The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

On Latour's We Have Never Been Modern (1993) with guest Lynda Olman . What's the "modern" ideology of science, and is there something we should critique about it? Latour wants us to think about science not abstractly through the eternal truths it supposedly discovers, but through the concrete practices of scientists. He investigates the Modern Constitution by which science and politics are kept co...

What role does improv comedy play in popular culture? It's deployed by certain film directors (e.g. Christopher Guest), in some of the TV work of Larry David, Robin Williams, et al. But only a rare show like "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" makes it obvious. Is this art form doomed to live on the fringes of entertainment? Mark, Erica, and Brian are joined by Tim Sniffen to discuss different types of imp...

Concluding René Descartes's Rules for Direction of the Mind (1628). We finish rule 12 through the end, talking about simples, the faculties of intuition and judgment, perception and imagination, necessary vs. contingent truths, and how to do Cartesian science, including what constitutes a "perfectly understood problem." Start with part one , or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please su...

Are YOU the target audience of what you watch? While shows used to be aimed at a white majority or "niche group," now much media aims itself seemingly at everyone. Rodney Comedian/actor/writer/producer Rodney joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss the experience of watching outside your demographic, whether identifying with characters requires physical commonalities, "black voice," and the evolvi...

Continuing on René Descartes's Rules for Direction of the Mind (1628), covering rules 7 through the first part of the lengthy rule 12. We try to figure out what he means by "enumeration"; the faculties of imagination, sense and memory; the virtues of perspicacity and sagacity; his psychology of the senses, the "common sense" where all sense data comes together, and the understanding; how Desc...

Is the most popular writer of our time actually a good writer? Or maybe he used to be good? While you've been thinking about those questions, King already wrote another book, so ha! Mark, Erica, and Brian share their experiences with and opinions about King's oeuvre and the films and shows that have come out of it. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon....

Are stand-up comedians the Modern Day Philosophers? This is the premise of Daniel's podcast , but really, only some comedians express original claims; many just tell jokes. Are those exceptional comics philosophizing? Does telling the whole, tragic truth rule out being funny? Daniel, Mark, Erica, and Brian consider Carlin, Gadsby, Chappelle, and others. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hea...

On René Descartes's Rules for Direction of the Mind (1628). Is there a careful way to approach problems that will ensure that you'll always be right? What if you just never assert anything you can't be sure of? This is Descartes's strategy, modeled on mathematics. We likewise carefully move step-by-step through this text. The post Ep. 229: Descartes’s Rules for Thinking (Part One) first appea...

Continuing on Kwame Anthony Appiah's "Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections" (1994), Charles Mills's "But What Are You Really?, The Metaphysics of Race" (1998), and Neven Sesardic's "Race: A Social Destruction of a Biological Concept" (2010) with guest Coleman Hughes . Racial classifications vary geographically, therefore race is socially constructed. Given this, can we retain the pos...

Mark, Erica, and Brian examine the conventions, techniques, and staying power of the beloved '90s sitcom. Are we supposed to identify with, or idolize, or merely like these people? What makes the formula work, did it sustain itself over its 10-year run, was it successfully replicated, and what parts haven't aged well? For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episod...

On Kwame Anthony Appiah's "Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections" (1994), Charles Mills's "But What Are You Really?, The Metaphysics of Race" (1998), and Neven Sesardic's "Race: A Social Destruction of a Biological Concept" (2010). With guest Coleman Hughes. Please support PEL! The post Ep. 228: Social Construction of Race (Appiah, Mills) (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Exa...

Opera used to be a central part of European pop culture, Pavarotti was as big a pop star as they come. But still, it's now the quintessential art-form of the wealthy and snobbish. What gives? Guest Sean Spyres from Springfield Regional Opera joins his sister Erica along with Mark and Brian to discuss opera's place in culture (including its film appearances), how it's different from music theater,...

Continuing Ian Hacking's The Social Construction of What (1999) and Peter Berger's "Religion and World Construction" (1967). We break down Hacking's typology of construction arguments: Are they exploring where our ideas came from or trying to change things? Are they trying to state facts about nature vs. nurture or essentially political solicitations for us to reconceptualize in healthier ways? Pl...

TV news reporter Paul Beban (ABC, Al Jazeera, Yahoo, and now featured on the Discovery Network's Contact ) joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss the appeal of UFO narratives. Do you have to believe to be entertained? What's the connection to humor, religion, and anti-government venom? For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode at  patreon.com/prettymuchpop...

On Ian Hacking’s The Social Construction of What (1999) and Peter Berger's “Religion and World Construction" (1967). Guest Coleman Hughes from Dilemma joins us to survey the types of social construction arguments: the "culture wars" (e.g., race, gender) and the "science wars" (scientific findings are not read off the world but emerge from history). Something can be constructed, yet sti...

Revivals (not to be confused with reboots) can bring us back to the comfort of old friends, who are now really old. But is reviving a show really ever a good idea? Mark, Erica, and Brian consider some successes, failures, and hypotheticals. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode at  patreon.com/prettymuchpop . This podcast is part of the Partially Examine...

Continuing on Sir Francis Bacon's New Organon (1620). We cover more of Bacon's "idols" and how Bacon divides religion from science (and what this means politically). We then move on to book 2, including Bacon's novel update of the term "form," and take a look at Bacon's method of doing science by filling out tables before actually doing experiments. Start with part one or get the full, unbroken Ci...

Wes Alwan joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood in the context of Tarantino's other films . We consider T's strange sense of pacing, his comic violence, his historical revisionism, and casting choices. Is this a brilliant film or a fundamentally misguided idea badly in need of an editor? For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . ...

On Sir Francis Bacon's New Organon (1620). Bacon claims to have developed a new toolset that will open up nature to inquiry in a way that wasn't possible for ancient and modern natural philosophy. Mark, Wes, and Dylan consider how much what Bacon describes resembles modern scientific method, talk through Bacon's "four idols" that interfere with impartial inquiry, and consider how Bacon's method fi...

Dave Hamilton (from Gig Gab ) joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to weigh concert-going (and theater-going) against the technological alternatives. Why are tickets so pricey? Do tribute bands fulfill our needs? Should audiences ideally be on drugs? These are but a few of the questions we breeze through. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/pret...

Continuing on Simone Weil's essays "The Iliad, or the Poem of Force" (1939) and "Analysis of Oppression" (1934) with guest Corey Mohler . We talk about the self-contradictions of power, why oppression and war are so intractable, and her positive solution (what there is of it here). Weil cuts through our left-right political dichotomy in a way that might interest you. Plus, why the Iliad is so grea...

Mark, Erica, and Brian take on both Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel plus the TV series, getting into the transition from page to screen, taking the work as political speech vs. art, Atwood's phenomenology and neologisms (prayvaganza!), plus the roles of race and (lack of) comic relief in the story. For more, visit prettymuchpop.com . Hear bonus content for this episode patreon.com/prettymuchpop . The...

On Simone Weil's essays "The Iliad, or the Poem of Force" (1939) and "Analysis of Oppression" (1934). How do circumstances oppress and dehumanize us? Weil describes the mechanisms that keep people at war and maintain oppression even through revolutions as inherent to the logic of power. With guest Corey Mohler . The post Ep. 225: Simone Weil on War and Oppression (Part One) first appeared on The P...

Are cartoons an inherently juvenile art form? A guilty pleasure when viewed by adults? Dee , whose voice can be heard in substantial portion of today's cartoons (especially animal/monster noises like Boots in the new big-screen adaptation of Dora the Explorer or   Momo and Appa in The Last Airbender),  defends cartoons as providing primal delights of humor, justice, and narrative meaning...

Continuing on "The Present Age" (1846), plus Hubert Dreyfus’s "Nihilism on the Information Highway: Anonymity vs. Commitment in the Present Age" (2004) with guest John Ganz . Does K's critique actually apply to our present age? We address K's view of humor, romance, authenticity, actual community vs. "the public," the leveling that occurs without anyone specific actually doing it, and the vi...