Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, and in particular on the set of arguments tha...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, and in particular on the sequence of argument...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the ex...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the ex...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the ex...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology Specifically it focuses upon on the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations It discusses the type of rational being Jeanette Rastignac turns out to be, a species of pseudo-arthopoda called a "lalitha" To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd li...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations It discusses the two characters, Hal Yarrow and Jeanette Rastignac, who are the lovers referenced in the title, focusing on their developing relationship as it is depicted in the novella To support my ongoing wo...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations It discusses the planet of Ozagen, which provides the setting for the majority of the chapters of the novella. Evolution has occurred differently on this planet by comparison to earth, and the dominant species o...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations It discusses the overall metaphysical and religious perspective developed by Isaac Sigman, which is the official doctrine of the "Sturch" or state-church of the Haijac Union, one of the main world powers in the...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations It discusses the narrative setting for the novella, specifically the aftermath of the "Apocalyptic War", in which a virus killed most of humanity globally. After the pandemic, communities of survivors repopulate...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations It discusses whether and how that work "broke the taboo" on sex in science fiction when it was published in 1952. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern philosopher Thomas Hobbes' work Leviathan It focuses specifically on his discussion in chapters 15 and 26. In chapter 15, after having enumerated and explained the majority of the "laws of nature", which Hobbes notes correspond to various virtues, he claims that the science of the laws of nature, of virtue and vice, and of good and bad, is the "true...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "Pierre Menard, Author Of The Quixote" which can be found in Collected Fictions. If focuses specifically on the main portion of the story, where the author discusses Pierre Menard's "other, subterranean, interminably heroic production", namely that of writing the Do...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "Pierre Menard, Author Of The Quixote" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It focuses specifically on the first portion of the story, where the author discusses Pierre Menard's visible work, of which he provides a definitive and chonological listing, supplemen...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "Emma Zunz" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It provides an interesting tale of revenge to which Borges gives his usual narrative depth and twists. Emma finds out that her father, who was slandered and sent to prison by the genuine embezzler, Loewenthal, wh...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Shape Of The Sword" which can be found in Collected Fictions. Borges listens to a story told by a former Irish revolutionary, marked by a scar across his face. the narrative centers on a physically cowardly and intellectually arrogant comrade, John Vincent Moon...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Theologians" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It centers on a (perhaps one-way) rivalry between two Christian theologians, Aurelian and John of Pannonia, in a time when the Christian church is struggling with a number of heresies, some opposed to each...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "Deutsches Requiem" which can be found in Collected Fictions. The story is narrated in the voice of an unrepentant Nazi about to be executed for war crimes, Otto Dietrich zur Linde. He claims to be inspired in his life and in his activity within the Nazi party by gr...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Writing Of The God" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It centers on a priest Tzinacán, previously serving at the pyramid of Qaholom, now imprisoned for the rest of his life in a dark cell. There is a jaguar on the other side. Inspired by a legend about...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "Death And The Compass" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It takes the form of a detective tale, where the legendary, highly intelligent detective, Eric Lönnrot, does not figure out all of the aspects of the pattern of crimes, including the fact that he is t...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early medieval philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo's work, The Confessions. It focuses specifically on his discussion in book 11 focused on what time is, where he examines our usual way of understanding it in terms of past, present, and future. This raises some issues, given that the present only exists at and for a moment, the past no longer is...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early medieval philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo's work, The Confessions. It focuses specifically on his discussion in book 11 bearing upon how we can measure time. It seems a bit paradoxical when we examine it, since past and present don't really exist as the present does, and the present is just a moment. Augustine's solution is to say that...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early medieval philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo's work, The Confessions. It focuses specifically on his discussion in book 11 of how God and time are related to each other, starting from questions raised by considering creation out of nothing and what God was doing or thinking before that creation. As it turns out, there is no time before cre...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early medieval philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo's work, The Confessions. It focuses specifically on his discussion in book 10 of the type of temptation that is called "the pride of life", or (due to an alternate translation from the Latin Vulgate) the "ambition of the world". This has to do with our desire to feared or loved by others, to set...