Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get previous and future installments of this new podcast, including (soon) an additional part to this discussion.Subscribe to PEL to get other part 3's to PEL episodes, plus tons of other bonus recordings, and all of your PEL episodes ad-free. Mark and Wes Closeread the conclusion to Soren Kierkegaard's On the Continue Reading …
Ep. 329: Kierkegaard on Irony (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content, including a third part to this discussion, coming soon. Continuing from part one on On the Concept of Irony, we finish up with Socrates and say why according to K, his type of irony is better than that of his Romantic peers like Friedrich Schlegel. Sponsors: Learn about St. John's College at Continue Reading …
Ep. 329: Kierkegaard on Irony (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Mark, Seth, and Dylan discuss On the Concept of Irony, With Continual Reference to Socrates, Soren Kierkegaard's master's thesis (1841). Sponsors: Get $250 off the #1 meal kit for eating well at GreenChef.com/pel250 (code pel250). Start selling online with a $1/month trial period at Continue Reading …
Ep. 328: Guest Yascha Mounk Against Identity Politics (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content, including a supporter-exclusive, guest-free part three to this episode. Listen to a preview.. Continuing from part one on The Identity Trap (2023). In arguing against a "monomaniacal" prism for interpreting the world (whether via class as the Marxists use or via race, gender, and sexual Continue Reading …
Ep. 328: Guest Yascha Mounk Against Identity Politics (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On The Identity Trap (2023), Yascha's intellectual history wokeness (which he calls "the identity synthesis") and defense of philosophical liberalism against this set of ideas. Which is more important, the characteristics that we all share as human beings, or those that make us part of Continue Reading …
Ep. 327: Harry Frankfurt on Bullshit and Authenticity (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth discuss the celebrated 1986 essay "On Bullshit." (In part two, we'll cover by contrast his 1982 essay "The Importance of What We Care About.") Sponsors: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. Get 15% off MasterClass at masterclass.com/PEL. What is Continue Reading …
Ep. 326: Michael Tomasello on the Evolution of Agency (Part Two)
Subscribe to get this ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Wes, Dylan, and guest Chris Heath continue to discuss The Evolution of Agency (2022) in light of our interview with the author in part one. We relate examples from the book of animals of various levels of complexity making deliberative decisions, exhibiting rationality, experiencing causality, or otherwise Continue Reading …
Ep. 326: Guest Michael Tomasello on the Evolution of Agency (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. The psycho-linguist prof. from Duke University joins Wes, Dylan, Seth, and Chris Heath to discuss his 2022 book, The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to Humans. What is human agency? How would we determine whether an animal is a legitimate agent, as opposed to just Continue Reading …
Ep. 325: Paul Grice on Meaning and Conversation (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive part three. Listen to a preview.. Continuing from part one on "Meaning" (1957), "Utterer’s Meaning and Intentions" (1969), and "Logic and Conversation" (1975) with guest Steve Gimbell. We tie Grice's initial project about meaning into this apparently new project in "Logic and Conversation": What Continue Reading …
Ep. 325: Paul Grice on Meaning and Conversation (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On "Meaning" (1957), "Utterer’s Meaning and Intentions" (1969), and "Logic and Conversation" (1975), featuring Mark, Seth, Dylan, and guest prof. Steve Gimbell of Gettysburg College. Sponsors: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. Check out Drilled, a true-crime podcast about Continue Reading …
Ep. 324: Plato’s “Cratylus” on Language (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive part three. Listen to a preview.. Continuing from part one on Plato's mid-period dialogue about language. Is attaching a word to a thing, i.e. naming it, like other activities such as carpentry or sewing that can go wrong? Can we put the "form" of a thing into letters and syllabus of its name? Continue Reading …
Ep. 324: Plato’s “Cratylus” on Language (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including a supporter-exclusive part three to this discussion coming out next week. On Plato's mid-period dialogue from around 388 BCE. How do words relate to the things they represent? Featuring Mark, Wes, and Dylan. Sponsors: Visit GreenChef.com/60pel (code 60pel) for 60% off and free Continue Reading …
Ep. 323: Acquiring Language: Tomasello vs. Chomsky (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive Nightcap discussion about cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and more. Continuing from part one on Michael Tomasello's "Language Is Not an Instinct" (1995) and Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition (2003), as contrasted with Chomsky universal grammar (the Continue Reading …
Ep. 323: Acquiring Language: Tomasello vs. Chomsky (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Michael Tomasello's "Language Is Not an Instinct" (1995) and ch. 1, 2, 8 and 9 of Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition (2003), plus the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article Innateness and Language by Fiona Cowie (posted 2008, updated 2017). Featuring Continue Reading …
Closereads on Emerson’s Oversoul: Audio and Video Podcast Premiere
Subscribe to get this discussion ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Are we underlyingly all really a single, unified organism? Or do we just have a lot in common? We begin unraveling this puzzling claim by reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1841 essay "The Over-Soul." Read along with us. This is the public premiere of a new weekly series by the most verbose of your PEL Continue Reading …
Ep. 322: Schelling on Art vs. Nature (Part Three)
Subscribe to get parts 1-3 of this discussion ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Mark and Wes conclude with some close reading of Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), section 3: "Relation of Art to Philosophy." What exactly is self-consciousness, and how to we achieve it? We try to really figure out Schelling's story about art in light of his general Continue Reading …
Ep. 322: Schelling on Art vs. Nature (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1-3 of this discussion now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing (sans Seth) from part one on "On the Relation Between the Plastic Arts and Nature" (1807) and Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800). We finish up the 1807 speech by talking about sculpture vs. painting and then move on to this penultimate chapter of this Continue Reading …
Ep. 322: Schelling on Art vs. Nature (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Discussing Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling's "On the Relation Between the Plastic Arts and Nature" (1807) and Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Sponsors: Give more effectively via GiveWell.org (and let them know we sent Continue Reading …
Ep. 321: August Schlegel on Beauty (Part Two)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive Nightcap discussion largely about philosophy of technology. Listen to a preview.. Continuing from part one on our excerpt from Theory of Art (ca. 1800), we get more into the text, covering Schlegel's critique of various elements of Kant's philosophy of art. We start with the distinction between Continue Reading …
Ep. 321: August Schlegel on Beauty (Part One)
Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including (next week) a supporter-exclusive Nightcap discussion. Covering the elder Schlegel brother's Theory of Art (ca. 1800), as excerpted in Theory as Practice: A Critical Anthology of Early German Romantic Writings. Sponsors: Get 15% off a newly cheaper annual membership at Continue Reading …