The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify patreon

Episode 212: Sartre on Literature (Part Two)

by 1 Comment

Continuing on What is Literature? (1948).

Sartre gives a phenomenology of reading and writing that makes reading into a creative act of completing the writer’s work, and calls this cooperation ethical: the work is an appeal to the reader’s freedom, and also the reader’s responsibility to then know what the work reveals. Are you shirking, all you skimmers?

Start with part one, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition.

End song: “Things I Shouldn’t Have Told You” by Sam Phillips, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #90.

Sponsor: For a free trial of unlimited online learning, visit TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/PEL.

Episode 212: Sartre on Literature (Part One)

by 3 Comments

On Jean-Paul Sartre’s What is Literature? (1948), ch. 1 and 2.

What’s the purpose of literature? Why write prose as opposed to poetry? Sartre argues that while poetry is about the words themselves, prose is about the ideas, so it’s necessarily political. A written work is essentially an ethical appeal for a reader to apply his or her own faculties and experiences to complete the work through the act of reading.

Continue on part 2, or get your ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Please visit calm.com/pel for 25% off a stress-reducing subscription and the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.

PEL Live is this Saturday 4/6 4-6pm Eastern time! We will post live-stream info and other details at partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live.

Episode 212: Sartre on Literature (Citizen Edition)

by Leave a Comment

On Jean-Paul Sartre’s What is Literature? (1948), ch. 1 and 2.

What’s the purpose of literature? Why write prose as opposed to poetry? Sartre argues that while poetry is about the words themselves, prose is about the ideas, so it’s necessarily political. A written work is essentially an ethical appeal for a reader to apply his or her own faculties and experiences to complete the work through the act of reading.

End song: “Things I Shouldn’t Have Told You” by Sam Phillips, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #90.

Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Part Three)

by Leave a Comment

Moving finally on to Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Black Orpheus” (1948), where he introduces a book of black poetry by praising its revolutionary spirit as embodied in “negritude.” Is this a legitimate consciousness-raising exercise or a weird fetishization of blackness?

Listen to parts one and two first, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition, which will also get you access to (sub)Text#5 on Checkhov’s Uncle Vanya. Please support PEL!

End song: “Punch Bag” by Godley & Creme as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #3.

Sponsor: Visit TheGreatCoursesPLUS.com/PEL for two months of unlimited learning for 99 cents.

Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Part Two)

by 3 Comments

Continuing on Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate (1946).

Is there an “authentic” way to respond to persecution? As part of his critique of anti-semitism, Sartre criticized the responses of some Jews to this situation, e.g. denying that the persecution exists, pretending to not be Jewish, or in any way accepting the terms of anti-semitism and setting up one’s life in reaction to it. Sartre instead recommends solidarity and “concrete liberalism,” which we try to figure out.

Listen to part one first. Don’t wait for the last part; get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! Join us for PEL Live on 4/6!

Sponsors: Visit TheGreatCoursesPLUS.com/PEL for two months of unlimited learning for 99 cents. Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.

Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Part One)

by 2 Comments

On Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate (1946) and “Black Orpheus” (1948).

How can we best understand the psychology of racism? Sartre condemns anti-Semitism as denying the facts of the human condition: the responsibility for fixing problems and not blaming them on a demonized other. But he also criticizes “the democrat” for a humanism that pretends we’re in a post-racial world, calling instead for “concrete liberalism” that treats Jews not as abstract individuals but as real people in an an oppressed situation.

Don’t wait for parts 2 and 3; get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! See PEL Live in NYC on April 6.

Sponsors: Please visit calm.com/pel for 25% off a stress-reducing subscription, TakeCareOf.com (code PEL) for 50% off a month of personalized vitamins, TheGreatCoursesPLUS.com/PEL for two months of unlimited learning for 99 cents, and use code 30PEL get 30% off at Amazon of Bill Wooditch’s book Fail More.

Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Citizen Edition)

by 3 Comments

On Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate (1946) and “Black Orpheus” (1948).

How can we best understand the psychology of racism and reactions to it? Sartre not only condemns anti-Semitism as denying the facts of the human condition (the responsibility for fixing problems and not blaming them on a demonized other), he also thinks that the victims of oppression can be inauthentic by denying their situation or otherwise being reactive to the racist’s attitude. “Black Orpheus” further explores this idea in characterizing the “negritude” of black poetry and how uncovering one’s negritude leads to solidarity and hence political and psychological change.

End song: “Punch Bag” by Godley & Creme as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #3.

Nothing So Absurd?

by 1 Comment

In the first installment of a two-part series, Nicholas Joll tries to convince us that, for one thing, fire is not hot and, for another, that sincerity is impossible.

Truth and Authenticity in Michael Haneke’s Caché

by Leave a Comment

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?

Judgment without Morality

by 3 Comments

Both Sartre and Anscombe say that they’re teasing out the logical consequences of atheism for ethics, and of course we saw this back in Nietzsche too. If you ask “are these figures moral realists or moral irrealists?”, I think they’re going to say you’re missing the point. No, a sentence like “X is right” no longer becomes simply true or Continue Reading …

Not School: Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Nausea”

by 1 Comment

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.

Not Ep. 87 Addendum: Citizen Outtakes from “No Exit”

by Leave a Comment

A couple of minutes of us chatting with Lucy Lawless and Jaime Murray as we share our preconceptions about the play and give excuses for being unprepared, about 5 minutes of blooper-type material, then the rest is our talking afterward about some of our choices in silly voices, what we think Sartre was talking about, what we were all up to in our lives that week, etc.

Episode 87: Sartre on Freedom and Self-Deception

by Leave a Comment

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).

What is human nature? Sartre says that there isn’t one, but there is a universal human condition, which is our absolute freedom. If you claim to be determined by your character or circumstances, you’re acting in “bad faith.” Learn more.

End song: “Minnesota Freak” by Mark Lint and the Fake (2000).

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