1943), and his play No Exit (1944).