The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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PREMIUM-PEL Fall Nightcap 2023 Oct 28, 2023

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Mark, Wes, and Seth talk more about bullshit, Derrida and other difficult and arguably bullshitty philosophy, expressing truths through bodily movement, horror movies, and our coverage of author-guests and works that provide an introductory roadmap to some philosophical area.

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Ep. 327: Harry Frankfurt on Bullsh*t and Authenticity (Part Two) Oct 23, 2023

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On Frankfurt's essay "The Importance of What We Care About" (1982), which distinguishes the question of what to value from ethical questions and explores the extent to which deciding what to care about is a free act.

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Ep. 327: Harry Frankfurt on Bullsh*t and Authenticity (Part One) Oct 16, 2023

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Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth discuss the celebrated 1986 essay "On Bullshit."

Does bullshit necessarily involve lying? Frankfurt defines it as instead indifferent to truth, though still deceptive about what kind of speech act the audience is supposed to think that it is.

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PEL Presents PvI#63: Virtual Socrates w/ David Chalmers Oct 14, 2023

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The New York University Prof and author of many influential books including the new Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy joins Mark and Bill to simulate debates about AI, cybersex, actor vs. character, and keeping children safe from reality.

Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com.

Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.

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Ep. 326: Michael Tomasello on the Evolution of Agency (Part Two) Oct 09, 2023

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Wes, Dylan, and guest Chris Heath continue to discuss The Evolution of Agency (2022) in light of our interview with the author.

We relate examples from the book of animals of various levels of complexity making deliberative decisions, exhibiting rationality, experiencing causality, or otherwise engaging in agentive behaviors.

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Sponsor: Learn about St. John's College at sjc.edu/pel.

Ep. 326: Guest Michael Tomasello on the Evolution of Agency (Part One) Oct 02, 2023

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On The Evolution of Agency (2022), with the author, and guest panelist Chris Heath.

What is human agency? How would we determine whether an animal is a legitimate agent, as opposed to just acting automatically? Tomasello investigates this by thinking about what capabilities and behaviors constitute agency and the degree to which near-human animals have these.

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Ep. 325: Paul Grice on Meaning and Conversation (Part Two) Sep 25, 2023

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Continuing on "Meaning" (1957), "Utterer's Meaning and Intentions" (1969), and "Logic and Conversation" (1975) with guest Steve Gimbell.

We tie the articles together, talk more about the rules implicit in conversation, and try to relate Grice's project to other parts of philosophy.

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Ep. 325: Paul Grice on Meaning and Conversation (Part One) Sep 18, 2023

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On "Meaning" (1957), "Utterer's Meaning and Intentions" (1969), and "Logic and Conversation" (1975), featuring Mark, Seth, Dylan, and guest Steve Gimbell.

Grice tries to give a rigorous analysis of what it means for a speaker (as opposed to a sentence) to mean something in particular. Let the increasingly elaborate potential counter-examples commence!

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PREMIUM-Ep. 324: Plato's "Cratylus" on Language (Part Three) Sep 13, 2023

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Mark and Wes do a Closeread on the latter part of the dialogue, where Socrates argues to Cratylus that even if names (words) were devised to somehow depict the things they stand for, that wouldn't guarantee that they ACCURATELY describe the world. You can't look at the definitions of words to learn about the world; you have to actually investigate the world directly.

Closereads supporters (see patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy) can watch video for this episode and get all the Closereads content: 13 episodes so far, including new episodes on Epictetus' Discourses.

This Closeread and some others are also being made available to PEL supporters. If you're not hearing the full version of this discussion, you can sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

Ep. 324: Plato's "Cratylus" on Language (Part Two) Sep 11, 2023

Show notes

Continuing on Plato's mid-period dialogue about language. Is attaching a word to a thing, i.e. naming it, like other activities such as carpentry or sewing that can go wrong? Can we put the "form" of a thing into letters and syllabus of its name? We go through many examples where Socrates claims to have done just that.

Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and a supporter-exclusive part three to this discussion.

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