First Philosophy

Begin with philosophy here! In the penultimate episode of First Philosophy, Awee discusses Emmanuel Levinas and his radical claim that ethics comes before everything else. Instead of understanding the world first, Levinas argues that we are immediately confronted by the “other,” whose presence places a demand on us that cannot be reduced to knowledge, interpretation, or theory. Philosophy, then, i...

Begin Philosophy here! In the fifteenth episode of First Philosophy, Awee continues with the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer and the idea that understanding is never neutral. Every act of interpretation begins within traditions, prejudices, and historical contexts, and according to Gadamer these are not obstacles to knowledge but the very conditions that make understanding possible. Sonia and Kas...

Begin with philosophy here! In the fourteenth episode Awee Prins continues our journey from Martin Heidegger to Hans-Georg Gadamer, tracing the shift from Heidegger’s analysis of technology as a way of revealing to Gadamer’s idea that we live within a fundamentally hermeneutic universe. If technology is not merely technological, then truth is not merely scientific. Kas and Sonia push the discussio...

Begin with philosophy here! In the thirteenth episode of First Philosophy, we continue our deep dive into Martin Heidegger by reading and unpacking The Question Concerning Technology. Rather than asking whether technology is good or bad, Heidegger urges us to question it more fundamentally: what kind of world does modern technology reveal to us? From “standing reserve” and enframing to the dominan...

Begin with philosophy here. In this episode of First Philosophy , Awee Prins begins with Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism through the lens of freedom, responsibility, bad faith, and the phenomenon of the gaze. Sartre’s insistence that we are “condemned to be free” is unpacked with care, revealing a philosophy far less nihilistic than it is often assumed to be. From the claim that there are no acc...

In the eleventh episode of First Philosophy, Awee Prins continues with Sartre by confronting one of his most unsettling ideas: the gaze. Sartre’s claim is radical and uncomfortable — our relations to others are not grounded in empathy or harmony, but in conflict, reduction, and exposure. We move through Sartre’s famous examples — the look, shame, love, pity — and slowly arrive at a strange moment...

Begin with philosophy here! In the 10th episode of First Philosophy, we move from Martin Heidegger to Jean-Paul Sartre, tracing how existential philosophy shifts from structural analysis to lived drama. Where Heidegger describes the structures of existence, Sartre insists on filling them in with freedom, responsibility, conflict, and anguish. If we are thrown projects, what does that actually mean...

Begin philosophy here! In the ninth episode of First Philosophy, Awee Prins is moving deeper into the existential analytic of Dasein. After introducing Heidegger’s project in earlier episodes, we now explore how being-in-the-world shows itself in everyday life: through tools, moods, language, and our relations to others. The episode also examines fallenness, the “they” (das Man), idle talk, curios...

Dasein – Jemeinigkeit - “The essence of Dasein lies in its Existence”   In this episode, Awee embarks on a slow and thoughtful exploration of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time [Sein und Seit] , one of the most complex and influential works in Western philosophy. Awee addresses the importance and complexity of what Heidegger endeavours in this project; showing the structures of everyday existence,...

The question of Being - Being as a noun - Being as an event - “You can't bracket a bullit” In this episode, Awee introduces us to Martin Heidegger, one of the most influential—and controversial—philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Breaking sharply from his mentor, Edmund Husserl, Heidegger challenges over 2000 years of Western philosophy.  After the ancient Greeks before him, Heidegger tur...

Intentionality – Bracketing – Dingbewusstsein – Rain or urine?   Awee delves into reading the works of Edmund Husserl, guiding the listener through the first steps into transcendental phenomenology. Through key fragments, as well as contextualizing Husserl through his early influences and the thinkers he influenced, this episode will give you a firm starting ground to understanding the father of p...

Edmund Husserl - Crisis of the Sciences - First Philosophy In order to understand Edmund Husserl's famous dictum to go "zu dem sachen selbst" we need to first understand the reasons for which it makes sense to do so. Awee expertly guides us through the crises of sciences, which brings us to Husserl's doorstep.  Kas and Sonia discuss whether anything Jean — Paul Sartre ever wrote is worth wile, or...

Kierkegaard · DOSTOEVSKY · Pseudonymous production · Boredom and Dread In this episode, Awee discusses Kierkegaard's most important works and concepts. Meanwhile, Kas and Sonia give a mandatory Dostoevsky PSA and help us understand the work of Kierkegaard through the song Is That All There Is by Peggy Lee. Let's begin finally! PS As everyone knows, Philosophy is the friends you make along the way,...

Kierkegaard · Slandering Descartes· First-person perspective· The Birth of Phenomenology · Irony In this episode “Towards Kierkegaard” Awee introduces the key concepts needed to begin understanding Kierkegaard's profound ideas. Meanwhile, Kas and Sonia shed nuanced light on the often-misunderstood Descartes, while Dostoevsky makes a welcome return.   Let's begin finally! PS As everyone knows, Phil...

First philosophy invites you to begin philosophy with us anew. Edmund Husserl says philosophers must be eternal beginners, so in in this podcast we return to our beginnings: great lectures! Our first season centers around Dr. Awee Prins and the lecture series Human Conditions. Each episode is a dive into various philosophical themes, blending insights form great thinkers with contemporary issues a...

 The History of Philosophy · permanent Netflix · Plato · The Masters of Suspicion ·   · The world of ideas “Philosophy is a strange zigzag, and with a lot of zigzags to come that we don't even know about.” In the second episode, Awee continues exploring the phenomenological approach while questioning what it means to practice philosophy. Sonia and Kas take a moment to examine the nature of stories...

Introduction to Philosophy  ·  What does it mean to be human?  ·  Seeing-eye-dogs  · Phenomenology  · Edmund Husserl  “What is man? There are no definite answers to this question.” In this first episode, Awee Prins explores the phenomenological approach, which tries to understand the world—not as a sum of objects or a totality of things but as a crossroads, a patchwork of different perspectives. S...