The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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Episode 186: J.L. Austin on Doing Things with Words (Part Two) Mar 26, 2018

Show notes

Continuing on How to Do Things with Words (lectures from 1955), covering lectures 5-9.

Austin tries and fails to come up with a way to grammatically distinguish performatives from other utterances, and so turns to his more complicated system of aspects of a single act: locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary. In doing so, he perlocutionarily blows our minds.

Listen to part one first, or get the ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: "The Promise" by When In Rome; hear singer Clive Farrington on Nakedly Examined Music #40.

Episode 186: J.L. Austin on Doing Things with Words (Part One) Mar 19, 2018

Show notes

On How to Do Things with Words (lectures from 1955). What's the relationship between language and the world? Austin says it's not all about descriptive true-or-false statements, but also includes "performatives" like "I promise…" and "I do" (spoken in a wedding) that are actions unto themselves. They can't be true or false, but they can be "unhappy" if social conventions aren't fulfilled (e.g., you try to marry a pig). Austin thinks performatives will change your whole view of language and of linguistically expressed philosophical problems!

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Episode 185: Ethics in Homer's "Odyssey" Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part Two) Mar 12, 2018

Show notes

Continuing with Emily Wilson on her translation of the Greek epic poem. We discuss the "oikos" or estate, built on violence, and its connection to "xenia," or hospitality, which serves to forge military alliances. Also: status distinctions and the role of the gods in the text.

Listen to part one first, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: "Tiny Broken Boats" by Arrica Rose, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #66.

Episode 185: Ethics in Homer's "Odyssey" Feat. Translator Emily Wilson (Part One) Mar 05, 2018

Show notes

On the classic Greek epic poem, written ca. 750 BC and translated by our guest Emily Wilson in 2018.

Does this story of "heroes" have anything to teach us about ethics? Wilson wrote an 80-page introduction to her new translation laying out the issues, including "hospitality" as a political tool, the value for status and identity of one's home (including your family and slaves), and the tension between strangeness and familiarity. Can time and change really be undone?

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Episode 184: Pascal on Human Nature (Part Two) Feb 25, 2018

Show notes

Continuing on Pascal's Pensées. More on our human desire and how God is supposed to address that, plus Pascal's views on political philosophy, the relation between faith, reason, and custom... and finally the wager! Why not just be a skeptic? Is Pascal right that people suck?

Listen to part 1 first or get the unbroken, ad-free, Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

End song: "44 Days" by Dutch Henry, written and sung by Todd Long, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #34.

Episode 184: Pascal on Human Nature (Part One) Feb 19, 2018

Show notes

On Blaise Pascal's Pensées (1670). Is it rational to have religious faith? You're likely familiar with "Pascal's Wager," but our wretchedness is such that we can't simply choose to believe and won't be argued into it. Pascal thinks Christianity is the only religion to accurately describe the human condition.

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Episode 183: Mill on Liberty (Part Two) Feb 12, 2018

Show notes

Continuing on John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here). We discuss "partial truths," whether "truth will out," whether we can discard some "experiments in living" as established failures, how Mill compares to Nietzsche, education, "barbarians," and more.

Listen to part 1 first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: "Flavor" by Tori Amos with strings by John Philip Shenale, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #12.

Episode 183: Mill on Liberty (Part One) Feb 04, 2018

Show notes

Discussing John Stewart Mill's On Liberty (1859). For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here).

If we disapprove of certain behaviors, when is it okay to prohibit them legally? What about just shaming people? Mill's "harm principle" says that we should permit anything (legally and socially) unless it harms other people. But what constitutes "harm"? And how can we discourage someone from, e.g., just being drunk all the time?

Mark, Wes, and Dylan bring this debate to current issues and explore some of the weirder aspects of Mill's view.

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PREMIUM-Episode 182: Reflections on PEL 2017 (Part Two) Feb 04, 2018

Show notes

The PEL guys get personal and political and tell you in brief about things like Planet of the Apes, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Vine Deloria Jr. in the second half of our year-in-review discussion.

Here you get a taste. You can only hear the meat with the full, ad-free episode, posted for PEL Citizens (see partiallyexaminedlife.com/support!) or at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife.

Episode 182: Reflections on PEL 2017 (Part One) Jan 29, 2018

Show notes

To what extent has our podcast changed in reaction to current politics? Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan reflect back on our year, discuss how we select texts, and give some thumbnail sketches of potential topics. Also, does authorial intent matter, and how to talk philosophically about works that aren't philosophical texts.

Attention: Only the first 45 min of this discussion will be posted on the blog feed. If you like PEL, consider becoming a PEL Citizen or supporting us via Patreon to get the whole thing now.

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