Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Society EN ↓ 794 episodes

The Partially Examined Life is a podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a short text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion. For links to the texts we discuss and other info, check out www.partiallyexaminedlife.com. We also feature episodes from other podcasts by our hosts to round out your partially examined life, including Pretty...

Author

Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey

Category

Society

Podcast website

partiallyexaminedlife.com

Latest episode

Jul 6, 2026

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Episodes

PREMIUM-Episode 43: Arguments for the Existence of God 15.09.2011

Discussing the arguments by Descartes, St. Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, William Paley, Kant, and others, as analyzed in J.L. Mackie's The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against the Existence of God (1983), chapters 1-3, 5-6, 8, and 11. With guest Robert Scott.

PREMIUM-Episode 42: Feminists on Human Nature and Moral Psychology 05.09.2011

Discussing Charlotte Perkins Gilman's utopian novel Herland (1915) and psychologist Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice (1983). With guest Azzurra Crispino.

PREMIUM-Episode 41: Pat Churchland on the Neurobiology of Morality (Plus Hume's Ethics) 19.07.2011

Patricia Churchland on her new book Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality. We also discussed David Hume's ethics as foundational to her work, reading his Treatise on Human Nature (1739), Book III, Part I and his Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), Section V, Parts I and II.

PREMIUM-Episode 40: Plato's Republic: What Is Justice? 11.07.2011

Discussing The Republic by Plato, primarily books 1 and 2.

PREMIUM-Episode 39: Schleiermacher Defends Religion 10.06.2011

Discussing Friedrich Schleiermacher's "On Religion; Speeches to its Cultured Despisers" (1799, with notes added 1821), first and second speeches. With guest Daniel Horne.

PREMIUM-Episode 38: Bertrand Russell on Math and Logic 25.05.2011

Discussing Russell's Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919), ch. 1-3 and 13-18. With guest Josh Pelton.

PREMIUM-Episode 37: Locke on Political Power 06.05.2011

Discussing John Locke's Second Treatise on Government (1690). With guest Sabrina Weiss.

PREMIUM-Episode 36: More Hegel on Self-Consciousness 11.04.2011

Part 2 of our discussion of G.F.W. Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit," covering sections 178-230 within section B, "Self-Consciousness."

PREMIUM-Episode 35: Hegel on Self-Consciousness 02.04.2011

On G.F.W. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Part B (aka Ch. 4), "Self-Consciousness," plus recapping the three chapters before that (Part A. "Consciousness"). With guest Tom McDonald.

PREMIUM-Episode 34: Frege on the Logic of Language 13.03.2011

On Gottlob Frege's "Sense and Reference," "Concept and Object" (both from 1892) and "The Thought" (1918). With guest Matt Teichman.

PREMIUM-Episode 33: Montaigne: What Is the Purpose of Philosophy? 18.02.2011

Discussing Michel de Montaigne's Essays : "That to Philosophize is to Learn to Die," "Of Experience," "Of Cannibals," "Of the Education of Children," and "Of Solitude" (all from around 1580) with some discussion of "Apology for Raymond Sebond."

PREMIUM-Episode 32: Heidegger: What is "Being?" 08.02.2011

Discussing Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927), mostly the intro and ch. 1 and 2 of Part 1.

PREMIUM-Episode 31: Husserl's Phenomenology 10.01.2011

Discussing Edmund Husserl's Cartesian Meditations (1931).

PREMIUM-Episode 30: Schopenhauer on Explanations and Knowledge 19.12.2010

Discussing Arthur Schopenhauer's On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason , published in 1847 (as an expansion of his doctoral thesis from 1813).

PREMIUM-Episode 29: Kierkegaard on the Self 21.11.2010

On Soren Kierkegaard's "The Sickness Unto Death" (1849). With guest Daniel Horne.

PREMIUM-Episode 28: Nelson Goodman on Art as Epistemology 01.11.2010

Discussing Goodman's Ways of Worldmaking (1978). With guest painter Jay Bailey .

PREMIUM-Episode 27: Nagarjuna on Buddhist "Emptiness" 10.10.2010

Primarily discussing "Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas" and "Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas," by the 2nd century Indian Buddhist Nagarjuna. With guest Erik Douglas.

PREMIUM-Episode 26: Freud on the Human Condition 25.09.2010

Discussing Freud's Civilization and its Discontents (1930). Get the full episode at partiallyexaminedlife.com. For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here ).

PREMIUM-Episode 25: Spinoza on Human Nature 10.09.2010

Discussing Spinoza's the Ethics , Books II through V.

PREMIUM-Episode 24: Spinoza on God and Metaphysics 24.08.2010

Discussing Spinoza's Ethics (1677), books 1 and 2.

PREMIUM-Episode 23: Rousseau: Human Nature vs. Culture 29.07.2010

Discussing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse in Inequality (1754) and book 1 of The Social Contract (1762).

PREMIUM-Episode 22: More James's Pragmatism: Is Faith Justified? What is Truth? 18.07.2010

Discussing William James's "The Will to Believe".

PREMIUM-Episode 21: What Is the Mind? (Turing, et al) 28.06.2010

Discussing articles by Alan Turing, Gilbert Ryle, Thomas Nagel, John Searle, and Dan Dennett. With guest Marco Wise.

PREMIUM-Episode 20: Pragmatism – Peirce and James 09.06.2010

On Pragmatism (1907) by William James and "The Fixation of Belief" (1877) and "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878) by Charles Sanders Peirce.

PREMIUM-Episode 19: Kant: What Can We Know? 14.05.2010

Discussing Immanuel Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783). With guest Azzurra Crispino.

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