The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan continue to discuss “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999) and how it lays foundations for Private Government (2017). What is democratic equality, and can a Rawlsian/liberal/neutral-with-regard-to-defining-the-good state consistently advocate for this ideal? Our interview with Liz starts in Part One . You can get all three parts together , plus (soon) Wes's new (sub)Tex...

Continuing on Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999). Should the amount of respect that a worker gets be proportional to his or her market value? Our guest tells us more about how all citizens have the right to have their interests considered and what this means for how the relationship between employers and employees might c...

The U. of Michigan prof joins us to discuss Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It) (2017) and "What Is the Point of Equality?" (1999). What is a government? Liz argues that this includes companies, and that we should thus apply political science concepts in evaluating their power. Her egalitarianism involves everyone retaining a minimum level of inalienab...

We get down to the specific questions considered in this perplexing Platonic dialogue: Are there Forms for all adjectives? Does the Form of a property itself have that property? How do Forms connect with particulars? How can we mortals have any connection to heavenly Forms anyway? Listen to part one first or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition along with the follow-up episode . Please support PE...

A new podcast for the Partially Examined Life podcast network! Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" turns up in unusual places, plus two film adaptations. Brian quizzes Ken on writing advice from famous authors. The post Constellary Tales #1: “Harrison Bergeron,” Writing Advice Quiz first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

On the most peculiar Platonic dialogue, from ca. 350 BCE. Are properties real things in the world, or just in the mind? Plato is known for claiming that these "Forms" are real, though otherworldly. Here, though, using Parmenides as a character talking to a young Socrates, Plato seems to provide objections here to his own theory. What's the deal? Continue on part two or get the full, ad-free Citize...

Wes discusses the film with philosophy professor David Kyle Johnson. What is there to fear in artificial intelligence? How does this shed light on what it means to be fully human? Note : Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how. The post Bonus: (sub)Text #3: Spielberg’s “AI: Artificial Intell...

Continuing with guest Peter Adamson with "On Nature" (475 BCE). We finally get to fragment 8, which describes why Being must be singular and eternal, given that the notion of Non-Being is nonsense. But how could we as individuals be asking these questions then? Does his "Way of Seeming" work to explain the appearances, as opposed to reality? Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free C...

On the fragments referred to as "On Nature" from ca. 475 BCE, featuring guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy without Any Gaps podcast . Parmenides gives "the Way of Truth," which is that there is only Being, and talking of Non-Being is nonsense. So everything you experience is wrong! Please support PEL! The post Episode 197: Parmenides on What There Is (Part One) first appeared on Th...

Episode 2 of Wes's new podcasting endeavor, featuring Mary from the Phi Fic podcast , who's also the managing editor of the PEL blog. Note : Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how. The post Bonus: (sub)Text #2: Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five”: Is There Such a Thing as a War Story? (Part On...

Continuing with Simon on his book On Truth (2018). We move to part two of the book, where we get down to the procedures used to obtain truth in art, ethics, and science. Yes, truth is objective, but it's not best described as correspondence, and in fact this elaboration of how truth is actually obtained is more enlightening than any abstract definition meant to cover all the different types of tru...

The Cambridge/etc. prof joins Mark, Wes, and Dylan to discuss his book On Truth (2018). What is truth? Simon's view synthesizes deflationism and pragmatism to avoid relativism by fixing on the domain-specific procedures we actually engage in to establish the truth of a claim, whether in ethics, science, art, or whatever. A gift of clarity after two episodes threshing through the jungles of analyti...

Continuing on "Truth" by J.L. Austin and "Truth" by P.F. Strawson, both from 1950. We proceed to the Strawson article, which critiques the notion of a "fact" as explaining why a sentence might be true. A "fact" is not a thing in the world! So what do we add when we change "The cat is on the mat" to "'The cat is on the mat' is true"? Listen to Part One first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Ed...

On two articles in the "ordinary language" tradition of philosophy called "Truth" from 1950 by J.L. Austin and P.F. Strawson. Is truth a property of particular speech acts, or of the propositions expressed through speech acts? Does truth mean correspondence with the facts, or does the word "fact" make this definition totally uninformative? Does saying "is true" add any information content to a sen...

Wes Alwan and Bill Youmans discuss the 1611 play about revenge, forgiveness, and authorship. Or maybe it's about exploitation, or how we react to changes in status, or perhaps how a liberal education can give you magical powers! Note : Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how. The post Bonus:...

Continuing on Tarski's “The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics" (1944), Hartry Field's “Tarski's Theory of Truth” (1972), and Donald Davidson's “The Folly of Trying to Define Truth” (1977). What was Tarski really doing? What are the implications of his project? Does it even make sense to define "truth," and what should a definition look like? Listen to part one first, or...

On Tarski's “The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics" (1944), Hartry Field's “Tarski's Theory of Truth” (1972), and Donald Davidson's “The Folly of Trying to Define Truth” (1977). What is truth? Tarski gives a technical, metaphysically neutral definition for truth within a particular, well-defined language. So how does that apply to real languages? He thought he was defin...

Hear highlights from two supporter-only discussions: Allan Bloom on Nietzsche/Freud/etc. and Leo Strauss vs. Richard Rorty on liberal education and democracy . The post PREVIEWS-Eps 192-193 Allan Bloom & Liberal Education Follow-Ups first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Continuing with the current St. John's College president on articles on liberal education by Jacob Klein, Sidney Hook, and Martha Nussbaum. What's the practical application of a liberal education? Is it really liberating or indoctrinating? We continue discussion of the Great Books model. Listen to part 1 first or get the ad-free Citizen Edition along with the follow-up discussion . Please support...

The president of St. John's College, Annapolis joins us to discuss Jacob Klein's “The Idea of a Liberal Education” (1960) and “On Liberal Education” (1965), plus Sidney Hook’s “A Critical Appraisal of the St. John’s College Curriculum” (1946) and Martha Nussbaum’s “Undemocratic Vistas” (1987). What constitutes a liberal education? Should we all read the Western canon? Klein (and our guest) think t...

Continuing on Allan Bloom's 1987 book critiquing the current fragmented structure of the university that promotes technical and professional education over the ability to think philosophically. Does Bloom's vision require aristocracy, or can a Great Books education be available for all? Listen to part 1 first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition . Your Citizenship will also get you access...

On Allan Bloom's 1987 best-selling polemic. What is the role of the university in our democracy? Bloom thinks that today's students are conformist, relativistic, and nihilistic, and that great books and thinking for thinking's sake are the cure. Continued on part 2 , or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now, plus an exclusive follow-up discussion . Please support PEL! The post Ep. 192: “Th...

Finishing Davidson's "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" (1974) and moving on to Carnap's "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (1950). Carnap claims that we talk about mathematical objects or subatomic particles or whatever, we're not really (contra Quine) making metaphysical claims. Ontological questions like "Are there really numbers?" are just pretentious nonsense. With guest Dusty Dallm...

On Davidson's "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" (1974) and Carnap's "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (1950). What does it mean to say that we grasp the world through a conceptual scheme? Are schemes different between cultures or even individuals, such that we can't really understand each other? Davidson thinks that this doesn't make sense. With guest Dusty Dallman. The post Ep. 191: C...

Listen here to a few highlights from two recent discussions between Mark and Wes: We chase down some issues from ep. 189 , relating authorial intent to philosophy of language more generally, then we have some preliminary discussion about the possibility of a future identity politics episode. Get the full discussions by becoming a PEL Citizen or $5/month Patreon supporter . The post PREVIEWS-Ep 189...