The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive Nightcap discussion about cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and more . Continuing on Michael Tomasello's "Language Is Not an Instinct" (1995) and Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition (2003), as contrasted with Chomsky universal grammar (the flag that Steven Pinker continues to carr...

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content at patreon.com/prettymuchpop or by subscribing via Apple Podcasts to the Mark Lintertainment Channel . The post Pretty Much Pop #156: Black Mirror’s Tech Horrors first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

How does new technology affect ethics? Anthony (who is on strike, but that doesn't apply to improv) is an improviser with a computer science degree who now coaches kid TV actors . We talk personal identity, transhumanism, genetic engineering, AI, organizational ethics, Black Mirror, Beastars, and transporter virginity. Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Take a class this fall from h...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Michael Tomasello's "Language Is Not an Instinct" (1995) and Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition (2003). With guest Christopher Heath. The post Ep. 323: Acquiring Language: Tomasello vs. Chomsky (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al talk about the most discussable movie of the summer made by the unlikely pairing of feminist indie director Greta Gerwig and Barbie's corporate overlords at Mattel. Does the film convey at least a legitimate teen version of feminist existentialism? It is actually enjoyable? What sort of irony is this, and can any film be both a blockbuster children's film yet also...

Subscribe to get this discussion ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Are we underlyingly all really a single, unified organism? Or do we just have a lot in common? PEL's most verbose hosts Mark Linsenmayer and Wes Alwan begin unraveling this puzzling claim by reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1841 essay "The Over-Soul" and explaining it line-by-line. Watch this episode on video at YouTube . We encour...

The guests are away, and so Billy and Markaroony will play. This fast-paced, sweet-moving discussion covers the genius individual artist and how that might or might not allow collaboration, genres and definitions, strife, and more. Mark just can't WAIT for a canoe, and getting CRAZY at the salad bar. Oops, we forgot to determine a winner, so YOU decide. Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife....

Subscribe to get parts 1-3 of this discussion ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Mark and Wes conclude with some close reading of Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), section 3: "Relation of Art to Philosophy." Schelling thinks that art enables us to do intuitively what philosophy tries to do with concepts. We're providing this typically supporter-exclusive content for all of you...

Before Henry VIII changed history for lack of a son, Henry II had too many. His eldest, Richard, a fierce soldier who controls the wealthy Aquitaine, is the favorite of his mother, Eleanor. The youngest, John, is immature and dull, but his father’s favorite. And the middle son, scheming Geoffrey, is, quite dangerously, no one’s favorite. In the end, there are no winners; competing affections and p...

Subscribe to get parts 1-3 of this discussion now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing on "On the Relation Between the Plastic Arts and Nature" (1807) and Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800). We talk sculpture vs. painting and why art is the direct, intuitive way to achieve the insight that philosophy can only approximate using concepts. Learn about the online Core Philo...

Monica is an actor and writer who ran a live-on-stage philosophy podcast called The Happier Hour , and so naturally we talk about happiness, or flourishing (eudaimonia). You can watch this episode in its unedited video form . Mark philosophizes at  partiallyexaminedlife.com . Take a class this fall from him at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class . Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstu...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including (next week) a supporter-exclusive part three to this discussion. Discussing "On the Relation Between the Plastic Arts and Nature" (1807) and Part 6 of System of Transcendental Idealism (1800). Is the goal of art to imitate nature? Only if that means showing the divine, ideal, dynamic aspect of the subject mat...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive Nightcap discussion largely about philosophy of technology . Listen to a preview. . We continue on Theory of Art , getting more into sections of the text about the relationship between beauty and purposiveness, genius, unconscious vs. conscious creation, style vs. manner, and art imitating nature. Learn about the online Cor...

Mark, Lawrence, and returning parents/panelists Michelle Parrinello-Cason and Chris Sunami take on animated blockbuster films by Pixar, et al. Why do some adults prefer these? What's the ideology of this kind of media?  We touch on Puss in Boots , Turning Red , Soul , Trolls , Enola Holmes , and many other things that we watched with our kids and/or as kids. Note that this discussion was...

Chris has an act called "I Am the Show" where he improvises to a film that he hasn't seen that's playing silently, making up all the dialogue and sound effects. Mark and Bill talk to Chris about being a spectator or critic of art: To understand a work, is it good or necessary to try to divine the artist's intentions, or is meaning in art something that happens after a work becomes an objective thi...

In Jean Anouilh’s 1959 play “Becket,” the titular character seems at first to be a Saxon collaborationist to the Norman rule of England, and a man who has sacrificed his personal honor to his friendship with King Henry II and, as he puts it, “good living.” This will change when he becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, only to realize that he is enchanted by the “honor of God,” leading him to to defend...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including (next week) a supporter-exclusive Nightcap discussion. Covering the elder Schlegel  brother's Theory of Art (ca. 1800). How does our experience of Beauty relate to the infinite? Schlegel provides a Romantic response to Kant on knowing the divine, inner essences of things through art, how genius works, an...

Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al disagree about the Jason Sudeikis-headed Apple TV+ pandemic hit that's just wrapped up with its third season. Was it actually as good as everyone thought when its first season hit, or was its vibe just something we needed at the time? Should it have stayed slim and comic instead of becoming the stretched out, soapy dramedy that it ended up as? For more, visit prett...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive part three . Listen to a preview. . We continue on Schlegel's "Dialogue on Poesy" (1799) and "Concerning the Essence of Critique" (1804). How can Romantic art always aim at some common source of our humanity yet also require originality? How can having some sort of common mythology help artists be original in this way, and...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including (next week) a supporter-exclusive part three to this discussion. On selected fragments from 1797-1801, "Dialogue on Poesy" (1799), and "Concerning the Essence of Critique" (1804). What makes art "Romantic"? Schlegel sees good art as uniquely, authentically reaching out to a divine source that underlies and co...

Genevieve is a comedian, podcaster , and she was a philosophy major who's studying for her doctorate in Divinity. We talk about the idea that "we are all one" (and thus we are all God, if you want to call the sum of all things by that name) that's in various traditions. Ralph Waldo Emerson called this the "oversoul." We spend the rest of the discussion under the bleachers not making out, getting b...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this ad-free, plus a supporter-exclusive part three . Listen to a preview. . Starting with letter 20 in On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), we tell more of the story of how art is supposed to get us from sensation to thinking. Aesthetic perception ends up being essential to any conceptualization (thinking) whatsoever! The post Ep. 319: Schiller on Experienci...

The regular gang (Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al) address Jesse Armstrong's prestige HBO dramedy that premiered in 2018 and has just wrapped up. Why all the fuss over this show? Is it really worthy of comparison to Shakespeare? For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content at patreon.com/prettymuchpop or by subscribing via Apple Podcasts to the Mark Lintertainment Channel . Sponsors: Ge...

Jack, a Canadian soldier recuperating in a European hospital during World War I, begins a correspondence with Louisa, the librarian in his hometown whom he has only seen and loved from afar. Their letters turn romantic. But when the war ends and he returns home, Jack never shows his face to Louisa and marries another woman, leaving Louisa to wonder if she’s been the victim of some diabolical trick...

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content including (next week) a supporter-exclusive part three to this discussion. On the second half of Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), getting into the mechanics of how aesthetic experience work in giving us a midpoint between animality and pure rationality where we can feel free. Also, does ar...