The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Concluding on "Culture and its Realm of Actuality," in Hegel's Phenomenology via sections 519-526. We get into some of the ironic psychology here: In giving loyalty to the king, the nobles actually boost themselves qua givers. They should be grateful to the king to get wealth back from him, but being dependent on the king makes them resentful. The result is duplicitous people resenting those they...

Continuing on Hegel's Phenomenology , "Spirit" chapter, now up to sections 511-526, which finishes off the sub-section of "Self-Alienated Spirit" called "Culture and its Realm of Actuality." Whereas in our last discussion, obeying the state (public power) ran counter to hoarding wealth (private power), at this stage, the two converge, because the state gets concentrated in a single monarch who bot...

Continuing on the "Spirit" chapter (more specifically. "Culture and its realm of actuality") in Hegel's Phenomenology , now covering sec. 490-510. How exactly does the process of acculturation work? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to...

Continuing on Hegel's Phenomenology , "Spirit" chapter, now up to sections 484-510, which is the first part of "Self-Alienated Spirit. Culture." In Hegel's ongoing semi-mythical story about the development of the modern self and society, we're now at a point where people are "bare persons," legally recognized but not distinguished from each other. We thicken these thin selves using cultural conten...

Continuing on on sec. 469-483 of Hegel's Phenomenology , finishing the analysis of Antigone and bringing in Oedipus to say why the conflict between types of law is both criminal and destined. We then turn to the aftermath: a society alienated from law but with legally recognized self-conscious individuals. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-f...

Continuing on Hegel's Phenomenology , "Spirit" chapter, now up to sections 464-483, which are under the sub-headings "Ethical Action. Human and Divine Knowledge. Guilt and Destiny" and "Legal Status." After anticipating it in last episode, we get  Hegel's allegorical analysis of Antigone as a clash between two types of law that cooperate in a harmonious society. With this clash, both fail, leaving...

On sec. 451-463 of Hegel's  Phenomenology of Spirit . We get into more detail on these passages about the way the two types of law (human and divine) interact, as well as how these play out in family roles and the responsibility to bury the dead. If you're not hearing  the full version of this part of the discussion , sign up via one of the options described at  partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Continuing on the "Spirit" section of The Phenomenology of Spirit , giving a sort of social metaphysics, wherein the ethical life of a society is analyzed into two complementary types of law, human (explicit laws but also customs) and what Hegel calls "divine" (a subconscious ethical sense represented by the home and women). Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/...

On. G.W.F. Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), sec. 438-463. What constitutes society?  We're beginning a multi-episode arc here on the "Spirit" chapter of the book, so we learn what Spirit actually is and how it relates to individuals. We also talk about the two layers of law that make up society and how these can be in or out of harmony. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit par...

In our continuing Q&A with Graham, we engage him about Kantian Things-In-Themselves, complex things (that if divided, must be cut at the joints) vs. mere heaps, fact ontology, natural kinds, fictional objects, why philosophy is not knowledge, and philosophical style. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussio...

An interview with Graham in light of his new book, Waves and Stones: On the Ultimate Nature of Reality , which elaborates and adds to issues that the gang previously studied in Object-Oriented Ontology . Graham argues that in addition to objects (which have parts), there are continua, such as space and time, and these continua are the links that allow otherwise forever separated objects to touch e...

We consider chapter 2, "Aesthetics Is the Root of All Philosophy," where Harman describes how art can help us see behind the veil to things-in-themselves. Art is "theatrical" in that it's really the spectator who is standing in like an actor for the object encountered in art. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus...

Continuing on Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (2018), finishing up ch. 1 (discussing what's so bad about reductionism) and moving to ch. 4, "Indirect Relations," which is about causality. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor : Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com...

We're within the Self-Consciousness chapter of The Phenomenology of Spirit , specifically starting at sec. 206 on the Unhappy Consciousness. This comes after the famous Master-Slave section as well as sections about Stoicism and Skepticism, and it depicts a dividedness within the self stemming from a faulty view of the relation between self and world. Subscribe to Closereads at patreon.com/closere...

On Harman's Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (2018). What counts as an entity in the world? Harman includes not just physical objects, but fictional objects, "sensual objects," and even events, which you might have thought were the alternative to objects. With this promiscuous ontology comes a strange theory of causality whereby no real object touches another real object, and a...

Finishing up Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego , finally now turning to Freud's anthropological account of group membership. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor : Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel.

On the second half of Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego . We talk about the dual origins of group membership for Freud in personal love and in the supposed primitive society where a horde was led by a tyrannical father. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor : Visit functionhealth.com...

It's another year, and this time we each came in with a short bucket list of philosophical works that we'd like to read before this podcast concludes, whenever that might be. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor : Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. It's time to enroll in Mark'...

Continuing on the first half of Sigmund Freud's Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego , now getting really into Freud's own type of explanation, whereby he explains how libidinal ties bind group members, typically via their shared love of a leader or leading idea. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discu...

On the first half of Sigmund Freud's Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921). Why do members of a mob get dumber and less inhibited? Freud considers Gustave Le Bon's famous book on crowds but then turns to more organized groups like armies and churches. For all groups, Freud thinks that the leader (or leading ideal) replaces our conscience to some degree. Get more at  partiallyexamined...

We discuss the first six questions from the "Moral Action" section in the Summa Theologica (1268), which we read in Thomas Aquinas: Selected Philosophical Writings (1993). If you're not hearing the full version of this part of the discussion , sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Continuing to discuss the virtue and moral action from the Summa Theologica (1268). We discuss the definition of virtue and some subsequent questions about what parts of us the term virtue properly applies to. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors : Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data...

On selections about virtue and moral action from the Summa Theologica (1268). Aquinas defines virtue, tells us how it metaphysically fits us into the universe, and discusses how it actually works in us to make us perform moral acts. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors: Rula patients typical...

More on The Problem of Christianity , discussing how communities relate to history, how individuals relate to communities, and what's unique about Royce's ideal Christian world community. Get more at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors:  Get $45 off Aura's best-selling Carver Mat electronic picture fra...

On sections of The Problem of Christianity (1913) which establish Royce's concept of a community of interpretation: individuals working together with a sense of shared history and expectation. He claims that such a grouping can be counted as a literal mind and that it solves the problem of human meaning. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free...