The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify patreon

Episode 202: Julia Kristeva on Disgust, Fear, and the Self (Part Two)

by 1 Comment

Continuing on Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, ch. 1 and 2. We try to get clearer on Kristeva’s talk of “object,” the relationship between language and abjection, how Kristeva is advancing on Freud, how to be a mom that allows a kid to separate in a healthy way, and how abjection plays into religion and writing.

Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition, and don’t miss Mark’s Close Reading, available to Citizens and $1+ Patreon members. Please support PEL!

End song: “Eyes of Fire” by Jill Freeman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #28.

Help us plan our 10th Anniversary show by taking our planning survey. Watch out for our 2019 Wall Calendar!

Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

Episode 202: Julia Kristeva on Disgust, Fear and the Self (Part One)

by 5 Comments

On Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980), ch. 1 and 2.

Kristeva writes about “abjection,” where we violently reject things like corpses, bodily wastes and other fluids, and the Lovecraftian unnameable that lurks at the edge of our awareness. Her book is also all about the self, suggesting modifications to Freud’s Oedipal complex and Lacan’s mirror-stage story. With guest Kelley Citrin.

Continue on part 2, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition, as well as Mark’s Close Reading, which we’ve made available to Patreon supporters at the $1 level. Please support PEL!

Episode 202: Julia Kristeva on Disgust, Fear and the Self (Citizen Edition)

by 6 Comments

On Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980), ch. 1 and 2.

What is horror? Kristeva’s book is about a process she calls “abjection,” where we violently reject things like corpses, bodily wastes and other fluids, and the Lovecraftian unnameable that lurks at the edge of our awareness.

The book is also all about the self, suggesting modifications to Freud’s Oedipal complex and Lacan’s mirror-stage story. With guest Kelley Citrin.

End song: “Eyes of Fire” by Jill Freeman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #28.

Watch out for Mark’s Close Reading/follow-up on this text, coming soon!

Episode 188: Discussing “Lysistrata” and Politics with Lucy and Emily (Part Two)

by 2 Comments

Concluding our discussion of Aristophanes’s play with Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins. We focus on trying to connect its lessons to the here and now: Is Lysistrata’s victory properly described as the ascension of some kind of “feminine spirit” over warlike values, and how does that actually relate to women’s struggles now to attain positions of power?

Listen to our performance and then part one of the discussion before listening to this (or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition). Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Get 20% off your first order of premium menswear essentials at mackweldon.com, promo code PEL.

Episode 188: Discussing “Lysistrata” and Politics with Lucy and Emily (Part One)

by 12 Comments

We are rejoined by actresses Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins to discuss Aristophanes’s bawdy play. Listen to us perform it first.

Supplementary readings included Jeffery Henderson’s introduction to his 1988 translation of the play; “Sexual Humor and Harmony in Lysistrata” by Jay M. Semel (1981); and “The ‘Female Intruder’ Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae” by Helene P. Foley (1982).

Continue with part two, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at squarespace.com/examined, offer code EXAMINED. Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Please also check out the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.

Episode 188: Discussing “Lysistrata” and Politics with Lucy and Emily (Citizen Edition)

by Leave a Comment

We are rejoined by actresses Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins to discuss Aristophanes’s bawdy play. Listen to us perform it first.

Supplementary readings included Jeffery Henderson’s introduction to his 1988 translation of the play; “Sexual Humor and Harmony in Lysistrata” by Jay M. Semel (1981); and “The ‘Female Intruder’ Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae” by Helene P. Foley (1982).

End song: “Women of Industry (ABWA Charm)” by Jill Sobule, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #18.

On Childhood, Motherhood, and Being Ahead of Your Time: Shulamith Firestone and The Dialectic of Sex

by 34 Comments

Almost fifty years ago there was an influential woman who called pregnancy “barbaric,” described childhood as “hell,” and said giving birth was “like shitting a pumpkin.” Shulamith Firestone was a radical activist and remarkably prescient thinker who helped define feminism as we know it. Yet today she remains largely—and unfairly—unknown.

Episode 139: bell hooks on Racism/Sexism

by 11 Comments

On Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981) and Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992, Intro, Ch. 3, 11).

How do these pernicious forces interact? hooks describes black women as having been excluded from both mainstream historical feminism (led by white women) and black civil rights struggles (permeated with patriarchy), and this “silencing” creates challenges for self-actualization and social justice. The solution: media critique of stereotyped images and personally connecting to a historical narrative of liberation. With guest Myisha Cherry, host of the UnMute Podcast.

End song: “Stories” by Mark Lint and Steve Petrinko (2011).

Episode 139: bell hooks on Racism/Sexism (Citizen Edition)

by Leave a Comment

On Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981) and Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992, Intro, Ch. 3, 11).

How do these pernicious forces interact? hooks describes black women as having been excluded from both mainstream historical feminism (led by white women) and black civil rights struggles (permeated with patriarchy), and this “silencing” creates challenges for self-actualization and social justice. The solution: media critique of stereotyped images and personally connecting to a historical narrative of liberation. With guest Myisha Cherry, host of the UnMute Podcast.

End song: “Stories” by Mark Lint and Steve Petrinko (2011).

Science, Technology and Society VII: On Gender and Science

by 1 Comment

Evelyn Fox Keller is a leader among a generation of feminist scholars interested in questions of gender and science. Although feminist philosophy of science is a complex and controversial field, and these scholars frequently disagree among themselves as to what changes are desirable or realistically attainable, they share a commitment to broadening the scope of science so that it does not devalue feminine perspectives as a kind of structural principle.

Fully Engaged Feminism Podcast on Our Feminism Episode

by Leave a Comment

Podcaster Laura graciously commented on our Gilman/Gilligan episode in the first few minutes of her most recent Fully Engaged Feminism podcast. She thought we were not harsh enough on Gilman for her eugenics views and found our approach to gender, “especially our references to trans individuals,” somewhat frustrating. I don’t actually recall any references at all to trans individuals, but Continue Reading …

Carol Gilligan vs. Christina Hoff Sommers

by 10 Comments

In an attempt to provide some of the criticism to Carol Gilligan’s claims about female moral development, I found this exchange from the Atlantic online between Gilligan and “former philosophy professor” Christina Hoff Sommers, who had written an article called “The War Against Boys” in 2000, which blamed Gilligan for establishing a false picture of “America’s teenage girls as silenced, Continue Reading …

Film Review: “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men”

by 1 Comment

Entirely relevant to our feminism episode is this film directed/adapted by John K. from “The Office” from the novel by David Foster Wallace, which I’ve not read. Is it amusing to see numerous comic actors give monologues that display keenly that self-consciousness–philosophical reflection–does not guarantee virtue? Yes. Does it (in its cinematic form) amount to a coherent thesis on how Continue Reading …

Are Men Naturally Predisposed to Excel in Life?

by 9 Comments

Watch on YouTube A 1999 episode of In Our Time was ostensibly about “feminism,” but in fact addressed a narrower and more pressing issue: Are men “by nature more competitive, ambitious, status-conscious, dedicated, single-minded and persevering than women”? And if so, doesn’t that mean men are biologically better disposed than women to achieve material success? And if that’s true, doesn’t it Continue Reading …

Episode 42: Feminists on Human Nature and Moral Psychology (Citizens Only)

by 1 Comment

Discussing Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s utopian novel Herland (1915) and psychologist Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice (1983). How does human nature, and specifically moral psychology, vary by sex? Charlotte Perkins Gilman claims that when philosophers have described human nature as violent and selfish, they have in mind solely male nature. Females, left to themselves in an isolated society, would be supremely peaceful, rational, and cooperative. With guest Azzurra Crispino. Learn more.

End song: “Mother’s Day” by Mark Linsenmayer (2007). Read about it.

PREVIEW-Episode 42: Feminists on Human Nature and Moral Psychology

by 38 Comments

Discussing Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s utopian novel Herland (1915) and psychologist Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice (1983). How does human nature, and specifically moral psychology, vary by sex? Charlotte Perkins Gilman claims that when philosophers have described human nature as violent and selfish, they have in mind solely male nature. Females, left to themselves in an isolated society, would be supremely peaceful, rational, and cooperative. With guest Azzurra Crispino.

Looking for the full Citizen version?

Topic for #42: Feminists on Human Nature and Moral Psychology

by 19 Comments

This episode will feature Azzurra Crispino, whom you might recall from our Kant on epistemology episode. We’re reading two works that were significant for the development of her interest in feminist philosophy: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland(1915) is a utopian novel about a society of all women. Gilman thought that when classic philosophers describe human nature as essentially selfish or competitive, Continue Reading …

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

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts