On Aristotle's Metaphysics , book 4 (aka Gamma) (ca. 340 BCE). What does studying "being" entail? It involves claiming that all beings are distinct individuals, as opposed to, for instance, an undifferentiated flux. They're thus subject to the law of non-contradiction, which Aristotle defends against objectors. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Get 50% off delicious, ready-to-eat meals at...
Feb 26, 2024•52 min
Continuing on Aristotle's Metaphysics, book 1. We get seriously into Aristotle's four types of causation and how previous philosophers in leaving out one or most of these made a mistake. This includes a critique of Platonic forms, which as eternal, unchanging patterns can't actually explain why change occurs in the world. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and bonus content including a supporter-exclusive Closereads/part 3 dril...
Feb 19, 2024•42 min
On Aristotle's Metaphysics , book 1 (aka Alpha) (ca. 340 BCE). What constitutes a basic explanation of the universe? We talk about how mere practical knowledge of how things in fact work is not enough; there's greater wisdom in knowing the theoretical underpinnings. Various philosophers before Aristotle had given different kinds of explanations of what the universe is at bottom, but for a complete explanation, Aristotle says we'll need to include all four types of causation: material, formal, ef...
Feb 12, 2024•46 min
We anticipate our upcoming series on Aristotle's Metaphysics by talking through some preliminary issues about the text including what translations we're reading. Is this book really "timeless," or is it like old, outdated science? Also, what kind of person becomes an ancient philosophy student? Plus (in the full discussion), we talk more about Mounk, Presidential disqualification, and more. If you're not hearing the full version of this discussion , sign up via one of the options described at pa...
Feb 03, 2024•11 min
Continuing on "On the Ontological Mystery" (1933), we talk more about problems vs. mysteries: The latter implicate OURSELVES; we are not merely witnesses, but our involvement complicates things. Also, what makes Marcel an existentialist? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and bonus content including a supporter-exclusive Nightcap anticipating our upcoming series on Aristotle's Metaphysics . Listen to a preview....
Jan 29, 2024•54 min
Discussing "On the Ontological Mystery" (1933) about our need for meaning. Marcel asserts that our need for "mystery" is much more primal than the scientific, technical point of view that breaks down problems into component parts for easy analysis. In fact, this more modern-seeming way of looking at the world presupposes and relies on the more originary position. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion....
Jan 22, 2024•42 min
Bruce is best known for his first album The Way It Is (1986), but has come light years since then through 18+ albums, experimenting with different styles, playing over 100 shows with the Grateful Dead, and scoring numerous projects for Spike Lee. He's won three Grammys and recorded with music royalty including Elton John, Ornette Coleman, Branford Marsalis, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, etc. We discuss "Sidelines" (feat. Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend) from 'Flicted (2022), "My Resolve" (feat. Jam...
Jan 20, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Continuing on Kierkegaard's perhaps most famous book, this time focusing largely on "Problem One: Is There a Teleological Suspension of the Ethical?" Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and bonus content including a supporter-exclusive episode of Closereads that connects Kierkegaard to the Sermon on the Mount . Listen to a preview....
Jan 15, 2024•44 min
To wrap up our coverage of Kierkegaard, we consider his religious stage of development through this 1843 text analyzing the Biblical story of Abraham. Can we understand, much less admire, an attitude whereby you think God has commanded you to kill your son and you gladly go along with it? How does this sort of "greatness" relate to ethics? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion....
Jan 08, 2024•45 min
Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan set ourselves as part of our ongoing Kierkegaard reading to re-listen to our 2010 episode 29 on Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death . This leads us to our personal histories regarding faith and how the idea of faith intersects with our philosophy studies. If you're not hearing the full version of this discussion , sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support ....
Jan 07, 2024•11 min
Concluding our discussion of Either/Or , still this time considering "The Balance Between the Esthetic and the Ethical in the Development of the Personality" on how the ethical helps us to develop a self. What is this ideal self that Kierkegaard wants us to aim for, but yet which is within us as individuals already? How can each of us merge with the universal ethically yet assert our individuality? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free epi...
Jan 01, 2024•52 min
On the second half of "The Balance Between the Esthetic and the Ethical in the Development of the Personality" from Vol. 2 of Either/Or (1843). How do we "absolutely" form a coherent self by embracing ethical conventions like marriage, friendship, and having a job? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion....
Dec 25, 2023•40 min
Mark and Wes talk in more details about the "stages of despair" Kierkegaard lays out in “The Balance Between the Esthetic and the Ethical in the Development of the Personality” from Vol. 2 of Either/Or . If you're not hearing the full version of this part of the discussion , sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support ....
Dec 22, 2023•10 min
Continuing on "The Balance Between the Esthetic and the Ethical in the Development of the Personality," with a critique of (Hegelian) philosophy and concrete advice for how to build yourself in an optimal way. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and bonus content including a supporter-exclusive part three to this discussion. Listen to a preview ....
Dec 18, 2023•47 min
On "The Balance Between the Esthetic and the Ethical in the Development of the Personality" from Vol. 2 of Soren Kierkegaard's Either/Or (1843). What is choice? Kierkegaard's character Judge William criticizes the aesthete from our previous episode on the earlier part of this book: The aesthete doesn't make any authentic choices and so doesn't develop a coherent self. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discuss...
Dec 11, 2023•42 min
Mark, Wes, and Seth read through more of Kierkegaard's Diapsalmata, translated as "Refrains," which are the aphorisms that begin the book and demonstrate the aesthetic point of view. If you're not hearing the full version of this part of the discussion , sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support ....
Dec 08, 2023•12 min
Continuing on "Diapsalmata" and "Rotation of Crops" from the "Either" portion of Kierkegaard's pseudonymous book. We talk through more of K's aphorisms, his narrator's solution to boredom, and we take the critique personally: Is this Romantic view described one that we held as younger people (or now)? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and bonus content including a supporter-exclusive part three to this discussion. Listen to a ...
Dec 04, 2023•49 min
Kevin is the creator and host of the storytelling podcast RISK! and is the alphabetically foremost member of the MTV-televised, newly reformed, celebrity-infested sketch comedy troupe The State . But can he improvise? Mark and Bill surprise Kevin into a scene about a suspicious hotel. How does one engineer one's legacy? Will history inevitably either reduce your greatest contributions to mere noise or reinterpret them in light of your final, embarrassing moments? Perhaps the legendary comedy tea...
Dec 01, 2023•58 min
On the aphorisms ("Diapsalmata") that begin Soren Kierkegaard's Either/Or (1843), plus the essay also in the first volume, "Rotation of Crops." What is it to live your life as if it were a work of art? K thinks such a life is unserious and unsatisfying. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion....
Nov 27, 2023•44 min
When King Leontes accuses his pregnant wife of adultery, the nobleman Antigonus assumes that Leontes has been “abused and by some putter-on”—in other words, some Iago-like villain has been putting malevolent ideas into his head. In fact, Leontes is the father of his own misconceptions, just as he is the father of his wife’s children. But unlike his children, his ideas might be said to have no mother; they lack corroboration, which is to say, collaboration with a source outside himself. How, then...
Nov 26, 2023•56 min
Mark and Wes Closeread the conclusion to Soren Kierkegaard's On the Concept of Irony (1841), "Irony as a Controlled Element, the Truth of Irony." The discussion starts with the role of irony in good art, and then moves on to discuss the proper role of irony as an existential strategy in a well-grounded, thoughtful life. To get all Part Three PEL episodes, plus paywalled vintage episodes, Nightcaps, and all PEL episodes ad-free, become a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support . Signin...
Nov 25, 2023•53 min
Continuing with On the Concept of Irony , defined as "infinite absolute negativity." K criticizes his Romantic peers of taking irony too far. So what is healthy, well-grounded irony? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and bonus content including a third part to this episode (coming soon)....
Nov 20, 2023•53 min
Discussing On the Concept of Irony (1841). Kierkegaard builds up to telling us what irony is by showing how Socrates invented irony, as characterized by his wholly negative project of showing others that their beliefs inherited from society are wrong. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion....
Nov 13, 2023•41 min
Mark, Wes, Dylan, and now Seth too discuss further Mounk's project in The Identity Trap and what philosophically we can glean from it. If you're not hearing the full version of this part of the discussion , sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support ....
Nov 10, 2023•10 min
Continuing on The Identity Trap (2023). Which works better to achieve social progress; classical liberalism, or strategies involving emphasis of identity group membership? Do we even have to pick a side, or can we pragmatically choose strategies from whichever philosophy most effectively addresses the situation in question? We discuss cultural appropriation, free speech, standpoint epistemology, and more. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-f...
Nov 06, 2023•58 min
On The Identity Trap (2023), an intellectual history of wokeness (aka "the identity synthesis") and defense of philosophical liberalism against this set of ideas. Are our differences more important than that which unites us? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion....
Oct 30, 2023•51 min
Mark, Wes, and Seth talk more about bullshit, Derrida and other difficult and arguably bullshitty philosophy, expressing truths through bodily movement, horror movies, and our coverage of author-guests and works that provide an introductory roadmap to some philosophical area. If you're not hearing the full version of this discussion , sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support ....
Oct 28, 2023•12 min
On Frankfurt's essay "The Importance of What We Care About" (1982), which distinguishes the question of what to value from ethical questions and explores the extent to which deciding what to care about is a free act. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and a supporter-exclusive Nightcap discussion getting more into bullshit, hypocrisy, and more ....
Oct 23, 2023•52 min
Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth discuss the celebrated 1986 essay "On Bullshit." Does bullshit necessarily involve lying? Frankfurt defines it as instead indifferent to truth, though still deceptive about what kind of speech act the audience is supposed to think that it is. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion....
Oct 16, 2023•41 min
The New York University Prof and author of many influential books including the new Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy joins Mark and Bill to simulate debates about AI, cybersex, actor vs. character, and keeping children safe from reality. Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com . Hear more at philosophyimprov.com . Support the podcast to get all our post-game discussions and other bonus stuff. Sponsor: Visit...
Oct 14, 2023•58 min
