Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including including a new Nightcap discussion about philosophy as self-help. Our second full discussion on the Daodejing by Laozi. What actions and attitudes characterize the Daoist sage? Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, Seth, and Theo Brooks. Listen to ep. 311 first. In this part of the Continue Reading …
Ep. 312: The Dao De Jing on Virtue (Part Two for Supporters)
Concluding our discussion of the Daodejing with guest Theo Brooks. This continues directly from part one, but you should really start with ep. 311. Sections covered in this part of the discussion include: Next episode: We're reading another figure from the Chinese Warring States period: Mozi, specifically the Basic Writings selected and translated by Burton Watson. Continue Reading …
Ep. 312: The Dao De Jing on Virtue (Part One for Supporters)
Our second full discussion on the Daodejing by Laozi. What actions and attitudes characterize the Daoist sage? Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, Seth, and Theo Brooks. Listen to ep. 311 first. In this part of the discussion we cover these chapters: Image by Charles Valsechi. Editing by Tyler Hislop. Continues with part two. Continue Reading …
Episode 176: Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part Two)
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. We get into Doris's article, "Persons, Situations, Continue Reading …
Episode 176: Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part One)
Psychologist Dave Pizarro of the Very Bad Wizards joins us to discuss Stanley Milgram's "Behavioral Study of Obedience" (1963; read it), Philip Zimbardo’s "Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison" (1973; read it), and John Doris’s "Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics" (1998). Do difficult situations make good people act badly? Are there really "good" and "bad" Continue Reading …
Ep. 176: Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Citizen Edition)
Psychologist Dave Pizarro of the Very Bad Wizards joins us to discuss Stanley Milgram's "Behavioral Study of Obedience" (1963; read it), Philip Zimbardo’s "Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison" (1973; read it), and John Doris’s "Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics" (1998). Do difficult situations make good people act badly? Are there really "good" and "bad" Continue Reading …
Episode 159: Confucius on Virtuous Conduct (Part Two)
Continuing on the Analects, now without our guest. We cover every single one of the 500 aphorisms, of course, in great depth, getting at the unambiguous meaning of each and completely reorienting our philosophical viewpoint in consequence. OK, so the interpretive task is a bit more difficult than that, but Mark, Seth, and Wes do our best to figure out Master Kong's words Continue Reading …
Episode 159: Confucius on Virtuous Conduct (Part One)
On the Analects, compiled after Confucius's (aka Master Kong's) death in 479 BCE. How should we act? What's the relation between ethics and politics? Can a bunch of aphorisms written in the distant past for an unapologetically hierarchical culture emphasizing traditional rituals actually give us relevant, welcome advice on these matters? Are we even in a position to Continue Reading …
Ep. 159: Confucius on Virtuous Conduct (Citizen Edition)
On the Analects, compiled after Confucius's (aka Master Kong's) death in 479 BCE. How should we act? What's the relation between ethics and politics? Can a bunch of aphorisms written in the distant past for an unapologetically hierarchical culture emphasizing traditional rituals actually give us relevant, welcome advice on these matters? Are we even in a position to Continue Reading …
Episode 158: Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (Part Two)
Continuing on the Consolation (524 CE). We discuss chiefly books 3 and 4, which present the classical one-dimensional model of the good: We all tend toward the good (or what we think to be good, and if we're wrong about what that is, then we can be judged as failing in our aim toward the good), which is happiness, which (because God created everything and the creator must Continue Reading …
Episode 158: Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (Part One)
On the Consolation, written as Boethius awaited execution in 524 CE. Do bad things really happen to good people? Boethius, surprisingly, says no, for Stoic (anything that can be taken away can't be of central importance; you can't lose your virtue in this way), Aristotelian (all things tend toward the good, and the best thing for a person is achieving his or her innate Continue Reading …
Ep. 158: Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (Citizen Edition)
On the Consolation, written as Boethius awaited execution in 524 CE. Do bad things really happen to good people? Boethius, surprisingly, says no, for Stoic (anything that can be taken away can't be of central importance; you can't lose your virtue in this way), Aristotelian (all things tend toward the good, and the best thing for a person is achieving his or her innate Continue Reading …
What Epictetus Really Thinks Is in Our Power
The distinction between what is "up to us"—"under our control", "in our power," or if you prefer, "our business" (ep'humin in Greek)—and what is not up to us (ouk ep'humin), eventually becomes a central doctrine of the Stoic school and tradition of philosophy. This particularly so in the thought of the late Stoic Epictetus, where the presently much-discussed "dichotomy of Continue Reading …
Episode 148: Aristotle on Friendship and Happiness
On the final books 8–10 of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics. What does friendship have to do with ethics? Aristotle thinks that friends are necessary for the good life (i.e., eudaimonia or happiness, which is the goal of ethics), and that the only true friends, as opposed to those who merely entertain us or are useful to us, are virtuous people. They're the only ones who Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 10: More Mammon
In the last installment we revisited the parable of the Dishonest Manager (Luke 16:1–13), which we looked at in part 3 in relation to Jesus’s shocking example of a man who steals his boss’s money as an image to depict "the kingdom of God." But more shocking is the character of the king in the parable of the Ten Pounds (Luke 19:11–27), who at the end of the story, apparently has Continue Reading …
Episode 132: Living Stoically with Seneca and Massimo
On selected "moral epistles" (from around 65 CE) by Lucius Annaeus Seneca: 4. On the Terrors of Death, 12. On Old Age, 49. On the Shortness of Life, 59. On Pleasure and Joy, 62. On Good Company, 92. On the Happy Life, 96. On Facing Hardship, and 116. On Self Control. We're joined by Massimo Pigliucci of the How to Be a Stoic blog, who for a long time was on the Rationally Continue Reading …
Episode 132: Living Stoically with Seneca and Massimo (Citizen Edition)
On selected "moral epistles" (from around 65 CE) by Lucius Annaeus Seneca: 4. On the Terrors of Death, 12. On Old Age, 49. On the Shortness of Life, 59. On Pleasure and Joy, 62. On Good Company, 92. On the Happy Life, 96. On Facing Hardship, and 116. On Self Control. We're joined by Massimo Pigliucci of the How to Be a Stoic blog, who for a long time was on the Rationally Continue Reading …
Episode 124: The Stoic Life with Epictetus
On the Manual of Epictetus, aka The Enchiridion, from around 135 CE. What's a wise strategy for life? What is freedom? Stoicism says that the secret is mastering yourself. If you let yourself be perturbed by things that happen to you, then you're a slave to those external things. Your good lies only in the things you can (with practice) control, i.e., your own attitudes, Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 5: Inwardness
One day in Synagogue a rabbi and a cantor and a janitor were preparing for the Day of Atonement. The rabbi beat his breast and bowed his head and said aloud, "I am nothing, I am nothing." The cantor beat his breast and bowed his head and said aloud, "I am nothing, I am nothing." The janitor beat his breast and bowed his head and said aloud, "I am nothing, I am Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 4: Imprudence?
The Unjust Judge In a certain city there was a judge... [and] In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, "Grant me justice against my opponent." For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, "Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out Continue Reading …