The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We continue on the introduction to Marx's Grundrisse , going through his criticisms of prior economists who were too ahistorical and didn't understand how production, consumption, distribution and exchange hang together as a single system. Sponsor: Learn about St. John's College at sjc.edu/pel . The post Ep. 359: Karl...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On the intro to Marx's Grundrisse (1857) and "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845). Why economics, and why do it the way Marx does? We see Marx argues that Feuerbach's materialism was not materialistic enough, start looking at production, consumption, distribution, and exchange as moments within a single process, and talk abou...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing on The Ego and Its Own , focusing now on the sections "The Owner" and "My Power." Stirner lets us know that his egoism ("ownness") is not compatible with liberal egalitarianism, which he sees as just a continuation of the Christian project of perfecting humanity. Sponsor: Learn about St. John's College at s...

Of all the great American Modernists, the poetry of Marianne Moore is perhaps the most idiosyncratic, even the most radical, of them all—no small feat in a group of friends and admirers that included Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, e. e. cummings, and HD. Moore’s preferred form was a syllabic stanza bespoke to each poetic occasion, like the unique shell of each i...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On The Ego and its Own (1844), another big influence on Karl Marx and a precursor of Nietzsche, or perhaps an early Ayn Rand. Sponsor : Have up to a $100 donation to effective charities matched at GiveWell.org . The post Ep. 358: Max Stirner’s Egoism (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy...

When the film starts, its two leads are already dead, more or less. Silent Screen legend Norma Desmond’s career is dead, and because she’s nothing more than her career, the best she can do is linger in the tomb of her former glory, hoping for a resurrection. And failed screenwriter Joe Gillis quite literally enters the film as a corpse, so, as the film’s narrator, he has no choice but to tell his...

Read more about Mark's online class that starts later this month at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class , and sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/enroll . The post Enrollment Now Open for Core Texts in Philosophy Spring 2025 first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Subscribe to get this ad-free, plus numerous other Nightcap recordings of this sort and many hours of bonus content. Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan reflect on our past year of PEL recording, catch you up on our habits and interests, and talk about what might come next. Learn about Mark's spring Core Texts in philosophy class at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class. The post PEL ’24-’25 Transition Nightcap...

Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get future parts on this reading, as well as our previous and future installments of this podcast. Mark and Wes read through and discuss Edmund Husserl’s Ideas (1913), ch. 1, “Matter of Fact and Essence” in First Book, “General Introduction to a Pure Phenomenology,” Part One, “Essence and Eidetic...

For our annual holiday episode, Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al talk about Santa qua mythical and cultural figure, getting into the history of the character , his film appearances , and how the emphasis on kids' belief compares to religious belief. Plus, grading Xmas movies on a curve and Black Santa ! For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear this ad-free with bonus content at patreon.com/prettymu...

Simon is a professor at New York's New School for Social Research  and moderates the New York Times' philosophy offering, The Stone . He joins Mark and Bill to discuss his new book, On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy , and we used the occasion to explore how art and mysticism might be connected, including engaging in improv rituals. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com . Support the and hear thi...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content, including a supporter-exclusive, part three to this episode. Listen to a preview. . We finally discuss Feuerbach's proposed post-Hegelian, materialist approach to philosophy in his "Principles of the Philosophy of the Future" (1843). How can a materialist framework support phenomena central to F's account like our imm...

Where the repetitions of ordinary life threaten to overwhelm any sense of the sublime, the poet Conrad Aiken seems to suggest that they can be transformed into a way of being connected to it. The mundane order is, after all, just a part of the cosmic. When we get ready to go to work, it is on a “swiftly tilting planet” that “bathes in a flame of space.” The sun is “far off in a shell of silence,”...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Mark, Wes, and Dylan continue to look at Ludwig Feuerbach's "Principles of the Philosophy of the Future" (1843), recounting his story about how increasingly mature notions of God should lead philosophy eventually to a materialism where the sensual is the real. Sponsors: Have up to a $100 donation to effective charitie...

We're coming up on the 125th anniversary of L. Frank Baum's children's book,  The Wizard of Oz , and the film version of (the first half of) the musical  Wicked  has been released. Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al talk about the landmark 1939 film musical, the 1978 film The Wiz , Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked , the stage musical, the other Oz books by Baum, Maguire, et al, and other films lik...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We dig in and start our detailed treatment of Ludwig Feuerbach's essay "Principles of the Philosophy of the Future" (1843). Feuerbach claims that people don't realize that the entity they worship is really just whatever it is about humanity and the world that we value, wrongly posited as an independent entity. So God...

It's a TEAM PLAY episode just in time for the holiday season! Returning guests improviser and podcaster Sarah and recovering Philosophy Bro Tommy join Mark and Bill to talk AND EXPERIENCE friendship, with our longest single improv scene to date. What is friendship? Do you know your friends enough to imitate them? Does one friendship or fast-casual restaurant have to die so that another may emerge?...

Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get future parts on this reading, as well as our previous and future installments of this podcast. We're discussing John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic (1843), specifically from Book III, "Of Induction," ch. 8, "Of the Four Methods of Experimental Inquiry." The post Closereads: Mill on Induction (Part One) first appeared on The Partial...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Ludwig Feuerbach's "Principles of the Philosophy of the Future" (1843) and the introduction to The Essence of Christianity (1841). What was the original point of religion? Can we retain what was emotionally good about it yet direct our efforts to purely practical matters? Feuerbach says yes, and this was a key infl...

Adam and Barbara Maitland are dead, but their troubles have just begun. The farmhouse decor of their home is under threat from the pretentious modernism of Delia Deetze, and her plan to remake it in her own image could turn their post-life purgatory into earthbound hell. Solving this problem leaves them with an impossible choice between figuring out how to navigate an intractable netherworld burea...

Steve Martin was the biggest comic celebrity in the late '70s, became a huge movie star, and now delivers gentle comedy and fast banjo licks according to his desired rich guy schedule. In light of the popularity of Only Murders in the Building , we consider his many talents. Our 50ish hosts Mark and Sarahlyn are all in on this guy, but our 40ish hosts Lawrence and Al are not necessarily tickled. F...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content, including a supporter-exclusive, part three to this episode. Listen to a preview. . Continuing on "Estranged Labor," "Private Property and Communism," and "The Power of Money on Bourgeois Society" with guest Lawrence Dallman. Does capitalism give rise to alienation, or is it alienation that is responsible for capitali...

Mike hosts the Hitchhikers and Appetizers podcast , and we recorded this episode a bit before Halloween, before the election and the consequent mass exodus, as a sort of memo to the future, i.e. you. We blister our way through many topics including discovery, hospital dramas, time travel sex, self-experimentation, ancient aliens, sharkNATO, Flintstone furniture, the first Wisconsin Thanksgiving, S...

As an advisor to Henry VIII and ambassador to France and Italy, poet Thomas Wyatt was something of a professional court-surfer, practiced in riding the peaks and troughs of royal favor. Such were his verbal and diplomatic gifts that, though twice accused of and imprisoned for treason, he was twice released. His poetry reflects all the intrigue, paranoia, airlessness, and downright cruelty of the T...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On three of Karl Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, "Estranged Labor," "Private Property and Communism," and "The Power of Money on Bourgeois Society." Featuring guest Lawrence Dallman. What is the plight of the working poor? It's that they are in an unnatural situation with regard to their work, whi...