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Intro Readings in Philosophy Series Starting Now(ish)!!!!

March 2, 2016 by Brian Wilson Leave a Comment

You're fired up, you are ready. To read some philosophy, and OHYEAH!, talk about it. Well, you're ready for the Intro Readings in Philosophy Not School Group. Led by Brian Wilson (me, a St. John's College Graduate Institute alum who's been doing this same gig for veterans and active duty since 2013 through my Combat & Classics program), you'll dig into a monthly  Continue Reading …

PEL Gets Reviewed by Podthoughts (Colin Marshall)

January 2, 2012 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

One of the better-written reviews of our podcast can be found here. I quote: At least three hosts at a time trying to interpret, in their own natural and thus imprecise language, a philosophical text itself composed in its own natural and thus imprecise language, opens up infinite opportunity for purely semantic argument. The show’s discussions, as with so many philosophical  Continue Reading …

In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens

December 16, 2011 by Daniel Horne 5 Comments

http://youtu.be/p4rF5mspaVk Watch on YouTube. Christopher Hitchens died on Thursday after a punishing bout with cancer, and I'd like to take the liberty of inserting a brief memoriam. I do this in a philosophy blog partially because PEL recently discussed one of his books. But mostly I do it because I would hate to think anyone remembers Hitchens as nothing more than a "New  Continue Reading …

Montaigne, Mirror Neurons, and Men with Guns

March 7, 2011 by Daniel Horne Leave a Comment

Here's an excerpt from a good series on Montaigne the Guardian UK ran last year, written by Sarah Bakewell, who just published a well received book on Montaigne: To take just one example of how we can derive wisdom from Montaigne: his Essays give us a wealth of anecdotes exploring ways of resolving violent confrontations. As a teenager in Bordeaux, Montaigne had witnessed one  Continue Reading …

Montaigne on Self-Esteem

February 21, 2011 by Seth Paskin 1 Comment

Montaigne's Essays are a deeply personal investigation into ourselves and our lives that isn't typically treated by philosophy books.  Here, in another great BBC series, Alain de Botton (a notable philosopher in his own right), talks about Montaigne's notion of self-esteem and how philosophy can be a guide to happiness. It kicks off around 1 minute in... De Botton focuses  Continue Reading …

Episode 33: Montaigne: What Is the Purpose of Philosophy? (Citizens Only)

February 18, 2011 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

Discussing Michel de Montaigne's Essays: "That to Philosophize is to Learn to Die," "Of Experience," "Of Cannibals," "Of the Education of Children," and "Of Solitude" (all from around 1580) with some discussion of "Apology for Raymond Sebond." Renaissance man Montaigne tells us all how to live, how to die, how to raise our kids, that we don't know anything, and a million  Continue Reading …

PREVIEW-Episode 33: Montaigne: What Is the Purpose of Philosophy?

February 18, 2011 by Mark Linsenmayer 21 Comments

This is a 32-minute preview of a 1 hr, 41-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 …

Dworkin on Defining the Good Life

January 26, 2011 by Daniel Horne Leave a Comment

Mark's posts on Frithjof Bergmann help lay the groundwork for the upcoming episode on Montaigne and what constitutes the "good life." Coincidentally, there's a similarly-themed article by Ronald Dworkin in this month's New York Review of Books. I may disagree with Mark's conclusions, and maybe even some of his premises. But I better appreciate Mark's approach after reading  Continue Reading …

Topic for #33: Montaigne on Philosophy and the Good Life

January 24, 2011 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

What does philosophizing really get us? We can't attain much in the way of certain knowledge. Knowing really doesn't, contra Plato, make us virtuous. In fact, getting too sucked into parsing long and complex texts can cause us to lose perspective, i.e. miss the point of our interest in philosophy in the first place. 16th century intellectual Michel de Montaigne gives us a  Continue Reading …

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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

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