The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

On John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971), most of ch. 1-4. The post Episode 85: Rawls on Social Justice first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Seth Paskin summarizes the John Rawls's A Theory of Justice . The post Precognition of Ep. 85: John Rawls first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

On Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science (1882, with book 5 added 1887). What is wisdom? Nietzsche gives us an updated take on the Socratic project of challenging your most deeply held beliefs. Challenge not just your belief in God (who's "dead"), but uncover all your habits of thinking in terms of the divine. Realize how little of your life is actually a matter of conscious reflection, and the co...

In light of our ep. 83, many listeners had questions on Frithjof's social/political/economic proposals for creating a post-job, pro-meaningful-work world. The post Episode 83 Follow-Up: Q&A with Frithjof Bergmann first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Talking with Frithjof Bergmann, Prof. Emeritus from U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor about his book New Work, New Culture (2004, English release coming soon). The post Episode 83: New Work with Guest Frithjof Bergmann first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

An introduction to and summary of Frithjof Bergmann's New Work, New Culture , read by Mark Linsenmayer. The post Precognition of Ep. 83: New Work first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

On Popper's Conjectures and Refutations (1963), the first three essays. What is science, and how is it different than pseudo-science? From philosophy? Is philosophy just pseudo-science, or proto-science, or what? Popper thinks that all legitimate inquiry is about solving real problems, and scientific theories are those that are potentially falsifiable: they make definitely predictions about the wo...

A summary of the first three essays in Karl Popper's collection Conjectures and Refutations , read by Dylan Casey. The post Precognition of Ep. 82: Popper first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

On Carl Jung's "Approaching the Unconscious" from Man and His Symbols , written in 1961. What's the structure of the mind? Jung followed Freud in positing an unconscious distinct from the conscious ego, but Jung's picture has the unconscious much more stuffed full of all sorts of stuff from who knows where, including instincts (the archetypes) that tend to give rise to behavior and dream imagery t...

An introduction to Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols , read by Wes Alwan. The post Precognition of Ep. 81: Jung first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Excerpts of discussions about Frithjof Bergmann's New Work, New Culture , Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian , Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, and Martin Heidegger's "Letter on Humanism." The post Not School Digest #3: The Future of Work, Blood Meridian, Embodied Mind, and Heidegger first appeared on The Partial...

On Martin Heidegger's "Letter on Humanism" (1949). What's our place in the world? What is it, really, to be human? Heidegger thought that being human hinges on having a proper relationship to Being, which is more basic than particular beings like people and tables and such, yet it being so close, Heidegger thinks it's hardest to see, and easy to be distracted from. Looking for the full Citizen ver...

A short summary of Heidegger's "Essay on Humanism," read by Seth Paskin. The post Precognition of Ep. 80: Heidegger first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

Eva Brann discusses her book The Logos of Heraclitus (2011). What is the world like, and how can we understand it? Heraclitus thinks that the answer to both questions is found in “the logos.” Looking for the full Citizen version? The post PREVIEW-Episode 79: Heraclitus on Understanding the World first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast .

On Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1967) and "The Objectivist Ethics" (1961). First Rand grounds everyday human knowledge, largely by dismissing the concerns of other philosophers (even those whom she unknowingly parrots) as absurd. Then she uses this certainty to argue for her semi-Nietzschean vision of Great Men who master their emotions and rely only on themselves. Learn more ....

On George Santayana's The Sense of Beauty (1896). What are we saying when we call something "beautiful?" Are we pointing out an objective quality that other people (anyone?) can ferret out, or just essentially saying "yay!" without any logic necessarily behind our exclamation? The poet and philosopher Santayana thought that while aesthetic appreciation is an immediate experience--we don't "infer"...

On Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's What Is Philosophy? (1991). How is philosophy different from science and art? What's the relationship between different philosophies? Is better pursued solo, or in a group? Deleuze described philosophy as the creation of new concepts, whereas science is about functions that map observed regularities and art is about creating percepts and affects. With guest D...

On Jacques Lacan's "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter'" (1956), Jacques Derrida's "The Purveyor of Truth" (1975), and other essays in the collection The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading . How should philosophers approach literature? Lacan read Edgar Allen Poe's story about a sleuth who outthinks a devious Minister as an illustration of his model of the psyche, and why we pe...

On Bruce Fink's The Lacanian Subject (1996) and Lacan's "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience" (1949). What is the self? Is that the same as the experiencing subject? Lacan says no: while the self (the ego) is an imaginative creation, cemented by language, the subject is something else, something split (at least initially) between consciou...

Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan share what drove them into philosophy and keeps them there. How is philosophy different than (or similar to) science? Than religion? Art? The consensus seems that philosophy, to us, is inevitable for the curious. It's just inquiry, unbounded (in principle at least) by any fixed assumptions. We did no formal reading for this discussion, but did tell each other to keep in...

We're joined by an international terrorism expert to discuss how to define terrorism and whether it can ever be ethical. With readings by Donald Black, J. Angelo Corlett, Igor Primoratz, Karl Heinzen, Bhagat Singh, and Carl von Clausewitz. Looking for the full Citizen version? The post PREVIEW-Episode 72: Terrorism with Jonathan R. White first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Pod...

On Buber's 1923 book about the fundamental human position: As children, and historically, we start fully absorbed in relation with another person (like mom). Before that, we have no self-consciousness, no "self" at all. It's only by having these consuming "encounters" that we gradually distinguish ourselves from other people, and can then engage in what we'd normally consider "experience," which B...

On Karl Marx's The German Ideology , Part I, an early, unpublished work from 1846. What is human nature? What drives history? How can we improve our situation? Marx thought that fundamentally, you are what you do: you are your job, your means of subsistence. All the rest, this culture, this religion, this philosophy, is just a thin layer over our basic situation. Ideas are not primarily what chang...

Excerpts of discussions about Deleuze & Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus , an article on emergence called "More Is Different" by Nobel Prize Winning physicist P.W. Anderson , John Searle's Mind: A Brief Introduction , and Italo Calvino's trippy science fantasy novel Cosmicomics . The post Not School Digest Jan 2013: A Bonus Quasisode first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podc...

On Plato's Dialogue, "Gorgias" (380 BCE or so). Why philosophize? Isn't it better to know how to persuade people in practical matters, like a successful lawyer or business leader? Plato (via Socrates) thinks that the "art" of rhetoric isn't an art at all, in the sense of requiring an understanding of one's subject matter, but merely a talent for saying what people want to hear. Looking for the ful...