Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century German philosopher, sociologist of knowledge, and phenomenologist, Max Scheler's work Ressentiment, which provides an interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of that same name. It focuses on on his discussion about how "value blindness" and "value delusion" figure into the dynamic of ressentiment. In the course of this discussion, Sche...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century German philosopher, sociologist of knowledge, and phenomenologist, Max Scheler's work Ressentiment, which provides an interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of that same name. It focuses on Scheler's analysis of two main sources of ressentiment, namely the desire for revenge, on the one hand, and envy, jealousy, and the competitive im...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century German philosopher, sociologist of knowledge, and phenomenologist, Max Scheler's work Ressentiment, which provides an interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of that same name. It focuses on the initial phenomenological description that Scheler develops of the affect and dynamic of ressentiment. To support my ongoing work, go to my Pat...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th-21st Century philosopher, ethicist, and theorist of the ethics of care, Virginia Held, from her 1990 article Feminist Transformations of Moral Theory It focuses upon her criticism of traditional, individualist conceptions of the self, which she portrays as typical of male-focused moral theory. She proposes a relational conception of self, which also v...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th-21st Century philosopher, ethicist, and theorist of the ethics of care, Virginia Held, from her 1990 article Feminist Transformations of Moral Theory It focuses upon her criticism of traditional, male-focused moral theory, which she charges with confining women and their concerns to the private sphere (as opposed to the public and political sphere). T...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th-21st Century philosopher, ethicist, and theorist of the ethics of care, Virginia Held, from her 1990 article Feminist Transformations of Moral Theory It focuses upon her criticism of traditional, male-centered moral theories for ignoring the moral relevance of emotion, privileging reason over emotion, and dismissing women's concerns and insights as me...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th-21st Century philosopher, ethicist, and theorist of the ethics of care, Virginia Held, from her 1990 article Feminist Transformations of Moral Theory It focuses upon why she believes a radical (rather than reforming) transformation of moral theory needs to be carried out - in particular because women's voices, needs, and concerns have been neglected t...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the medieval Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, 1st part of the 2nd part, questions 90-91 and 94 (IaIIae, q. 90-91 and 94), and examines the relationships between what Thomas calls Eternal Law, Natural Law, and Human Law To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the medieval Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, 1st part of the 2nd part, questions 90-91 and 94 (IaIIae, q. 90-91 and 94), and examines how the Divine Law functions as a needed complement to the Natural Law. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contributio...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the medieval Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, 1st part of the 2nd part, questions 90-91 and 94 (IaIIae, q. 90-91 and 94), and examines what Thomas calls "the fomes of sin," which function somewhat like a law, but have to do primarily with our animality. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sa...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the medieval Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, 1st part of the 2nd part, questions 90-91 and 94 (IaIIae, q. 90-91 and 94), and examines To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - ww...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the medieval Christin philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas's work, the Summa Theologiae, First Part of the Second Part, question 46 "On Anger" It focuses specifically in particular on a comparison made between anger and desire (concupiscentia), and the question as to which of them is more "natural". This requires making some distinctions about what "natur...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Three Kinds Of Social Intercourse It focuses upon the three kinds of interactions that Montaigne enjoys the most, which are conversations with good friends, engagements with attractive and intelligent women, and reading the thoughts of authors in...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Affectionate Relationships It focuses upon the range of various relationships in which people exhibit affection towards each other that are discussed in this essay. Montaigne devotes a significant part of the work to discussing friendship, both th...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Affectionate Relationships It focuses upon several different types of relationships that are oriented around sexual desire and enjoyment, including romantic and sexual involvements between men and women, marriages, and male-male relationships in a...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Affectionate Relationships It focuses upon his discussion of friendship, in which he distinguishes between the fullest sort of friendship, which involves an interpenetration of wills and which is valued for its own sake, and the more common sorts...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Cato The Younger It focuses upon that Stoic statesman and philosopher, Cato, who fought in the Civil War against Julius Caesar and killed himself rather than accept Caesar's offered amnesty. While discussing him, Montaigne makes some important poi...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Liars (Des Menteurs) It focuses upon the distinction between lying and telling falsehoods, why lying is a particularly bad vice, how to catch liars, and why people who want to lie need good memories To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon sit...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On The Inconstancy Of Our Actions It focuses upon his discussion of whether people really do have the fixed character many like to attribute to them or not, and advocates looking at a person's actions over time to determine what sort of person they a...

This lecture discusses the 20th century philosopher and historian of ideas, Pierre Hadot, and focuses on chapter 11 of his book, Philosophy As a Way of Life. He discusses three important and ultimately interconnected dimensions for ancient philosophies as ways of life, namely the self, other people, and the cosmic dimension of the entire universe. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Anger It focuses upon his views on this emotion, partly drawn from other thinkers like Seneca and Plutarch. First Montaigne discusses children and other vulnerable people who suffer from cruel and violent punishments doled out in anger. He then di...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Habit It focuses upon how habit or custom has much more impact upon our lives than we often give it credit for, supplanting rules of nature, altering our perceptions, giving rise to judgements and opinions, and resisting our reasonings. To support...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Habit It focuses upon the second topic of the essay, and Montaigne provides a number of reasons for being very leery about changing traditional laws and arrangements within society, spurred not least by the civil discord that developed in France d...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Moderation It focuses upon Montaigne's claim that we human beings can treat even virtue and justice immoderately, when we go too far with it and lose a sense of proportion. He also advocates that we ought to be moderate in our indulgence in sexual...

This lecture discusses the 20th century philosopher and historian of ideas, Pierre Hadot, and focuses on chapter 4 of his book, Philosophy As a Way of Life. He discusses the notion of "spiritual perfection" developed early on within Christian thought and how it both incorporates but differentiates itself from pre-Christian philosophies as ways of life To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon s...