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Episode 146: Emmanuel Levinas on Overcoming Solitude
More Levinas, working this time through Time and the Other (1948). What is it for a person to exist? What individuates one person from another, makin…
10 years, 1 month ago
Episode 145: Emmanuel Levinas: Why Be Ethical?
On "Ethics as First Philosophy" (1984). More existentialist ethics, with a Jewish twist this time! Seth returns to join Mark and Wes in figuring out …
10 years, 1 month ago
Episode 144: Guest Martha Nussbaum on Anger
On Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice (2016). What role should we allow anger to play in our public life? Should systems of punis…
10 years, 2 months ago
Phi Fic #3 Frankenstein (PEL Crossover Special)
Guest Wes Alwan joins regulars Nathan Hanks, Mary Claire, Daniel St. Pierre, Laura Davis, and Cezary Baraniecki to discuss Mary Shelley's classic nov…
10 years, 2 months ago
Episode 143: Plato's "Sophist" on Lies, Categorization, and Non-Being
On the later Platonic dialogue. What is a sophist? These were guys in Ancient Greece who taught young people the tools of philosophy and rhetoric. Th…
10 years, 2 months ago
Episode 142: Plato's "Phaedrus" on Love and Speechmaking
Socrates hangs out in the country flirting with his buddy Phaedrus. And what is this "Platonic" love? Using the enticement of desire not to rush towa…
10 years, 3 months ago
Episode 141: De Beauvoir's Existentialism: Moral and Political Dilemmas
More on The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), this time on part III. (For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here). Ep. 140 laid out man's "ambiguity," …
10 years, 3 months ago
Episode 140: De Beauvoir on the Ambiguous Human Condition
On The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), parts I and II. For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here. We return to existentialism! Instead of describing…
10 years, 4 months ago
Episode 139: bell hooks on Racism/Sexism
On Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981) and Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992, Intro, Ch. 3, 11). How do these pernicious forces…
10 years, 4 months ago
Episode 138: Guest John Searle on Perception
We interview John about Seeing Things As They Are (2015). What is perception? Searle says that it's not a matter of seeing a representation, which is…
10 years, 5 months ago