Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. On "What Is Man" (1905) by Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan and Seth. This rare bit of philosophy wasn't published until after Twain's death (maybe because it was too bleak?), but apparently reflects the mechanistic, cynical take on humanity that informed his literary works. Twain was Continue Reading …
Ep. 251: Simone Weil’s Ideal Society
On "Theoretical Picture of a Free Society" (1934). What's the ideal living situation for us all, given the peculiarities of human nature? Nine years before Weil laid out her list of human needs, as covered in our last episode, she wrote a work that she hoped to be her magnum opus, Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression. This included the "Analysis Continue Reading …
Ep. 209: Francis Fukuyama on Identity Politics (Part Two: Discussion)
Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan continue to delve into philosophical issues raised by our interview with Fukuyama. Chiefly, he recommends a "creedal national identity" as a solution for tribalism. Does this work? More abstractly, Fukuyama takes this "demand for recognition" issue as coming from Hegel (or rather Kojeve's interpretation of Hegel, which is much easier to understand Continue Reading …
Ep. 209: Guest Francis Fukuyama on Identity Politics (Part One)
We interview Francis Fukuyama about his 2018 book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. What motivates people? Economists point to desire, and to rationality as a way of efficiently getting what we desire. Frank says this misses out on the third aspect of the soul that Plato identified in the Republic: thymos, or spiritedness. Our thymos makes us Continue Reading …
Episode 184: Pascal on Human Nature (Part One)
On Blaise Pascal's Pensées (1670). Is it rational to have religious faith? You're likely familiar with "Pascal's Wager," one of the most famous arguments for the existence of God, but it's not clear that Pascal bought into the argument as it is usually understood. To see why, you have to get Pascal's picture of human nature, which is surprisingly insightful, and is what Continue Reading …
Topic for #102: Emerson on Wisdom and Individuality
On 8/31/14, we discussed three essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "The American Scholar" (an address from 1837): Emerson throws out the image of Man separated out into individual men to enable us to get more kinds of things done. But this division of labor has led to narrowing of minds, so that, e.g. an individual merchant or farmer ends up being focused his whole life on the Continue Reading …
Aristotle v. Nietzsche on Human Nature (And What This Means for New Work)
I want to briefly call attention to the transition between virtue ethics as conceived by Aristotle and the jump to Nietzsche in the context of our New Work discussion. I'm not looking up quotes for this post; I'm less interested in their particular views then in a divergence of ways of thinking about virtue. For Aristotle, man has a Telos, a built-in goal, a type of Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 70: Marx on the Human Condition
This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 42: Feminists on Human Nature and Moral Psychology
This is a 30-minute preview of a 1 hr, 35-minute episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat Continue Reading …
Topic for #42: Feminists on Human Nature and Moral Psychology
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 Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 23: Rousseau: Human Nature vs. Culture
This is a 31-minute preview of a 1 hr, 29-minute episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat Continue Reading …