Concluding our close reading for the moment of Heidegger's Being and Time, now up to chapter 3, sections 15 and 16. These sections are entirely focused on H's primordial ontological category of Being: "ready to hand," or equipment. Since we are primarily action-oriented beings, then (as discussed in part two), the world is not a set of present-at-hand objects all laid out Continue Reading …
Ep. 297: Heidegger on the Human Condition (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. We continue from ep. 296 with our close reading on Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927), covering in this part of the discussion chapter 1. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. This selection (aka section 9) covers existence (in German, Existenz) vs. existentia. The former is Dasein's (humanity's) specific way of Continue Reading …
Ep. 297: Heidegger on the Human Condition (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on Being and Time, now up to Ch. 2, sec. 12 on what our "being-in-the-world" amounts to. According to H, we are not in the world like a shoe is in a shoebox. Rather, the world is part of our existential structure, providing a background for our actions. Our primary relation to it is not knowing, as if we were a subject beholding a painting, but more Continue Reading …
Ep. 297: Heidegger on the Human Condition (Part One for Supporters)
We continue from ep. 296 with our close reading on Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927), covering in this part of the discussion chapter 1. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. This selection (aka section 9) covers existence (in German, Existenz) vs. existentia. The former is Dasein's (humanity's) specific way of being, which involves possibility and thus choice. H was Continue Reading …
Ep. 296: Heidegger Questions Being (Part Two)
Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free plus tons of bonus content. Continuing our close reading of selections of Being and Time from part one, we come back on a different day without Wes and focus on two parts from the Introduction 2, sec. 7: Sec. 5, where Heidegger says why time has to be the focus of the ontological analysis of Dasein (i.e. his description of the Continue Reading …
Ep. 296: Heidegger Questions Being (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free. This close reading of sections near the beginning of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1926) is a direct sequel to ep. 32, which provides an overview of his project. In this episode and 297, we read and discuss particular textual passages, so you can experience along with us what it's like to read this text with its Continue Reading …
Ep. 296: Heidegger Questions Being (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing our close reading of selections of Being and Time from part one, we come back on a different day without Wes and focus on two parts from the Introduction 2, sec. 7: Sec. 5, where Heidegger says why time has to be the focus of the ontological analysis of Dasein (i.e. his description of the essential human condition).Part A, on what are phenomena, according to Continue Reading …
Ep. 296: Heidegger Questions Being (Part One for Supporters)
This close reading of sections near the beginning of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1926) is a direct sequel to ep. 32, which provides an overview of his project. We re-introduced that episode in our most recent PEL Nightcap. In this episode and 297, we read and discuss particular textual passages, so you can experience along with us what it's like to read this text with Continue Reading …
Authenticity from Heidegger to Fanon
Philosophical and psychological questions about authenticity go right back to the beginning of the Western intellectual tradition in the form of Socrates’s concern with the genuine self. Eight hundred years later, St. Augustine expressed a similar interest in the true self, but it was the slow shift in emphasis from divine to human values during the Renaissance, the Continue Reading …
Episode 145: Emmanuel Levinas: Why Be Ethical?
On "Ethics as First Philosophy" (1984). More existentialist ethics, with a Jewish twist this time! Seth rejoins Mark and Wes to discuss this difficult essay, with a bit of "Time and the Other" (1948) and "There Is: Existence Without Existents" (1946) thrown in, too. Levinas thinks that the whole train of Western thought with the advance of science and all has left us too Continue Reading …
Ep. 145: Emmanuel Levinas: Why Be Ethical? (Citizen Edition)
On "Ethics as First Philosophy" (1984). More existentialist ethics, with a Jewish twist this time! Seth rejoins Mark and Wes to discuss this difficult essay, with a bit of "Time and the Other" (1948) and "There Is: Existence Without Existents" (1946) thrown in, too. Levinas thinks that the whole train of Western thought with the advance of science and all has left us too Continue Reading …
Topic for #125: Hannah Arendt on the Political, Private, and Social
You can watch the streams from the 9/25-9/26 Pittsburgh 2015 Continental Philosophy Conference on their YouTube Page, including our 9/26 episode discussion on Hannah Arendt. We have a separate (better) audio recording that will be released as a PEL episode in two installments on Oct. 12 and Oct. 19, and most likely combined with a different video to post our our YouTube Continue Reading …
Topic for #120: Guest Eva Brann on Will (and Aquinas, Augustine, Heidegger, etc.)
On 6/26/15 Dylan Casey visited Annapolis, Maryland to talk with Eva Brann, bringing the rest of us in via Skype to talk with her about her 2014 book, Un-Willing: An Inquiry into the Rise of Will's Power and an Attempt to Undo It. We all read chapters I "Before Will" (about the ancient Greeks), II.C. on Augustine, III.A. on Aquinas, VI. "A Linguistic Interlude" about the word Continue Reading …
Not School In May: Levinas, Zizek, Heidegger, Murakami, Auslander
It looks like May will be another active month in Not School. We already have groups set to read Levinas, Heidegger, Murakami, Auslander, and the ever popular Zizek. Remember, PEL Citizens can propose groups on whatever philosophical content they’re interested in, set their own schedules, and choose how to communicate. If you haven't joined up yet, take a look at what you’re Continue Reading …
April’s Not School Groups: Jesus, Murakami, Auslander, Heidegger
Our Not School our mainstays are all continuing this April, and we have one new group running so far. There will also be more Aftershow discussions, with the for #113 scheduled for Sun., 4/19 at 5:30pm Eastern. Go join the group to signal that you'll be there. If you like the podcast but haven't signed up to be a PEL Citizen, take a look here at what it offers. First up, Continue Reading …
Close Reading: Heidegger’s “On the Essence of Truth”
A sentence-by-sentence interpretation of Heidegger's "On the Essence of Truth," (1943) first half, by Mark and Seth, recorded Feb. 3, 2015. Heidegger describes truth as "unconcealment," as "letting beings be the beings the are," and thinks that this is more informative than the traditional correspondence theory (propositions match reality), which he thinks already Continue Reading …
Close Reading (Preview) of Heidegger on Truth
Mark Linsenmayer and Seth Paskin read and interpret Martin Heidegger's essay "On the Essence of Truth" (1943), first half. This is a 17-minute preview of a two-hour, 38-minute bonus recording, which you can purchase at partiallyexaminedlife.com/store or get for free with PEL Citizenship (see partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership). You can also purchase it at iTunes Store: Continue Reading …
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 Continue Reading …
Episode 109: Jaspers’s Existentialism with Guest Paul Provenza
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 Continue Reading …
Not School In November
This month both the Fiction and the Theater group will be starting new texts, the Heidegger group will be continuing, and a new group exploring conservative political philosophy is just starting up. If you're interested in any of these subjects or in forming a group to read something else, you can read about how PEL Not School works and join up. The Philosophical Fiction Continue Reading …