Combat and Classics is a series of podcasts and online seminars that explores the nature of man in conflict and cooperation through socratic dialogue and the great books. For more info visit 
Abradatas is hacked to pieces, and Panthea kills herself over his corpse. Croesus is defeated by Cyrus, and tries to teach him what "know thyself" means. And Cyrus surrounds himself with a bodyguard... of eunuchs? In this episode, Brian, Shilo, and Jeff finally confront the question of what "the education of Cyrus" really means. To suffer is to learn... but do any of these Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 2: Prudence
Part 1 of this series ended with my arguments that because Jesus was not a systematic philosopher, it would be helpful to elaborate his moral teachings in the framework of an ethical system, and that virtue ethics is the system best suited to this purpose, as many Christians have traditionally thought. Taking up this approach, in Parts 2 to 4 I discuss several of Jesus's Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 1: Introduction
Jesus was a philosopher. If you doubt this, I'd like to persuade you by way of his parables, which imply a certain kind of ethical system with several key values. These include, principally, prudence, nonpossessiveness, nonjudgmentalism, humility, inclusion, and forgiveness. This is post is the first of several parts. In future parts, I'll address parables themselves. In Continue Reading …
Episode 18: Plato: What Is Knowledge? (Citizens Only)
On the Theaetetus and the Meno, two dialogues about knowledge. We're returning to Plato for a somewhat more thorough treatment than we gave him in Episode 1. This should be considered part two (Hume being #1) of three discussions intended to convey the main conflict in the history of epistemology between the empiricists (like Hume) and the rationalists (like Plato). We Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 18: Plato: What Is Knowledge?
This is a 34-minute preview of a 2 hr, 18-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 …