The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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Episode 176: Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part Two)

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Continuing with Dave Pizarro on articles by Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, and John Doris about situationism, which entails that people’s level of morality will vary by situation, as opposed to virtue ethics, which posits that how people will act in a novel situation will be determined by the quality of their character.

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Episode 176: Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part One)

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On Stanley Milgram’s “Behavioral Study of Obedience” (1963), Philip Zimbardo’s “Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison” (1973), and John Doris’s “Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics” (1998).

Do difficult situations make good people act badly? Are there really “good” and “bad” people, or are we all about the same, but put in different situations? With guest Dave Pizarro from Very Bad Wizards.

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Ep. 176: Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Citizen Edition)

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On Stanley Milgram’s “Behavioral Study of Obedience” (1963), Philip Zimbardo’s “Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison” (1973), and John Doris’s “Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics” (1998).

Do difficult situations make good people act badly? Are there really “good” and “bad” people, or are we all about the same, but put in different situations?

End song: “Doing the Wrong Thing – Live” by Kaki King; listen to her on Nakedly Examined Music #54.

Episode 172: Mind, Self, and Affect with Guest Dr. Drew (Part Two)

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Continuing with Drew Pinsky on “Attachment and Reflective Function: Their Role in Self-organization” by Peter Fonagy and two articles by Allan Schore.

Fonagy claims we gain the ability to emotionally self-regulate as a result of achieving secure attachment with a caregiver as infants. Schore claims that if this fails, we can end up fundamentally disengaged. So what are the philosophical implications?

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End song: “Anything but Love” by Steve Hackett, as featured on Nakedly Examined Music #45.

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Episode 172: Mind, Self, and Affect with Guest Dr. Drew (Part One)

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Radio legend Dr. Drew Pinsky talks with us about “Attachment and Reflective Function: Their Role in Self-organization” by Peter Fonagy and two articles by Allan Schore.

The focus is “theory of mind”; how do we develop the ability to impute thoughts and intentions to others? What in our upbringing can interfere with this development? We relate this back to previous episodes (Hegel, Buber, etc.) on recognition by others of the self.

Visit DrDrew.com. He has interviewed Wes and Mark.

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Ep. 172: Mind, Self, and Affect with Guest Dr. Drew (Citizen Edition)

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Radio legend Dr. Drew Pinsky talks with us about “Attachment and reflective function: their role in self-organization” by Peter Fonagy and two articles by Allan Schore.

The focus is “theory of mind”; how do we develop the ability to impute thoughts and intentions to others? What in our upbringing can interfere with this development? We relate this back to previous episodes (Hegel, Buber, etc.) on recognition by others of the self.

Listen to more Dr. Drew at DrDrew.com, especially his interviews with Wes and Mark.

End song: “Anything but Love” by Steve Hackett, as featured on Nakedly Examined Music #45.

Episode 171: Buddhism vs. Evolution with Guest Robert Wright (Part Two)

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Continuing on Why Buddhism Is True. We discuss the “no self” doctrine as articulated in Buddha’s Second Discourse and the modularity-of-mind theory that Bob claims supports it. What are the ethical implications, and do we really need meditation to achieve its alleged ethical benefits?

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End song: “Alphalpha Bhang” by Anton Barbeau, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music ep. 50.

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Episode 171: Buddhism vs. Evolution with Guest Robert Wright (Part One)

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Bob joins the PEL four to discuss his new book Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment. Bob applies his expertise in evolutionary psychology to corroborate Buddhism’s claims that we are deluded: about our desires, emotions, the unity of our selves, and the “essences” we project on things and people. And he thinks meditation can instill in the diligent the ability to see things more clearly. But does it really?

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Ep. 171: Buddhism vs. Evolution with Guest Robert Wright (Citizen Edition)

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Bob joins the PEL four to discuss his new book Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment. Bob applies his expertise in evolutionary psychology to corroborate Buddhism’s claims that we are deluded: about our desires, emotions, the unity of our selves, and the “essences” we project on things and people. And he thinks meditation can instill in the diligent the ability to see things more clearly. But does it really?

End song: “Alphalpha Bhang” by Anton Barbeau; see Nakedly Examined Music #50.

Episode 119: Nietzsche on Tragedy and the Psychology of Art

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On Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Nietzsche thought that you could tell how vital or decadent a civilization was by its art, and said that ancient Greek tragedy was so great because it was a perfect synthesis of something highly formal/orderly/beautiful with the intuitive/unconscious/chaotic. But then Socrates ruined everything! With guest John Castro.

Includes a preview of the Aftershow feat. Greg Sadler.

End song: “Some Act” by Mark Lint and the Fake from “So Whaddaya Think?” (2000).

Episode 119: Nietzsche on Tragedy and the Psychology of Art (Citizen Edition)

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On Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1872), which was his first book. Nietzsche thought that you could tell how vital or decadent a civilization was by its art, and said that ancient Greek tragedy was so great because it was a perfect synthesis of something highly formal/orderly/beautiful with the intuitive/unconscious/chaotic. But then Socrates ruined everything, and it remains ruined! Can we recapture the magic? Probably not. With guest John Castro.

End song: “Some Act” by Mark Lint and the Fake from “So Whaddaya Think?” (2000)

Ep 116 Aftershow: Freud and Dream Interpretation

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Featuring Danny Lobell, Wes Alwan, Bjorn Dahlby, Ken Presting, Chase Fiorenza, Michael deCamp, Terra Leigh Bell, and Sam Baguley. Recorded June 7, 2015. Our discussion focused less on dreams than on Freud and everything else we happened to want to talk about, from psychedelic drugs to the female lioness’ “ambivalence” about mating.

Episode 116: Freud on Dreams (Citizen Edition)

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On Sigmund Freud’s On Dreams (1902), a bit of The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and the lecture, “Revision of the Theory of Dreams” (1933).

Are dreams just a bunch of random crap? Freud says, no, they’re actually the first and best way to figure out the structure of the mind, which (surprise) involves the unconscious and how repressed, anti-social desires get (sort of) revealed to us, albeit smashed together through chains of association with what seems like random crap. How can Freud support such a view? Is it science? What are its implications for our capacity to philosophize?

End song: “Sleep” by Mark Lint.

Topic for #81: Carl Jung on the Psyche and Dreams

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Listen now to Wes’s introductory precognition of this Jung discussion. On 8/7/13, we recorded a discussion of Carl Jung’s Man and His Symbols, specifically essay he wrote that kicks off the book (which includes several authors), “Approaching the Unconscious.” This reading (written shortly before Jung’s death in 1961 and published afterwards) was recommended to us by some Jung fans on Continue Reading …

Topic for #74: Lacan on the Self/Subject

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Listen to the episode. What is that thing I call “I?” While most of your grade-A philosophers of the past hundred years or so agree that it’s not a Cartesian Cogito, i.e. an immortal soul characterized by continuous consciousness, the alternatives are many and varied. With Hegel, we got the idea that the self is built, and this through our Continue Reading …

Wisdom Studies

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 It is oft said (at least when exercising etymology muscles) that philosophy is “love of wisdom.” Just like other mind-related topics such as emotion and creativity, wisdom is getting the scientific treatment. One of our listeners pointed us to a book by Stephen S. Hall titled Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience which surveys a variety of answers to the question of Continue Reading …

Montaigne, Mirror Neurons, and Men with Guns

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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 Continue Reading …

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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