The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Discussing selections from Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel C. Dennett.

Discussing the arguments by Descartes, St. Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, William Paley, Kant, and others, as analyzed in J.L. Mackie's The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against the Existence of God (1983), chapters 1-3, 5-6, 8, and 11. With guest Robert Scott.

Discussing Charlotte Perkins Gilman's utopian novel Herland (1915) and psychologist Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice (1983). With guest Azzurra Crispino.

Patricia Churchland on her new book Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality. We also discussed David Hume's ethics as foundational to her work, reading his Treatise on Human Nature (1739), Book III, Part I and his Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), Section V, Parts I and II.

Discussing The Republic by Plato, primarily books 1 and 2.

Discussing Friedrich Schleiermacher's "On Religion; Speeches to its Cultured Despisers" (1799, with notes added 1821), first and second speeches. With guest Daniel Horne.

Discussing Russell's Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919), ch. 1-3 and 13-18. With guest Josh Pelton.

Discussing John Locke's Second Treatise on Government (1690). With guest Sabrina Weiss.

Part 2 of our discussion of G.F.W. Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit," covering sections 178-230 within section B, "Self-Consciousness."

On G.F.W. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Part B (aka Ch. 4), "Self-Consciousness," plus recapping the three chapters before that (Part A. "Consciousness"). With guest Tom McDonald.

On Gottlob Frege's "Sense and Reference," "Concept and Object" (both from 1892) and "The Thought" (1918). With guest Matt Teichman.

Discussing Michel de Montaigne's Essays: "That to Philosophize is to Learn to Die," "Of Experience," "Of Cannibals," "Of the Education of Children," and "Of Solitude" (all from around 1580) with some discussion of "Apology for Raymond Sebond."

Discussing Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927), mostly the intro and ch. 1 and 2 of Part 1.

Discussing Edmund Husserl's Cartesian Meditations (1931).

Discussing Arthur Schopenhauer's On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, published in 1847 (as an expansion of his doctoral thesis from 1813).

On Soren Kierkegaard's "The Sickness Unto Death" (1849). With guest Daniel Horne.

Discussing Goodman's Ways of Worldmaking (1978). With guest painter Jay Bailey.

Primarily discussing "Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas" and "Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas," by the 2nd century Indian Buddhist Nagarjuna. With guest Erik Douglas.

Discussing Freud's Civilization and its Discontents (1930). Get the full episode at partiallyexaminedlife.com. For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here).

Discussing Spinoza's the Ethics, Books II through V.

Discussing Spinoza's Ethics (1677), books 1 and 2.

Discussing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse in Inequality (1754) and book 1 of The Social Contract (1762).

Discussing William James's "The Will to Believe".

Discussing articles by Alan Turing, Gilbert Ryle, Thomas Nagel, John Searle, and Dan Dennett. With guest Marco Wise.

On Pragmatism (1907) by William James and "The Fixation of Belief" (1877) and "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878) by Charles Sanders Peirce.

Discussing Immanuel Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783). With guest Azzurra Crispino.

Discussing Plato's Theatetus and Meno.

On David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748).

Discussing three essays by Arthur Danto from The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art (1986): the title essay, "The Appreciation and Interpretation of Works of Art," and "The End of Art."

Discussing G.W.F Hegel's Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1837). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince (1532) and Ch. 1-20 of The Discourse on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

On Werner Heisenberg's Physics and Philosophy. Dylan Casey's first appearance (as a guest). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

On the Chuang Tzu, Chapters 2, 3, 6, 18, and 19. With guest Erik Douglas. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing The Genealogy of Morals (mostly the first two essays) and Beyond Good and Evil Ch. 1 (The Prejudices of Philosophers), 5 (Natural History of Morals), and 9 (What is Noble?). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing Fundamental Principles (aka Groundwork) of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785).

Discussing Jeremy Bentham's An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation chapters 1-5, John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, and Peter Singer's "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Continuing last ep's discussion of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus with some Rudolph Carnap from his 1935 book Philosophy and Logical Syntax. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing the beginning (through around 3.1) of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing Gottfried Wilhelm Liebniz's Monadology (1714). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Books I and II. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing Camus's "An Absurd Reasoning" and "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942). Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing Hobbes's Leviathan, Chapters 13-15. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

On Descartes's Meditations 1 and 2. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Discussing Plato's "Apology." Does studying philosophy make you a better person? No. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

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