On Outlines of Pyrrhonism , Book 1, from around 200 CE. Are our beliefs warranted? Skeptics following in the footsteps of Pyrrho (who lived just after Aristotle, around 300 BCE, but didn't leave us any writings, so Sextus, centuries later, has to fill us in) think that for any argument someone puts forward (at least about the nature of reality), you can come up with a Continue Reading …
Episode 106: Pyrrhonian Skepticism According to Sextus Empiricus (Citizen Edition)
On Outlines of Pyrrhonism , Book 1, from around 200 CE. Are our beliefs warranted? Skeptics following in the footsteps of Pyrrho (who lived just after Aristotle, around 300 BCE, but didn't leave us any writings, so Sextus, centuries later, has to fill us in) thought that for any argument someone puts forward (at least about the nature of reality), you can come up with a Continue Reading …
Topic for #106: Ancient Greek Skepticism According to Sextus Empiricus
On 11/16/14, we recorded with Jessica Berry (star of our very popular ep. 61) on Pyrrhonian skepticism. Because there are no extant writings by Pyrrho himself (he living shortly after Aristotle around 300 BCE), we read an account of the tradition and practices by a physician from around 200 CE, Sextus Empiricus, called Outlines of Pyrrhonism (aka Outlines of Skepticism), Book Continue Reading …
PEL’s Presidential Endorsement: Naked Political Partisanship
Every once in a while, a listener of The Partially Examined Life complains that that our liberal political proclivities -- and occasional outright partisanship -- are not consistent with our being philosophical, which should make us more neutral about such matters. I disagree. I do agree – after listening recently to the first few PEL episodes – that in the wrong context, Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 61: Nietzsche on Truth and Skepticism
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 causally. Continue Reading …
Episode 61: Nietzsche on Truth and Skepticism (Citizens Only)
On Friedrich Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" (1873). For Wes Alwan's summary of this essay, go here). What is truth? This essay, written early in Nietzsche's career but unpublished during his lifetime, is taken by many to make the extreme claim that there is no truth, that all of the "truths" we tell each other are just agreements by social Continue Reading …
Topic for #61: Nietzsche on Truth
Listen to the episode. We discussed Nietzsche's conception of truth as presented in his essay "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense," written in 1873 but unpublished until after his death with guest Jessica Berry of Georgia State University, who published Nietzsche and the Ancient Skeptical Tradition just last year. This Nietzsche essay has been extremely influential for Continue Reading …
Quassim Cassam (via Elucidations) on Skepticism
I've been listening of late to more Elucidations (which we've written about before), which features Matt Teichman from our Frege episode. Their episode 23, "Quassim Cassam discusses transcendental arguments," serves as a nice point of re-engagement with epistemology in light of our touching on that in our Sartre episode (and moreso in my Close Reading). Sartre, following Continue Reading …
Does Post-Modern Skepticism Support Religious Belief?
One of our listeners (and contributors! Thanks again!) Ernie P. has posted on our Facebook page: You all (on the podcast) seem to assume that 'belief in the irrational' is a strongly correlated with religious belief; I would argue that (depending on how you define it), it is a factor in all human belief, and the only real irrationality is to think our own beliefs fully Continue Reading …
Hattiangadi on Meaning in Language
Oughts and Thoughts: Scepticism and the Normativity of Meaningis a 2007 book by Oxford philosophy professor Anandi Hattiangadi that develops a response to Saul Kripke's skepticism about whether there is a fact of meaning in a person's use of language. In Kripke's 1984 book Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language,he argued, via a controversial interpretation of Wittgenstein, Continue Reading …
Episode 36: More Hegel on Self-Consciousness (Citizens Only)
Part 2 of our discussion of G.F.W. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, covering sections 178-230 within section B, "Self-Consciousness." Part 1 is here. First, Hegel's famous "master and slave" parable, whereby we only become fully self-conscious by meeting up with another person, who (at least in primordial times, or maybe this happens to everyone as they grow up, or maybe Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 36: More Hegel on Self-Consciousness
This is a 32-minute preview of a 1 hr, 32-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 33: Montaigne: What Is the Purpose of Philosophy? (Citizens Only)
Discussing Michel de Montaigne's Essays: "That to Philosophize is to Learn to Die," "Of Experience," "Of Cannibals," "Of the Education of Children," and "Of Solitude" (all from around 1580) with some discussion of "Apology for Raymond Sebond." Renaissance man Montaigne tells us all how to live, how to die, how to raise our kids, that we don't know anything, and a million Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 33: Montaigne: What Is the Purpose of Philosophy?
This is a 32-minute preview of a 1 hr, 41-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 …
Topic for #33: Montaigne on Philosophy and the Good Life
What does philosophizing really get us? We can't attain much in the way of certain knowledge. Knowing really doesn't, contra Plato, make us virtuous. In fact, getting too sucked into parsing long and complex texts can cause us to lose perspective, i.e. miss the point of our interest in philosophy in the first place. 16th century intellectual Michel de Montaigne gives us a Continue Reading …