Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's work of ethics, The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Specifically it examines his discussion of the distinction and relation between three key faculties of the human being, which Kant terms reason, understanding, and sense To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd l...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's work of ethics, The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Specifically it examines his discussion of how categorical imperatives are possible. 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 a...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's work of ethics, The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Specifically it examines his discussion of the distinction between three modes of presenting what he terms the "principle of morality" - one focused upon universality of the maxim of one's will, one on treating human beings as ends not just as means, and...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's work of ethics, The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Specifically it examines his discussion of what he calls "heteronomy" in moral theories other than his own. He examines empirical principles of morality, which include moral feeling and individual happiness, and rational principles of morality, which incl...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "Dragonfly", and focuses specifically on how Dragonfly whose true name is Irian (but not just that) finally finds her place at the end of the story, resolving the crisis of her admittance to Roke contrary to its rule, and...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "Dragonfly", and focuses specifically on the two crises at Roke Isle depicted and partly resolved in the story. The first and immediate crisis is what to do with Irian, who has been admitted to the Great House by the Maste...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "Dragonfly", and focuses specifically on the interactions between the young, not-quite wizard from Roke, Ivory, and the main character of the story, Dragonfly (whose true name is Irian). Ivory proposes to Dragonfly that sh...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "Dragonfly", and focuses specifically on the interactions between the local witch Rose and the Dragonfly, centering mainly on their conversations about magic, power, and names, on Rose's giving Dragonfly her true name Iria...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "On The High Marsh", and discusses the point where the archmage Ged shows up, seeking the broken former mage, now animal healer, Irioth. He relates the story of Irioth's terrible childhood, the attempts of the masters of R...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "On The High Marsh", and discusses an animal healer whose true name is Irioth. He is clearly a damaged person, both in his emotions and in his thinking, and connects more with the animals who he can speak to and heal than...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "Darkrose and Diamond", and discusses the character Diamond's choice between different possible paths in life: magic, music, and the family business. These choices also determine his relationship with his childhood friend...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "The Bones Of The Earth", and discusses the mage Ogion (an important character in the earlier Earthsea books), and his own teacher Dulse. In this video we look at the Gontish earth-magic of transformation Dulse learned fro...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "The Bones Of The Earth", and discusses the backstory of an important character in the earlier Earthsea novels, Ogion the mage of Re Albi. This video focuses on Ogion's teacher, the Gontish mage Dulse and how he taught Ogi...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher Aristotle's work of moral theory, the Nicomachean Ethics Specifically it focuses on book 5 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (and there is a parallel discussion in book 1 of the Rhetoric), where Aristotle distinguishes degrees of responsibility for bad or harmful actions (between mischances, errors, and actually unjust acts) and discuss...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher Aristotle's work of moral theory, the Nicomachean Ethics Specifically it focuses on book 3 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, where he discusses five states or conditions that resemble courage, but which are not genuine courage, in book 3. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's essay, From Elfland To Poughkeepsie, found in her essay collection The Language of the Night It discusses the nature of genuinely valuable fantasy literature, particularly in relation to style, as opposed to literature that while it might be classified as "fantasy" doesn't measure up. To support my ongoing work, go t...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "The Finder", and focuses specifically on the decision by the Women of the Hand at Roke Isle to end their strategy of seclusion and to seek out worthy students of magic from the other isles of Earthsea To support my ongoin...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "The Finder," and examines the development of the community of mostly women magic users on the Isle of Roke, which has isolated itself from the rest of Earthsea, leaving behind the remnants of the Hand outside of Roke. To...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "The Finder", specifically Otter/Medra's and Anieb's escape from the mercury mining and refining complex, and from its ruler, the evil wizard Gelluk. Anieb helps Medra resist and trick Gelluk, and gives the last of her str...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "The Finder", specifically how Medra/Otter is taken from his parents and placed as a slave in the service of the evil, and insane wizard Gelluk, who thinks mercury is the key to all magic. To support my ongoing work, go to...

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's book, Tales From Earthsea, the fifth of six Earthsea books It focuses specifically on the story "The Finder," and focuses on Leguin's depiction of Earthsea in its "dark times" hundreds of years before the narratives of the first four books, when Earthsea was divided politically, and the strong preyed upon and exploit...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern empiricist philosopher David Hume' Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding It focuses specifically on his discussion in section 1 of the work, specifically the range of matters that moral philosophy, as Hume understands it, studies, which includes not just ethics, but also human psychology, motivations, the emotions, and ways in which we acquire and...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern empiricist philosopher David Hume' Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding It focuses specifically on his discussion in section 1 of the work, specifically where Hume notes that too many people in his time wish to reject "metaphysics" entirely, leading him to plead the case of metaphysics, providing justifications for why at least some people ought t...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern empiricist philosopher David Hume' Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding It focuses specifically on his discussion in section 1 of the work, specifically the distinction Hume makes from the very first paragraph between two different modes of engaging in moral philosophy. One of these is what he calls "easy" and "obvious" philosophy, intended for th...

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 examines the academic skeptic Cotta's criticism of the Epicurean position on the gods, which he charges not only with being wrong about them, but...