Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. On essays from Lear's Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1988), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. How does Plato's philosophy hold together, and is it still something we can make use of in the modern age? Our recent explorations of Plato's Timaeus and Phaedo showed us how humanity is supposed to Continue Reading …
Ep. 266: Jonathan Lear’s Plato: Psyche and Society (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on essays from Lear's Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1988). We start off with more about the relation between comedy and tragedy and how these might relate to Plato's stories. We then provide more detail on chapter 10: "Inside and Outside the Republic," including Bernard Williams' objections to Plato and Lear's Continue Reading …
Ep. 266: Jonathan Lear’s Plato: Psyche and Society (Part One for Supporters)
On essays from Lear's Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1988), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. How does Plato's philosophy hold together, and is it still something we can make use of in the modern age? Our recent explorations of Plato's Timaeus and Phaedo showed us how humanity is supposed to fit into the cosmos, but the details seemed hopelessly archaic: Continue Reading …
Ep. 238: Lingering Questions
Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth snuggle into our enforced social distancing to give our thoughts (and some of yours) on our recent string of episodes on social construction (starting with #227), especially regarding gender (see #232 and #235). We also never had a critical debrief after speaking to Judith Butler in #236, so we consider whether her notion of "grievable lives" adds Continue Reading …
Ep. 238: Lingering Questions (Citizen Edition)
Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth snuggle into our enforced social distancing to give our thoughts (and some of yours) on our recent string of episodes on social construction (starting with #227), especially regarding gender (see #232 and #235). We also never had a critical debrief after speaking to Judith Butler in #236, so we consider whether her notion of "grievable lives" adds Continue Reading …
Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part Three)
Concluding on Gender Trouble (1990). It's a different day, and we've trimmed down to just Mark, Wes, and Seth to cover the latter portions of our assigned reading, especially part I, section v: "Identity, Set, and the Metaphysics of Substance," and part III, section iv: "Subversive Bodily Acts: Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions." We also added two articles Continue Reading …
Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part Two)
More Gender Trouble (1990) with Jennifer Hansen. We get into the metaphysics of substance (are gender and sex attributes that a person has, or is there a better way to describe the situation?), performatives, and what Butler sees as the available mechanisms for changing gender norms. We compare the different views of femininity within male-defined conceptual space according Continue Reading …
Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Citizen Edition)
On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how? Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as "performed," as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. But it's not that we can simply recognize that customs could have been different and so throw out gender Continue Reading …
Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part One)
On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how? Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as "performed," as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. But it's not that we can simply recognize that customs could have been different and so throw out gender Continue Reading …
Ep. 232: Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (Citizen Edition)
On Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): the intro, conclusion, “Woman’s Situation and Character,” and parts of “Lived Experience," with guest Jennifer Hansen. According to Beauvoir, Woman (the "kept" woman of history that was still common in her time and not unheard of now) is conceived of by society (and hence by herself) as "Other." Men created society, own all the Continue Reading …
Ep. 228: Social Construction of Race (Appiah, Mills) (Part Two)
Continuing on Kwame Anthony Appiah's "Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections" (1994), Charles Mills's "But What Are You Really?, The Metaphysics of Race" (1998), and Neven Sesardic's "Race: A Social Destruction of a Biological Concept" (2010) with guest Coleman Hughes. Racial breakdowns are different in different places, therefore race is socially constructed. So Continue Reading …
Ep. 228: Social Construction of Race (Appiah, Mills) (Citizen Edition)
On Kwame Anthony Appiah's "Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections" (1994), Charles Mills's "But What Are You Really?, The Metaphysics of Race" (1998), and Neven Sesardic's "Race: A Social Destruction of a Biological Concept" (2010). Coleman Hughes rejoins Mark, Seth, and Dylan to differentiate "race" as population genetics uses the term from racial identity. Continue Reading …
Ep. 227: What Is Social Construction? (Hacking, Berger) (Part Two)
Continuing Ian Hacking’s The Social Construction of What, ch. 1 & 2 (1999); Peter Berger's “Religion and World Construction," which is ch. 1 of The Sacred Canopy (1967). We break down the steps to a social construction argument according to Hacking; since not all thinkers take all the steps, how many steps are involved provides a nice classification scheme for these types of Continue Reading …
Ep. 227: What Is Social Construction? (Hacking, Berger) (Part One)
On Ian Hacking’s The Social Construction of What, ch 1 & 2 (1999); Peter Berger's “Religion and World Construction," i.e., the beginning of The Sacred Canopy (1967), and Ron Mallon's “Naturalistic Approaches to Social Construction” (2008, rev. 2019) from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Guest Coleman Hughes from the Dilemma podcast joins us to survey the ways and Continue Reading …
Ep. 227: What Is Social Construction? (Hacking, Berger) (Citizen Edition)
On Ian Hacking’s The Social Construction of What, ch. 1 & 2 (1999); Peter Berger's “Religion and World Construction," i.e., the beginning of The Sacred Canopy (1967), and Ron Mallon's “Naturalistic Approaches to Social Construction” (2008, rev. 2019) from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Guest Coleman Hughes from the Dilemma podcast joins us to survey the ways and Continue Reading …