Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the conclusion, which looks at a question that arises for existentialists, namely whether existentialist ethics is individualistic or not. As it turns out, the answer depend...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "Ambiguity", looking at her discussions about how violence should be evaluated from an existentialist ethical perspective. To support my ongoing work, go to my P...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "Ambiguity" of what existentialist ethics is. In her view, it isn't an ethics that can be summed up in absolute principles, but has to be understood as a method....

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "Ambiguity", which looks at the distinction she draws between absurdity and ambiguity as characteristic of human existence, and whether or not ambiguity rules ou...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "The Present And The Future", which looks at the concept of the "festival" and how it represents a temporary overcoming of the flow of time from the present into...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "The Present And The Future", which centers on the notion of totalities like humanity, the universe, and history, which turn out to be "detotalized totalities",...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "The Present And The Future", which looks at the two different interpretations of what "future" means. One of these maintains continuity with the present and inv...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion at the end of the section "The Antinomies Of Action", which looks at the willingness of some people to justify sacrificing others for the sake of some conception of usefulness...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on the contempt for both humanity as a whole and for individual human beings that is displayed by some people in the use of their own freedom. She notes that this generally involves the reductio...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on what she calls the "paradox of action" which imposes itself upon human beings, which is "no action can be generated for man without it being immediately generated against men". To support my...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on what she terms "sophisms", that is plausible but ultimately bad arguments, that conservatives make about freedom in order to justify remaining in and even reinforcing situations of oppression...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on what she terms the "situation of oppression", which divides the human world into camps or clans. The oppressed can make use of their freedom to revolt against a harmony from which they are ex...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion of several main areas of what she calls "constructive human activities", namely philosophy, art, science, and technics (technology and techniques) and how they figure into the...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her analysis of what he terms the "aesthetic attitude" early on in part 3 of the work. This is a use of one's freedom that is inauthentic, because it adopts a detached contemplative stance to...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her explanation of what it means for a person to "will themselves free" and to "will that there be being", which concludes her discussions in part 2 of the work. As it happens, both of these...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on ways in which certain intellectuals can fall into an inauthentic existence that attempts to escape the ambiguity of existence. She discusses two different forms that this takes: critical thou...

This is part 1 of the recording of the invited inaugural Feast Day Of Saint Thomas lecture given at Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary. The full recording includes my lecture, Thomas Aquinas, Multiple Thomisms, and Christian Philosophy, a response by associate dean and professor Justin Shaun Coyle, and my answers to his and others' questions. Thomas Aquinas' works, thought, and approach have been view...

This is part 5 of the recording of the invited inaugural Feast Day Of Saint Thomas lecture given at Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary. The full recording includes my lecture, Thomas Aquinas, Multiple Thomisms, and Christian Philosophy, a response by associate dean and professor Justin Shaun Coyle, and my answers to his and others' questions. Thomas Aquinas' works, thought, and approach have been view...

This is part 4 of the recording of the invited inaugural Feast Day Of Saint Thomas lecture given at Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary. The full recording includes my lecture, Thomas Aquinas, Multiple Thomisms, and Christian Philosophy, a response by associate dean and professor Justin Shaun Coyle, and my answers to his and others' questions. Thomas Aquinas' works, thought, and approach have been view...

This is part 3 of the recording of the invited inaugural Feast Day Of Saint Thomas lecture given at Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary. The full recording includes my lecture, Thomas Aquinas, Multiple Thomisms, and Christian Philosophy, a response by associate dean and professor Justin Shaun Coyle, and my answers to his and others' questions. Thomas Aquinas' works, thought, and approach have been view...

This is part 2 of the recording of the invited inaugural Feast Day Of Saint Thomas lecture given at Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary. The full recording includes my lecture, Thomas Aquinas, Multiple Thomisms, and Christian Philosophy, a response by associate dean and professor Justin Shaun Coyle, and my answers to his and others' questions. Thomas Aquinas' works, thought, and approach have been view...

This is part 1 of the recording of the invited inaugural Feast Day Of Saint Thomas lecture given at Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary. The full recording includes my lecture, Thomas Aquinas, Multiple Thomisms, and Christian Philosophy, a response by associate dean and professor Justin Shaun Coyle, and my answers to his and others' questions. Thomas Aquinas' works, thought, and approach have been view...

This lecture discusses the French Existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre's play, No Exit, and focuses on the various ways in which the three characters attempt to find some manner of making their situation, trapped with each other for eternity, livable for themselves. Inez Serrano speaks of the situation as one beset with traps, and Joseph Garcin uses the metaphor of webs, but they do consid...

This lecture discusses the French Existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre's play, No Exit, and focuses on the third of the main characters within the drama, Estelle Rigaut, who is a younger woman originally from the lower classes who married her way into upper class society, and who seems to be attracted to Garcin, when in reality she depends on men for maintaining her self-image. It turns ou...

This lecture discusses the French Existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre's play, No Exit, and focuses on one of the central characters trapped in the room with the other two, Inez Seranno, a postal clerk who describes herself as cruel, and who behaves sadistically towards the others. A lesbian, she pursued her cousin's wife and turned her against her husband, and she attempts to seduce Estel...