The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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Ep. 264: Plato’s “Timaeus” on Cosmology (Part One)

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On the later Platonic dialogue from around 360 BCE.

How is nature put together? Plato speaks through the fictional Timaeus (not Socrates) to give a “likely story” about the universe, physics, and biology involving a Craftsman (Demi-Urge) who created everything based on a pre-existing perfect model (the Forms!).

Timaeus derives his whole story from the principle that the world is good, and so the Craftsman must necessarily optimize creation, with any imperfections being introduced only by the necessity involved when a perfect blueprint gets embodied to create ever-shifting, impermanent matter.

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Ep. 263: Lise Van Boxel’s “Warspeak” on Strategies for Valuing (Part One)

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On Warspeak: Nietzsche’s Victory Over Nihilism (2020) with Dylan, Seth, and guests Michael Grenke and Jeff Black.

What’s a viable counter-ideal to the asceticism that Nietzsche thought is so pervasive? Lise’s book works out strategies for re-valuing that emphasize Nietzsche’s positive comments about the feminine and the power of words.

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Ep. 262: Nietzsche on Self-Denial (Part One)

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On Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals (1887), “Third essay: what do ascetic ideals mean?”

Self-denial is necessary for disciplined action but can clearly go too far. N uses this concept of asceticism to analyze both geniuses and the masses. It’s a chief tool of the will to power, dangerous to human flourishing but also helping us to evolve. Does N’s picture of motivation and greatness make sense?

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Ep. 261: Derek Parfit on Personal Identity (Part One)

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On Reasons and Persons (1984), ch. 10-13. What makes a person persist over time?

After using various sci-fi examples to test the Lockean (personhood=psychological continuity), physicalist (same brain=same person), and Cartesian (same soul=same person) theories, Parfit concludes that the whole notion is incoherent and isn’t actually what we care about when wondering “will I die?”

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PREVIEW-Ep. 260: Locke on Moral Psychology

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One last take on John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), covering Book II, ch. 21 and 28.

What makes a moral claim true? Do we have free will? What makes us choose the good, or not? In this coda to our long treatment of Locke’s opus, we bring together all he has to say about morality, which is strangely modern yet also just strange.

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Ep. 259: Locke Clarifies Misleading Complex Ideas (Part Two)

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More on Book II (ch. 22-33) of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding. 

On relations, then personal identity, with more on substances (spiritual and material), the various ways in which ideas can go wrong, and how mental association can entrench irrationality that disrupts clear thinking.

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REISSUE-PEL Ep 37: Locke on Political Power (w/ New Intro)

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A 2011 episode on John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government (1690), with a fresh introduction connecting it to the present.

What makes political power legitimate? Like Hobbes, Locke thought that things are less than ideal without a society to keep people from killing us, so we implicitly sign a social contract giving power to the state. But on Locke’s view, nature’s not as bad, so the state is given less power. But how much less? And what does Locke think about tea partying, kids, women, acorns, foreign travelers, and calling dibs? Featuring guest Sabrina Weiss.

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End song: “Lock Them Away,” by Mark Lint (2003).

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Happy Holidays! Have you heard our 2020 Holiday Party yet?

Ep. 258: Locke on Acquiring Simple Ideas (Part Two)

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Continuing on Book II (through ch. 20) of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

How do we acquire our ideas of pain and pleasure, duration and motion? We talk primary (shape, size) and secondary (color, sound) qualities, the former of which are supposed to be actually in objects, and the latter just in our mind. Plus, is Locke really an atomist about experience?

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Ep. 258: Locke on Acquiring Simple Ideas (Part One)

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On the first half of Book II of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

How do we get our ideas? Simple ideas must come in through perception, but this doesn’t just mean the senses; also reflection on our own minds, and this added layer of complexity allows us to bring in memory, concepts, time, and more.

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Ep. 257: Locke Against Innate Ideas (Part Two)

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Continuing on Book I of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

We consider Locke’s arguments that since there are no universally agreed upon principles, therefore there are no beliefs that we’re all born with, or that we all (without the need for experience) immediately recognize as true as soon as we gain the use of reason or are otherwise equipped to understand them.

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Ep. 257: Locke Against Innate Ideas (Part One)

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On Book I of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

How do we know things? Locke thought all knowledge comes from experience, and this might seem uncontroversial, but what are the alternatives? We consider the idea that there are some ideas we’re just born with and don’t need to learn. But what’s an “idea,” and how is it different from a principle? Clearly we have instincts (“knowhow”) but is that knowledge? We consider occurrent vs. dispositional nativism, the role of reason, and what Locke’s overall project is after.

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Ep. 255: Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” (Part One)

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On the Chinese military treatise from around the 5th century BCE.

How does a philosopher wage war? The best kind of war can be won without fighting. The general qua Taoist sage never moves until circumstances are optimal. We talk virtue ethics and practical strategy; how well can Sunzi’s advice be applied to non-martial pursuits? With guest Brian Wilson.

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Ep. 254: Michael Sandel Interview: Against Meritocracy (Part One)

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On The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? (2020).

Do people get the wealth and status they deserve? And if they did, would that be good? Michael critiques the meritocracy: It’s not actually fair, leaves most people feeling humiliated, and makes those on the top arrogant and disconnected. The commitment to meritocracy is shared by both political parties and helps explain our current dysfunction.

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Ep. 253: Leibniz on the Problem of Evil (Part One)

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On Gottfried Leibniz’s Theodicy (1710).

Why does God allow so many bad things to happen? Leibniz thought that by the definition of God, whatever He created must be the best of all possible worlds, and his theodicy presents numerous arguments to try to make that less counter-intuitive given how less-than-perfect the world seems to us.

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Ep. 252: Habermas on Communication as Sociality (Part One)

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On Jürgen Habermas’ “Actions, Speech Acts, Linguistically Mediated Interactions, and the Lifeworld” (1998), with guest John Foster.

What’s the relation between individuals and society? Habermas says that language has ethics built right into it: I’m trying to get you to agree with me, to engage in a cooperative enterprise of mutual understanding.

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Ep. 251: Simone Weil’s Ideal Society

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On “Theoretical Picture of a Free Society” (1934). What’s the ideal living situation for us all, given the peculiarities of human nature? Weil describes fulfillment as coming from being able to picture goals and plans and knowingly put them into effect, so social groups need to maximize that power by being small and cooperative.

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Ep. 250: Simone Weil on Human Needs (Part Three)

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Concluding on “The Needs of the Soul” from The Need for Roots (1943). This time we cover punishment, security, risk, private property, collective property, freedom of opinion, and truth.

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End song: “Even Though the Darkest Clouds” by liar, flower. Mark interviewed KatieJane Garside on Nakedly Examined Music #127.

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Ep. 250: Simone Weil on Human Needs (Part Two)

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Continuing on “The Needs of the Soul” from The Need for Roots (1943). We got started in part one with our need for order, and in this part we add liberty, obedience, responsibility, equality, hierarchy, and honor.

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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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