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Leo Strauss: Three Waves of Modernity

June 16, 2016 by Daniel Halverson 10 Comments

The crisis of modernity reveals itself in the fact … that modern western man no longer knows what he wants—that he no longer believes that he can know what is good and bad, right and wrong. –Leo Strauss Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was a German-Jewish political philosopher who, like earlier conservatives and later postmodernists, challenged the central contention of the  Continue Reading …

Rationality vs. Reasonableness

July 10, 2013 by Mark Linsenmayer 7 Comments

The terms "reason" and "rationality" are generally used interchangeably, where the latter is perhaps more technical, or sometimes "reason" is used to describe the human faculty while "rationality" the normative standard to which the faculty aspires. "Reasonable" has acquired a more general usage in social discourse as anyone willing to listen to reason, i.e. anyone whose  Continue Reading …

Episode 78: Ayn Rand on Living Rationally (Citizens Only)

July 1, 2013 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Ayn Rand

On Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1967) and "The Objectivist Ethics" (1961). First Rand grounds everyday human knowledge, largely by dismissing the concerns of other philosophers (even those whom she unknowingly parrots) as absurd. Then she uses this certainty to argue for her semi-Nietzschean vision of Great Men who master their emotions and rely only on  Continue Reading …

PREVIEW-Episode 78: Ayn Rand on Living Rationally

July 1, 2013 by Mark Linsenmayer 75 Comments

Ayn Rand

This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more  Continue Reading …

Topic for #78: Ayn Rand on Living Rationally

June 14, 2013 by Mark Linsenmayer

Listen to the episode. Bowing to repeated listener requests for an Ayn Rand episode, on the eve of 6/9/13 the regular PEL foursome started our discussion, got tired after a couple of hours, and recorded some more on 6/13. We plan to edit the result heavily enough to reduce the amount of frustrated kvetching ("Is that actually supposed to be an argument? Why does she think  Continue Reading …

“Be Reasonable!”

August 21, 2012 by Mark Linsenmayer 11 Comments

I wanted to expand a bit on the critique of reason as mentioned in my previous post on Rand, and readers should keep in mind that this is chiefly a response to a strain I've picked up on in popular culture which may or may not accurately capture anything Rand actually said (though it does match my 20+ year old recollections of her). Back at the dawn of the Enlightenment, it  Continue Reading …

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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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