Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Ep. 243: Aristotle's "Poetics" on Art and Tragedy (Part One)
These notes from 335 BCE are still used in screenwriting classes. Aristotle presents a formula for what will move us, derived from Sophocles's traged…
6 years, 5 months ago
PEL Presents PMP#42: Star Trek Lives Long and Prospers (Intermittently)
In light of Star Trek: Picard, Brian, Erica, Mark, and Drew Jackson discuss our most philosophical sci-fi franchise. What makes a Trek story? How do …
6 years, 5 months ago
Ep. 242: Stanley Cavell on Tragedy via King Lear (Part Two)
Continuing on Cavell's essay "The Avoidance of Love: A Reading of King Lear" (1969), shifting away from Lear in particular to a more general discussi…
6 years, 5 months ago
Ep. 242: Stanley Cavell on Tragedy via King Lear (Part One)
On Cavell's essay "The Avoidance of Love: A Reading of King Lear" (1969).
Can money buy you love? What is tragedy? With guest Erin O'Luanaigh.
Don't …
6 years, 5 months ago
Ep. 241: Political Philosophy and the Pandemic
How should we think politically about the current global crisis? Do extreme circumstances reveal truths of political philosophy or do they reinforce …
6 years, 5 months ago
Ep. 240: David Lewis on Possible Worlds and Language Games (Part Two)
On "Scorekeeping in a Language Game" (1979) and "Truth in Fiction" (1978).
Lewis's account of possible worlds can be applied to conversation: As we s…
6 years, 6 months ago
Ep. 240: David Lewis on Possible Worlds and Language Games (Part One)
On Ch. 4 of Lewis's book Counterfactuals (1973) and the essays "Scorekeeping in a Language Game" (1979) and "Truth in Fiction" (1978).
What makes a s…
6 years, 6 months ago
Ep. 239: Montesquieu Invents Political Science (Part Two)
Continuing on The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Charles Louis de Secondat, aka Baron de Montesquieu. Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth talk more about the "m…
6 years, 6 months ago
Ep. 239: Montesquieu Invents Political Science (Part One)
On The Spirit of the Laws (1748) by Charles Louis de Secondat, aka Baron de Montesquieu.
What keeps a society functioning? Montesquieu, though of cou…
6 years, 6 months ago
Ep. 238: Lingering Questions
Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth summarize thoughts about our recent series on social construction, gender and sex, and Judith Butler's notion of "grievabl…
6 years, 7 months ago