Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Society EN ↓ 828 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...

Be sure to visit the podcast's website and support the creator: partiallyexaminedlife.com

Author

Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey

Category

Society

Podcast website

partiallyexaminedlife.com

Latest episode

Oct 9, 2026

Where to listen?

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Episodes

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.

PREMIUM-Episode 18: Plato: What Is Knowledge? 21.04.2010

Discussing Plato's Theatetus and Meno .

PREMIUM-Episode 17: Hume's Empiricism: What Can We Know? 29.03.2010

On David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748).

PREMIUM-Episode 16: Danto on Art 04.03.2010

Discussing three essays by Arthur Danto from The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art (1986): the title essay, "The Appreciation and Interpretation of Works of Art," and "The End of Art."

Episode 15: Hegel on History 24.02.2010

Discussing G.W.F Hegel's Introduction to the Philosophy of History  (1837). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 14: Machiavelli on Politics 07.02.2010

Discussing Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince (1532) and Ch. 1-20 of The Discourse on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 13: What Are the Metaphysical Implications of Quantum Physics? 03.01.2010

On Werner Heisenberg's Physics and Philosophy . Dylan Casey's first appearance (as a guest). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 12: Chuang Tzu's Taoism: What Is Wisdom? 06.12.2009

On the Chuang Tzu , Chapters 2, 3, 6, 18, and 19. With guest Erik Douglas. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 11: Nietzsche's Immoralism: What Is Ethics, Anyway? 10.11.2009

Discussing The Genealogy of Morals (mostly the first two essays) and Beyond Good and Evil Ch. 1 (The Prejudices of Philosophers), 5 (Natural History of Morals), and 9 (What is Noble?). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 10: Kantian Ethics: What Should We Do? 19.10.2009

Discussing Fundamental Principles (aka Groundwork) of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785).

Episode 9: Utilitarian Ethics: What Should We Do? 18.09.2009

Discussing Jeremy Bentham's An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation chapters 1-5, John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism , and Peter Singer's "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 8: Wittgenstein's Tractatus (and Carnap): What Can We Legitimately Talk About? 04.09.2009

Continuing last ep's discussion of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus with some Rudolph Carnap from his 1935 book Philosophy and Logical Syntax . Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 7: Wittgenstein's Tractatus: What Is There and Can We Talk About It? 19.08.2009

Discussing the beginning (through around 3.1) of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus  (1921). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 6: Leibniz's Monadology: What Is There? 31.07.2009

Discussing Gottfried Wilhelm Liebniz's Monadology  (1714). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 5: Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics 16.07.2009

Discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics , Books I and II. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 4: Camus and the Absurd 22.06.2009

Discussing Camus's "An Absurd Reasoning" and "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

Episode 3: Hobbes's Leviathan: The Social Contract 07.06.2009

Discussing Hobbes's Leviathan , Chapters 13-15. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

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