The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Latest Episodes:

PREMIUM-Ep. 290: Susanne Langer on Our Symbol-Making Nature (Part Two) Apr 04, 2022

Show notes

Continuing on Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 1-5. Is symbolism the software running on the hardware of our senses, or are symbols baked even into that hardware? We talk pictures vs. symbols, types of symbol-pictures, and what it means for experience to be symbolic.

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Ep. 290: Susanne Langer on Our Symbol-Making Nature (Part One) Mar 28, 2022

Show notes

On Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 1-5, plus as background most of us looked at Ernst Cassirer's An Essay on Man (1944), ch. 1-5. What does it mean to say that humanity is homo symbolicus, the symbol-making creature?

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PREMIUM-Ep. 289: Aesthetic Sense Theory: Hume (Part Two) Mar 21, 2022

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We get into more detail on David Hume's "The Standard of Taste" (1760). How does he resolve the paradox that it seems both that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yet some judgments about beauty are obviously wrong?

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Ep. 289: Aesthetic Sense Theory: Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume (Part One) Mar 14, 2022

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How do we know what opinions about beauty are correct? We read The Moralists: A Philosophical Rhapsody (1709) by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, aka the third Earl of Shaftesbury, Part III section 2 "Beauty," and An Inquiry Concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design (1725) by Francis Hutcheson, and "The Standard of Taste" by David Hume (1760).

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PEL Presents Philosophy vs. Improv #28: Enhanced Interrogation w/ Adal Rifai Mar 11, 2022

Show notes

Today's episode is about questioning: how one might question, what sets the parameters for a proper answer, and how to give those answers in an informative and/or dramatically effective way. Watch out for dream pigs! Also, how to get into the VIP room at Stuckey's. Perhaps a pair of paralegals can help.

In the post-game, included JUST THIS ONCE for public enjoyment, we reflect on improv in the real world and some potential spin-off improv podcasts from our episode.

Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com.

Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.

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PREMIUM-Ep. 288: Scruton on Ethical Art (Part Two) Mar 07, 2022

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Concluding on Beauty (2009). Why would we be attracted to beauty if on Scruton's account it takes so much work? We consider the form/function distinction as it applies to architecture and human beauty.

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Ep. 288: Scruton on Ethical Art (Part One) Feb 28, 2022

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On Roger Scruton's Beauty (2009), ch. 5-9. Scruton argues against aesthetic relativism on moral grounds: That the "flight from beauty" in modern art and the crassness of popular art deny important things about being human.

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PREMIUM-Ep. 287: Roger Scruton on Beauty (Part Two) Feb 21, 2022

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Continuing on Beauty (2009), ch. 1-4. Does apprehending beauty really have to involve reason, or can it be merely sensory?

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Ep. 287: Roger Scruton on Beauty (Part One) Feb 14, 2022

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On Beauty (2009), ch. 1-4. What truths about beauty does any theory of beauty have to acknowledge? Scruton argues that appreciating beauty is a cognitive act: something we argue about, and not just "in the eye of the beholder."

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PREMIUM-Ep. 286: Malebranche on Causality and Theology (Part Three) Feb 07, 2022

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Concluding on On Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion (1688), with consideration of his explanation for why we can't prove the existence of the external world, but that we can reasonably take this on faith. Also, theodicy!

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