Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Lottery In Babylon" which can be found in Collected Fictions. The narrator of the story, a citizen of Babylon, discusses the complex history of the Lottery, the Company that administers it, and the multiple philosophical interpretations of both of these. The Lo...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher Plato's work, The Republic, in particular book 1. Specifically it provides some needed context for the concepts of knowledge or crafts that get used in the arguments Socrates uses against Polemarchus and Thrasymachus To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, y...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher Plato's work, The Republic, in particular book 1. Specifically it examines the Sophist Thrasymachus' definition of justice as "the advantage of the stronger" 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 BuyMeACo...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher Plato's work, The Republic, in particular book 1. Specifically it examines specifically the "traditional" conception of justice articulated by Polemarchus there -- a view which says justice is doing good to friends and bad to enemies. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a dire...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher Plato's work, The Republic, in particular book 1. Specifically it examines the early discussion between Socrates and Cephalus, in which they are thinking about the relationship between wealth, good character, and happiness. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribu...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century analytic philosopher John Wisdom's essay in the philosophy of religion, "Gods", found in his collection "Philosophy and Psychoanalysis". It focuses specifically on his discussion towards the end of the work, where Wisdom draws some implications of the earlier points in the article for the reasonableness or propriety of belief in gods. He also...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century analytic philosopher John Wisdom's essay in the philosophy of religion, "Gods", found in his collection "Philosophy and Psychoanalysis". It focuses specifically on his discussion of what he calls the "connecting technique", that is of noting features that different matters have in common, as well as of disconnecting and of noting unspoken or i...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century analytic philosopher John Wisdom's essay in the philosophy of religion, "Gods", found in his collection "Philosophy and Psychoanalysis". It focuses specifically on his discussion of what he calls the "logic(s)" of disputes about the existence or nature of gods. By this, Wisdom has in mind the type of appeals or argumentation that people can us...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century analytic philosopher John Wisdom's essay in the philosophy of religion, "Gods", found in his collection "Philosophy and Psychoanalysis". It focuses specifically on his discussion of the parable of the invisible gardener found in section 6 of the essay, the most often read and anthologized part of it. Wisdom develops this parable in order to br...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century analytic philosopher John Wisdom's essay in the philosophy of religion, "Gods", found in his collection "Philosophy and Psychoanalysis". It focuses specifically on his discussion of the different sources of questions that people could have or be motivated by in disputes about whether or not god(s) exist. One of these sources is experiential an...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century analytic philosopher John Wisdom's essay in the philosophy of religion, "Gods", found in his collection "Philosophy and Psychoanalysis". It focuses specifically on his discussion of how we ought to understand the differences in perspective of theists and atheists in modern times. These differences are not, in Wisdom's view, about matters that...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on the encounter with the Great Old One Cthulhu narrated within the story. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on one of the key settings referenced in the work, the vast city of R'Lyeh, where Cthulhu and other Great Old Ones lie d...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on the entities called the Great Old Ones, of which Cthulhu is one, and even has a role as their "priest". Many of the g...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on what we learn of the cult of Cthulhu (and to a lesser extent) the other Great Old Ones, which according to the inform...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on the images of the Great Old One Cthulhu that appear in the story. Some of these are bas-reliefs produced by human bei...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on the third part of the story, which includes an account originally written down by 2nd mate Johansen of the boat Emma,...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on the account provided by Inspector Legrasse to the American Archeological Society which explains how he came by the id...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on the dreams that the sculptor Henry Anthony Wilcox has, investigated by Professor Angell, which lead him to produce a...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on the narrative structure of this story, which is largely pieced together from necessarily secondhand accounts of dream...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on what he calls, in the first line of the story, "the most merciful thing", namely, "the inability of the human mind to...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, The Other Wind, the sixth and final of her Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the ending of the book and indeed of the Earthsea saga, with the mage-established stone wall between the living and the dead being dragged down by humans and dragons, the liberation of the dead, and the restoration of the drago...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, The Other Wind, the sixth and final of her Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the character of the Kargish princess, named Seserakh, and the alternation of appearances of passivity and timidity to actions involving courage on her part. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/s...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, The Other Wind, the sixth and final of her Earthsea books It focuses specifically on how the village sorcerer, Alder, gives up his power and craft of mending, which is at the core of his person, in order to end his dreams of the dead, and to safeguard Earthsea from whatever danger they pose. To support my ongoi...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, The Other Wind, the sixth and final of her Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the different narratives of the Verdunan or agreement between human beings and dragons early on in Earthsea, before they were entirely separate beings. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler...