The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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PREMIUM-Ep. 268: Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" (Part Two) May 03, 2021

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Continuing on Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business with guest Brian Hirt. Is the written word really so much more suited for providing context than television?

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Ep. 268: Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" (Part One) Apr 26, 2021

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On Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) with guest Brian Hirt.

How does the form in which we receive media affect how we think? Education theorist Postman (building on Marshall McLuhan) claimed that television has eroded our capacity to reason and given us the expectation that everything in the world must entertain. Is this a viable piece of social construction theory? How does the critique apply to the Internet age?

Part two of this episode is only going to be available to you if you sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Get it now or listen to a preview.

PREMIUM-Ep. 267: Avicenna on God and Soul w/ Peter Adamson (Part Two) Apr 19, 2021

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Continuing on Avicenna's arguments for the existence of God and on the soul's immateriality. What metaphysical and epistemological picture grounds these views?

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Ep. 267: Avicenna on God and Soul w/ Peter Adamson (Part One) Apr 12, 2021

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On selections and commentary about Avicenna's argument from around 1020 C.E. for the existence of God as a necessary being, plus arguments to prove that God has the person-like properties that Islam imputes to him, and his "flying man" argument for the soul's essential independence from matter. Featuring Mark, Dylan, and our guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy podcast.

Part two of this episode is only going to be available to you if you sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Get it now or listen to a preview.

PREMIUM-Ep. 266: Jonathan Lear's Plato: Psyche and Society (Part Two) Apr 05, 2021

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Continuing on Lear's Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1988). Our highlight is about the relation between the three parts of the soul: which (if any) is basic?

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Ep. 266: Jonathan Lear's Plato: Psyche and Society (Part One) Mar 29, 2021

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On essays from Lear's Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1988): "Inside and Outside the Republic," "Eros and Unknowing: The Psychoanalytic Significance of Plato's Symposium," and "An Interpretation of Transference," which compares Socrates' questioning with psychotherapy.

Is Plato's analogy between mind and state in The Republic a good one? What can we learn from it about what makes for a stable, healthy character? How does eros (desire) fit into this picture? Lear gives a creative, helpful reading of Plato informed by psychoanalysis.

Part two of this episode is only going to be available to you if you sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Get it now or listen to a preview.

PREMIUM-Ep. 265: Plato's "Phaedo": Philosophy as Training for Death (Part Two) Mar 22, 2021

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Continuing on the Phaedo, we start with a point from Plato's physics that's supposed to hep prove the immortality of the soul, then lay out his theory of Forms.

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Ep. 265: Plato's "Phaedo": Philosophy as Training for Death (Part One) Mar 15, 2021

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On Plato's middle dialogue depicting the death of Socrates (390 BCE) depicting the death of Socrates. Should philosophers fear death?

In the course of giving arguments for the immortality of the soul, we get an elaboration of the recollection theory of knowledge (from the Meno) into Plato's first full account of Forms. But how literally are we supposed to take the words of Socrates as he comforts himself facing mortality?

Part two of this episode is only going to be available to you if you sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Get it now or listen to a preview.

PREMIUM-Ep. 264: Plato's "Timaeus" on Cosmology (Part Two) Mar 08, 2021

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Continuing on the Timaeus, we consider some quotes and details starting at the beginning of the dialogue where Plato argues for differences between the perceived, created, impermanent world and its perfect model.

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Ep. 264: Plato's "Timaeus" on Cosmology (Part One) Mar 01, 2021

Show notes

On the later Platonic dialogue from around 360 BCE.

How is nature put together? Plato speaks through the fictional Timaeus (not Socrates) to give a "likely story" about the universe, physics, and biology involving a Craftsman (Demi-Urge) who created everything based on a pre-existing perfect model (the Forms!).

Timaeus derives his whole story from the principle that the world is good, and so the Craftsman must necessarily optimize creation, with any imperfections being introduced only by the necessity involved when a perfect blueprint gets embodied to create ever-shifting, impermanent matter.

Part two of this episode is only going to be available to you if you sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Get it now or listen to a preview.

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