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Ep. 231: Descartes’s “Discourse” on Wisdom and Certainty (Part Two)

December 16, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Continuing on Descartes’s Discourse on Method, looking closely at part 4 (his proto-Meditations) and his "provisional" Stoic ethics. Listen to part one first or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL! End song: "My Real Fantasy" By Joe Louis Walker, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #110.  Continue Reading …

Ep. 231: Descartes’s “Discourse” on Wisdom and Certainty (Part One)

December 9, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

On René Descartes’s Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences (1637). This narrative summary of Descartes's intellectual life was his first actual publication, four years before his Meditations. Unlike the unpublished Rules for Direction of the Mind (1629), this text doesn't actually dwell on his method at length, though  Continue Reading …

Ep. 231: Descartes’s “Discourse” on Wisdom and Certainty (Citizen Edition)

December 8, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On René Descartes’s Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences (1637). This narrative summary of Descartes's intellectual life was his first actual publication, four years before his Meditations. Unlike the unpublished Rules for Direction of the Mind (1629), this text doesn't actually dwell on his method at length, though  Continue Reading …

Ep. 229: Descartes’s Rules for Thinking (Part Three)

November 18, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Concluding René Descartes's Rules for Direction of the Mind (1628). This text proved too much for us for one session, so we picked it up (without Seth, who was sick) a week later to finish rule 12 through the end. We talk about simples and complexes, the faculties of intuition and judgment, perception and imagination, necessary vs. contingent truths, and how to do Cartesian  Continue Reading …

Ep. 229: Descartes’s Rules for Thinking (Part Two)

November 11, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Continuing on René Descartes's Rules for Direction of the Mind (1628), covering rules 7 through the first part of the lengthy rule 12. We try to figure out what he means by "enumeration"; the faculties of imagination, sense, and memory; the virtues of perspicacity and sagacity; his psychology of the senses, the "common sense" where all sense data comes together, and the  Continue Reading …

Ep. 229: Descartes’s Rules for Thinking (Part One)

November 4, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On René Descartes's Rules for Direction of the Mind (1628). Is there a careful way to approach problems that will ensure that you'll always be right? What if you're just really careful to never assert anything you can't be sure of? This is Descartes's strategy, modeled on mathematics. This early, incomplete work lays out 21 rules for careful thinking (out of a planned 36)  Continue Reading …

Ep. 229: Descartes’s Rules for Thinking (Citizen Edition)

November 4, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On René Descartes's Rules for Direction of the Mind (1628). Is there a careful way to approach problems that will ensure that you'll always be right? What if you're just really careful to never assert anything you can't be sure of? This is Descartes's strategy, modeled on mathematics. This early, incomplete work lays out 21 rules for careful thinking (out of a planned 36)  Continue Reading …

Intro Readings in Philosophy Series Starting Now(ish)!!!!

March 2, 2016 by Brian Wilson Leave a Comment

You're fired up, you are ready. To read some philosophy, and OHYEAH!, talk about it. Well, you're ready for the Intro Readings in Philosophy Not School Group. Led by Brian Wilson (me, a St. John's College Graduate Institute alum who's been doing this same gig for veterans and active duty since 2013 through my Combat & Classics program), you'll dig into a monthly  Continue Reading …

Žižek on Foucault, Descartes and Madness

February 2, 2012 by Seth Paskin 10 Comments

OK, so this isn't the easiest thing to read (after seeing numerous Žižek videos, it looks to me that he writes like he talks like he thinks, which is pretty fluid, making connections between things and not necessarily driving through focused theses...) but a little time spent on it yields some interesting points.  For some context, Katie noted in the episode that Discipline  Continue Reading …

Episode 43: Arguments for the Existence of God (Citizens Only)

September 15, 2011 by Dylan Casey 1 Comment

Discussing the arguments by Descartes, St. Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, William Paley, Kant, and others, as analyzed in J.L. Mackie's The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against the Existence of God (1983), chapters 1-3, 5-6, 8, and 11. Are the ontological, cosmological, and teleological (argument from design) arguments for God's existence any good? Mackie, a very sharp  Continue Reading …

PREVIEW-Episode 43: Arguments for the Existence of God

September 15, 2011 by Mark Linsenmayer 80 Comments

This is a 33-minute preview of a 1 hr, 43-minute 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  Continue Reading …

Episode 2: Descartes’s Meditations: What Can We Know?

May 13, 2009 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Discussing Descartes's Meditations 1 and 2. Descartes engages in the most influential navel gazing ever, and you are there! In this second and superior-to-the-first installment of our lil' philosophy discussion, we discuss what Descartes thinks he knows with certainty (hint: it is not you), the Matrix, and burning-at-the-stake.com. Mark and Wes agree to disagree about  Continue Reading …

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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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