For our final 2021 installment on G.W.F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, we give you a second episode originally posted in 2011, where Mark and Seth continue from ep. 35 with guest Tom McDonald to cover the rest of chapter 4, focusing on sections 178-230. First, Hegel's famous "master and slave" parable, whereby we only become fully self-conscious by meeting up with another Continue Reading …
REISSUE-Ep 35: Hegel on Self-Consciousness (w/ New Intro)
Seth, Wes and Dylan newly introduce an episode from ten years ago on G.F.W. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Ch. 4A "Self-Consciousness," which features Mark, Seth, Wes, and guest Tom McDonald. Sponsors: Get a free month of Great Courses lectures and lots of other great content at Wondrium.com/PEL. Get a free month's access to a vast library of guided meditations at Continue Reading …
REISSUE-Ep 35: Hegel on Self-Consciousness (Ad Free w/ New Intro)
Seth, Wes and Dylan re-introduce this episode from ten years ago on G.F.W. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Ch. 4A "Self-Consciousness," which features guest Tom McDonald. We've removed the "review" section of the old episode (the first half), because it's duplicative of our recent three-episode run on this book. The old discussion thus picks up in the book right where ep. Continue Reading …
Ep. 274: Schelling on Self-Consciousness (Part Two for Supporters)
Concluding our treatment of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling’s System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), Parts 1 and 2. Start with part one. What sort of self is created in the singular act of self-consciousness that according to Schelling grounds all knowledge? It can't be your personality, or the thing that makes all of your various experiences uniquely yours, because Continue Reading …
Ep. 274: Schelling on Self-Consciousness (Part One for Supporters)
On Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling’s System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), Parts 1 and 2. This continues from Ep. 273 and features Mark, Wes, and Seth. If you're an idealist, and so think that all existence is somehow in our minds, then the key to any knowledge whatsoever would have to be an understanding of the mind. Schelling thought in particular that in the act of Continue Reading …
Ep. 258: Locke on Acquiring Simple Ideas (Citizen Edition)
On Book II (through ch. 20) of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), discussed by Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. In ep. 257, we established that Locke didn't think we are born with any actual knowledge; we only have as the raw materials of knowledge what our five senses feed us. But there do seem to be some beliefs about, for instance, the existence of our Continue Reading …
Ep. 248: Racism and Policing (Al-Saji, Merleau-Ponty, et al) (Part Two)
Continuing on Alia Al-Saji’s “A Phenomenology of Hesitation: Interrupting Racializing Habits of Seeing” (2014), Maurice Merleau-Ponty's “The Spatiality of One’s Own Body and Motility" from Phenomenology of Perception (1945), Linda Martín Alcoff’s “Identity as Visible and Embodied” and “Perception" sections from Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self (2006), and ch. 1 of Continue Reading …
Ep. 248: Racism and Policing (Al-Saji, Merleau-Ponty, et al) (Part One)
On Alia Al-Saji’s “A Phenomenology of Hesitation: Interrupting Racializing Habits of Seeing” (2014), Maurice Merleau-Ponty's “The Spatiality of One’s Own Body and Motility" from Phenomenology of Perception (1945), Linda Martín Alcoff’s “Identity as Visible and Embodied” and “Perception" sections from Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self (2006), and ch. 1 of Alex Continue Reading …
Ep. 248: Racism and Policing (Al-Saji, Merleau-Ponty, et al) (Citizen Edition)
On Alia Al-Saji’s “A Phenomenology of Hesitation: Interrupting Racializing Habits of Seeing” (2014), Maurice Merleau-Ponty's “The Spatiality of One’s Own Body and Motility" from Phenomenology of Perception (1945), Linda Martín Alcoff’s “Identity as Visible and Embodied” and “Perception" sections from Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self (2006), and ch. 1 of Alex Continue Reading …
Ep. 245: Fashion (Derrida, Foucault, Sontag) w/ Shahidha Bari (Part Two)
We continue with Michel Foucault's "The Ethics of the Concern of the Self as a Practice of Freedom" (1984) and add Susan Sontag's "On Style" (1965). After the departure of our guest about halfway through this part, we wrap up with thoughts on all the readings, including Jacques Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am" (1999) p. 1–16, and our guest Shahidha's book Dressed: A Continue Reading …
Ep. 245: Fashion (Derrida, Foucault) w/ Shahidha Bari (Part One)
On Jacques Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am" (1999) p. 1–16, Michel Foucault's "The Ethics of the Concern of the Self As A Practice of Freedom" (1984), and our guest Shahidha's book Dressed: A Philosophy of Clothes (2020) p. 1–22, 205–217. Much historical philosophy takes appearance to be the mere covering to be ignored in favor of the soul, essence or content Continue Reading …
Ep. 245: Fashion (Derrida, Foucault, Sontag) w/ Shahidha Bari (Citizen Edition)
On Jacques Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am" (1999) p. 1–16, Michel Foucault's "The Ethics of the Concern of the Self As A Practice of Freedom" (1984), Susan Sontag's "On Style" (1965), and our guest Shahidha's book Dressed: A Philosophy of Clothes (2020) p. 1–22, 205–217. Much historical philosophy takes appearance to be the mere covering to be ignored in favor of Continue Reading …
Episode 146: Emmanuel Levinas on Overcoming Solitude
More Levinas, working this time through Time and the Other (1948). What is it for a person to exist? What individuates one person from another, making us into selves instead of just part of the causal net of events? Why would someone possibly think that these are real, non-obvious questions that need to be addressed? Levinas gives us a phenomenological progression from the Continue Reading …
Ep. 146: Emmanuel Levinas on Overcoming Solitude (Citizen Edition)
More Levinas, working this time through Time and the Other (1948). What is it for a person to exist? What individuates one person from another, making us into selves instead of just part of the causal net of events? Why would someone possibly think that these are real, non-obvious questions that need to be addressed? Levinas gives us a phenomenological progression from 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 …
Merleau-Ponty Used to Explain “Deadpool”
Watch on YouTube. Deadpool is all meta, i.e., he knows he's in a movie/comic book. Mike Rugnetta of the Reasonably Sound podcast thinks this isn't just a matter of the comic's writers being much too impressed with their own cleverness, but that being in such constant pain due to his particular superpower/mutation has actually given him a higher level of awareness. Or maybe Continue Reading …
Soul Dust: A Well Supported Stab At The “Why” Of Consciousness.
Nicholas Humphrey, professor of psychology at The London School Of Economics, is a leading investigator of what philosopher David Chalmers dubbed the “hard problem” of consciousness. His Recent book Soul Dust approaches the second part of the Hard Problem: why human beings have consciousness, and why consciousness should have evolved at all. It is an excellent read for Continue Reading …
Phenomenology is Wrong
We should distinguish between two traditions within phenomenology: realist phenomenology and idealist phenomenology (fathered by Heidegger and Husserl respectively). The distinguishing feature is how they treat their ‘pre-bracketed’ and ‘post-bracketed’ states: in the realist case when we interpret (describe) the world we can bracket the truth of the claims epistemologically: Continue Reading …
Not School Discussion of Being and Time
July saw the incarnation of a Not School Study Group that is dedicated to a close and thorough reading of Martin Heidegger's 1927 classic Being and Time. Due to the slow nature of the group, we are not set to end at any specific time and are therefore ongoing. The group is centered around weekly video or audio chat meetings. Though we aim for a close and thorough reading we Continue Reading …
Not School: Heidegger’s “Being and Time” Discussion Series
Featuring Stevie LeValley, Nathan Goldman, Thomas Rickarby, Nathan Goldman, and Adrian Cho. Recorded July 6, 2014. This first discussion covered the Introduction, Part I. Listen to part two, Introduction, Part II. Recorded July 27, 2014. About 2 hrs. Listen to part three, on Division 1.1. Recorded Aug 3, 2014. About 2 hrs., 12 min. Listen to part four, on Division 1.2. Continue Reading …