Given our treatment of Game of Thrones and Life Is a Dream, and the way in which end-justifying-the-means logic plays endlessly in our real-life political situation, it’s time we looked back on our episode 14 on Machiavelli. I reviewed that episode and recorded a little essay about practicing Machiavellian politics to get you back in this spirit.
Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Part Two)
Continuing on Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate (1946).
Is there an “authentic” way to respond to persecution? As part of his critique of anti-semitism, Sartre criticized the responses of some Jews to this situation, e.g. denying that the persecution exists, pretending to not be Jewish, or in any way accepting the terms of anti-semitism and setting up one’s life in reaction to it. Sartre instead recommends solidarity and “concrete liberalism,” which we try to figure out.
Listen to part one first. Don’t wait for the last part; get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! Join us for PEL Live on 4/6!
Sponsors: Visit TheGreatCoursesPLUS.com/PEL for two months of unlimited learning for 99 cents. Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Part One)
On Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate (1946) and “Black Orpheus” (1948).
How can we best understand the psychology of racism? Sartre condemns anti-Semitism as denying the facts of the human condition: the responsibility for fixing problems and not blaming them on a demonized other. But he also criticizes “the democrat” for a humanism that pretends we’re in a post-racial world, calling instead for “concrete liberalism” that treats Jews not as abstract individuals but as real people in an an oppressed situation.
Don’t wait for parts 2 and 3; get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! See PEL Live in NYC on April 6.
Sponsors: Please visit calm.com/pel for 25% off a stress-reducing subscription, TakeCareOf.com (code PEL) for 50% off a month of personalized vitamins, TheGreatCoursesPLUS.com/PEL for two months of unlimited learning for 99 cents, and use code 30PEL get 30% off at Amazon of Bill Wooditch’s book Fail More.
Episode 211: Sartre on Racism and Authenticity (Citizen Edition)
On Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate (1946) and “Black Orpheus” (1948).
How can we best understand the psychology of racism and reactions to it? Sartre not only condemns anti-Semitism as denying the facts of the human condition (the responsibility for fixing problems and not blaming them on a demonized other), he also thinks that the victims of oppression can be inauthentic by denying their situation or otherwise being reactive to the racist’s attitude. “Black Orpheus” further explores this idea in characterizing the “negritude” of black poetry and how uncovering one’s negritude leads to solidarity and hence political and psychological change.
End song: “Punch Bag” by Godley & Creme as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #3.
Episode 210: Frantz Fanon’s Black Existentialism (Part Two)
Continuing on Black Skin White Masks (1952), starting with the influential ch. five, “The Fact of Blackness.” Are the successive coping strategies to racism (including “anti-racist racism” and embrace of negritude) that Fanon describes, necessary steps in a dialectic that should be encouraged, or would it be best to learn from his “mistakes” and jump right to the humanistic end-point? With guest Lawrence Ware.
Start with part 1 or get the ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL! See PEL Live in NYC on April 6.
End song: “Malaika” by John Etheridge and Vimala Rowe; hear John interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #85.
Sponsors: Take back your Internet privacy with three months free at EXPRESSVPN.com/PEL. Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi. Please go to podsurvey.com/partially-examined-life to take a quick, anonymous survey and enter for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Episode 210: Frantz Fanon’s Black Existentialism (Part One)
On Black Skin White Masks (1952).
How does growing up in a racist society mess people up? Fanon’s “clinical study” includes phenomenology, poetry, and a lot of existentialism, which means that the “let’s embrace negritude in the face of bigotry” solution isn’t ultimately available to him: We’re all radically free, with no race-specific essence, whether positive or negative. With guest Lawrence Ware.
Don’t wait for part two; get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! Don’t miss PEL Live in NYC on April 6.
Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.
Episode 209: Francis Fukuyama on Identity Politics (Part Two: Discussion)
Continuing on Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018).
Fukuyama recommends a “creedal national identity” as a solution for tribalism; does this work? Is this “demand for recognition” that he describes foundational for the act of making an ethical claim? For self-consciousness itself? How does ideology prejudice the sort of theorizing that Fukuyama engages in?
Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
End song: “Cornerstone” by Richard X. Heyman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #61.
Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
Episode 209: Guest Francis Fukuyama on Identity Politics (Part One)
Talking with the author about Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018).
What motivates people? Frank points to thymos, the demand for recognition, as at the root of both the “end of history” (i.e., democracy as demand for equal recognition) and our current tribalist stalemates, involving desires to be seen—in virtue of group membership—as superior. Thymos may in fact be central to self-consciousness, ethics, and the origins of political association.
See PEL Live in NYC on April 6. Get your 2019 PEL Wall Calendar with free domestic shipping!
Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.
Episode 209: Guest Francis Fukuyama on Identity Politics (Citizen Edition)
An interview and discussion on Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018).
What motivates people? Frank points to thymos, the demand for recognition, as at the root of both the “end of history” (i.e., democracy as demand for equal recognition) and our current tribalist stalemates, involving desires to be seen—in virtue of group membership—as superior. Thymos may in fact be central to self-consciousness, ethics, and the origins of political association.
End song: “Cornerstone” by Richard X. Heyman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #61.
To Be Re-Bourne: Breathing New Life into the Prophetic Philosophy of Randolph Bourne
Randolph Bourne died 100 years ago this December at the age of 32. While his legacy lives on, to properly pay homage to his work we can recover the spirit of his prophetic philosophy, which has too often been overlooked or misapprehended.
Episode 199: Guest Elizabeth Anderson on Private Government (Part Two)
Continuing on Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).
Should the amount of respect that a worker gets be proportional to his or her market value? Our guest tells us more about how all citizens have the right to have their interests considered and what this means for how the relationship between employers and employees might change. We talk health care, income inequality, Tyler Cowen, libertarianism, and more.
Start with part one. We’ll do some post-guest discussion in part 3, but you needn’t wait: Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL.
If you enjoyed Mark’s music on our episodes 1–149, please contribute to the new album through patreon.com/marklint.
Episode 199: Guest Elizabeth Anderson on Private Government (Part One)
The U. of Michigan prof joins us to discuss Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about It) (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).
What is a government? Liz argues that this includes companies, and that we should thus apply political science concepts in evaluating their power. Her egalitarianism involves everyone retaining a minimum level of inalienable autonomy, and we should resist encroachments on this not just by the state but from employers as well.
Continue on parts two and three, or get them together via the ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
Episode 199: Guest Elizabeth Anderson on Private Government (Citizen Edition)
The U. of Michigan prof joins us to discuss Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about It) (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999).
What is a government? Liz argues that this includes companies, and that we should thus apply political science concepts in evaluating their power. Her egalitarianism involves everyone retaining a minimum level of inalienable autonomy, and we should resist encroachments on this not just by the state but from employers as well.
End song: “Straight Job” by Rod Picott. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #80.
Episode 193 Follow-Up: Strauss and Rorty on Liberal Education and Democracy (Citizens Only)
Wes and Dylan discuss Leo Strauss’s “Mass Education and Democracy” (1967) and Richard Rorty’s “Democracy and Philosophy” (2007). Must philosophical training, or liberal education more generally, necessarily be restricted a privileged minority? PEL Citizens get to find out!
Bonus Discussion: Identity Politics Preliminaries (Citizens Only)
Wes and Mark try to figure out whether anyone wants us to have a full episode on identity politics, maybe reading some Francis Fukuyama or some Ta-Nehisi Coates. We’ve already talked about white privilege, Orwellian “nationalism,” free speech, electoral strategy, James Baldwin, etc. What’s left?
Episode 188: Discussing “Lysistrata” and Politics with Lucy and Emily (Part Two)
Concluding our discussion of Aristophanes’s play with Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins. We focus on trying to connect its lessons to the here and now: Is Lysistrata’s victory properly described as the ascension of some kind of “feminine spirit” over warlike values, and how does that actually relate to women’s struggles now to attain positions of power?
Listen to our performance and then part one of the discussion before listening to this (or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition). Please support PEL!
Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Get 20% off your first order of premium menswear essentials at mackweldon.com, promo code PEL.
Episode 188: Discussing “Lysistrata” and Politics with Lucy and Emily (Part One)
We are rejoined by actresses Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins to discuss Aristophanes’s bawdy play. Listen to us perform it first.
Supplementary readings included Jeffery Henderson’s introduction to his 1988 translation of the play; “Sexual Humor and Harmony in Lysistrata” by Jay M. Semel (1981); and “The ‘Female Intruder’ Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae” by Helene P. Foley (1982).
Continue with part two, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
Sponsors: Get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at squarespace.com/examined, offer code EXAMINED. Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Please also check out the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
Episode 188: Discussing “Lysistrata” and Politics with Lucy and Emily (Citizen Edition)
We are rejoined by actresses Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins to discuss Aristophanes’s bawdy play. Listen to us perform it first.
Supplementary readings included Jeffery Henderson’s introduction to his 1988 translation of the play; “Sexual Humor and Harmony in Lysistrata” by Jay M. Semel (1981); and “The ‘Female Intruder’ Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae” by Helene P. Foley (1982).
End song: “Women of Industry (ABWA Charm)” by Jill Sobule, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #18.
PREVIEW-Episode 187: The Limits of Free Speech (Part Three)
Three substantial chunks of a follow-up conversation to our free speech episode. Mark and Wes discuss Jordan Peterson on speech, organizations promoting certain speech (as opposed to restricting), insults vs. arguments, offense vs. harm, “incoherence” arguments like Fish’s, fundamental principles in ethics, and more.
Get the full discussion by becoming a PEL Citizen or Patreon supporter.
Episode 187: The Limits of Free Speech (Part Two)
Continuing our free-form discussion, trying to make sense of Stanley Fish’s “There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It’s a Good Thing, Too” (1994) and other potential rationales for prohibiting hate speech. How might the same sentence or idea be used in different speech acts, some of which might be legitimately censured but others not?
Listen to part one first, or get the Citizen Edition, along with the full-length follow-up discussion by Mark and Wes.
Sponsors: Visit Squarespace.com for a free trial and 10% off with offer code EXAMINED and the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 8
- Next Page »