The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview . On G.W.F. Hegel's 1807 opus: A series of treatments of various theories in epistemology (among other things), seeing how they're internally incoherent, which then moves us to more sophisticated theories. Don't miss Mark's new podcast Philosophy vs. Improv . The post Ep. 275: Hegel’s Project in “The Phenomenology of Spirit” (Part One) f...

The Wizard of Oz is supposed by the land’s inhabitants to be its most powerful magician. But far from having any actual power, he is not even native to the place in which real magic is in plentiful supply. Oddly, this supernatural world seems to be secretly governed by mundane sleight of hand, and growing up, for Dorothy, involves uncovering the flimsy basis of adult authority. Which magic is more...

An epic journey begins. Which path will produce the most profound profundity? The wisest wisdom? Bill Arnett eases us into first gear, but Mark Linsenmayer pulls the wheel toward murder . For more about Mark and Bill, respectfully see partiallyexaminedlife.com and chicagoimprovstudio.com respectively. Hear more PvI . Support the podcast to get bonus stuff and good karma! The post Philosophy vs. Im...

Mark, Erica, and Brian delve into this 8-film horror franchise started by James Wan in 2013 through The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Do their demons scare us, and do their Catholic defenses provide a convincing antidote? Is it OK to valorize the Warrens, the supernatural detectives who were most likely hucksters in real life? For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this e...

What is Philosophy vs. Improv? Hear about the new podcast by Mark Linsenmayer ( The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast ) and Bill Arnett ( Chicago Improv Studio , The Complete Improviser author). Thanks to our announcer, Erica Spyres. Get more episodes than are now publicly available plus supporter-only content at patreon.com/philosophyimprov . This new project needs your support to get of...

Concluding on Schelling's System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), Parts 1 and 2. What sort of self is created in the act of self-consciousness that according to Schelling grounds all knowledge? We further consider this primordial act. To hear the full second part , you'll need to go sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support . The post PREVIEW-Ep. 274: Schelling on Self-Consciousness (Part Two...

Director/writer/sound operator Heather Fink joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss the role of the director in making a good comedy, covering TV vs. film, sex scenes, not telling actors how to read their lines, editing, and more. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop . Sponsor : Get a loan to lower your monthly payments at Upstart.com...

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview . On Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling’s System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), Parts 1 and 2. What is self-consciousness, and how did Schelling think that it grounds all of knowledge? The post Ep. 274: Schelling on Self-Consciousness (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Continuing on The Vocation of Man (1799), Book II. We focus on how ethics fits in with Fichte's epistemology in a unified theology with humans literally united (in this world or the next) in a shared, divine Will. To hear the full second part , you'll need to go sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support . The post PREVIEW-Ep. 273: Friedrich Schelling’s Foundationalist Idealism (Part Two) first...

What is it for a super-hero to represent America? Recent Captain America media includes racial critique, and Mark, Erica, Brian and Anthony discuss The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , Truth: Red, White & Black , comic runs by Ta-Nehishi Coates and Nick Spencer, and more. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop . The post Pretty Much...

Wes & Erin continue their analysis of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” In Part 1, they covered roughly the first third of the poem. In Part 2, they begin with a discussion of Prufrock’s coffee spoons, and then continue on to: his allusions to John the Baptist, Lazarus, and Hamlet; the disjointed portrait of his probable love interest; and the twinning of aging and fantasy...

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview . On Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling's System of Transcendental Idealism (1800). What's the relationship between mind and world? Schelling thought that our minds produce the world, but also that the perceiver-world dichotomy comes to us as a single piece. "Transcendental philosophy" is an exploration of the internal logic of that reve...

What distinguishes this small-town Pennsylvania murder mystery from the many other crime dramas on TV? Mark, Erica, and Brian discuss the plot structure, casting, and other creative choices and try to figure out how the show relates to Broadchurch , The Undoing , etc. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop . The post Pretty Much Pop #97...

Continuing on The Vocation of Man (1799), Book II. We focus on how ethics fits in with Fichte's epistemology in a unified theology with humans literally united (in this world or the next) in a shared, divine Will. To hear the full second part , you'll need to go sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support . The post PREVIEW-Ep. 272: Fichte’s Idealist Theology (Part Two) first appeared on The Part...

t was T. S. Eliot’s first published poem. Written when he was only in his early 20s, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” rode the crest of the wave of literary Modernism, predated World War I, and presaged an age of indecision and anxiety. The poem is the dramatic interior monologue of the title character, a middle-aged man whose passivity and ambivalence are threaded with artistic allusions, ep...

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview . Our second full discussion on The Vocation of Man (1799). What are the ethical implications of believing that the world is all in our minds? You could be a solipsistic nihilist, but Fichte thinks the path of faith is unavoidable for a reasonable person: faith that the world is real and matters, that other people have moral status, and...

What's the status of Dungeons & Dragons and other table-top role-playing games in pop culture? Fantasy settings are no longer just for the ultra-geeky, but role-playing may still seem foreign. Mark, Erica, and Brian are joined by the host of Join the Party to discuss acting out your fantasy, RPG basics, real-play podcasts, racism ("kill all orcs!"), and more. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com...

Mark, Erica, and Brian discuss the HBO Max show out Victorian-era super-powered feminine outcasts, helmed and now abandoned by the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Firefly, etc. Does this reduced-by-the-pandemic show still work? Does knowing the complaints about Joss Whedon affect our consumption? For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuc...

Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore doesn’t flinch for enemy fire, loves the smell of napalm in the morning, and would literally kill for good surfing and a beachside barbecue. His attempts to recreate home within the theater of war render him the perfect foil to a certain upriver madman, who seems intent on making high culture serve the purposes of primitive horror. And yet Kurtz is ready to argue th...

Continuing from part one on The Vocation of Man (1799), Book II. In this preview, we clarify whether Fichte is trying to keep the notion of a "real world" beyond our experience or not. It's part of the progression of the text that while at first he assumes that there must be something real behind this experienced world we as individuals create, he gives up that notion in the middle of Book II. So...

Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview . On The Vocation of Man (1799), Books I and II. What is reality? Fichte's armchair journey starts him considering nature and thus himself as determined, but then he backtracks to say that actually, experience doesn't tell us whether we're determined or free. In Book II, he argues that since our experience is always of something going on...

Why do people play video games, and what keeps them playing? Mark, Erica, and Brian are joined by the host of the Psychology of Video Games podcast to discuss player types, motivation vs. engagement, incentives and feedback, as well as the gamification of work or school environments. We touch on Donkey Kong , Dark Souls , It Takes Two , Returnal , Hades , Subnautica , Fortnite , and Age of Z . For...

In this episode, we discuss Ernest Hemingway’s last published work in his lifetime: The Old Man and the Sea. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954. The post Phi Fic #40 The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Continuing (without Stephen Phillips) on God and the World’s Arrangement: Readings from Vedanta and Nyaya Philosophy of Religion . What does this treatment give us that's fundamentally different than the Western version of the design argument? We talk about these readings in the context of liberation and reflect on reason vs. revelation in this milieu. To hear that full second part , you'll...

Thinking about the tech genius as villain trope in TV shows like Made for Love , Devs , Silicon Valley , and the documentary WeWork . They're our modern mad scientists, able to unleash science to surveil, control, and possibly kill us. Mark, Erica, and Brian consider how it works in comedy vs. serious media, how it relates to real-life tech billionaires, and the feminist angle. For more, visit pre...