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Current Episodes
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crito

Episode 149: Plato’s “Crito”: A Performance and Discussion

Broadway stars Walter Bobbie and Bill Youmans perform Plato’s dialogue in which Socrates awaits his execution. Should Socrates defy the verdict and try to escape the city? Socrates says no; that would be ungrateful to the city whose benefits he’s enjoyed. Bill joins the full PEL foursome for a lively discussion.

Share the Facebook post for this ep, and we’ll send you our full ep. 40 on the Republic.

Sponsors: criquetshirts.com/PEL (promo code PEL) for 20% off awesome polo shirts, and Gulf Breeze Recovery at www.gulfbreezerecovery.com.

Plus: PEL Live Show/Election Special at Brown University on October 27: de Tocqueville and the Problem with Democracy

Featuring: Come See Seth Deliver Keynote at Houston Community College Philosophy and Humanities Conference Nov. 4

Nakedly Examined Music

bill_bruford_utrecht_2008

NEM #25: Bill Bruford: Drumming Matters

By Mark Linsenmayer 10 Comments

Bill played with all of your top three '70s prog bands, as the original drummer for Yes, a default  Continue Reading …

Phi Fic: Truth in Fiction

Truth in Fiction

Phi Fic #6 The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James

By Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." So said  Continue Reading …

Featured Post

robert_lynd_sm

Books of Wisdom

By Claire Grant 2 Comments

What good are philosophy books? Can they make us any the wiser? A look at a humorous essay by Robert Wilson Lynd that demonstrates the difficulty of acquiring wisdom from books alone.

From the Blog

Seth Paskin

Come See Seth Deliver Keynote at Houston Community College Philosophy and Humanities Conference Nov. 4

October 16, 2016 By Seth Paskin Leave a Comment

Seth will speak at the Inaugural Houston Community College Philosophy and Humanities Conference Fri. Nov. 4, 5:30pm in Houston, on “Reason, Memory, Habit and Discourse in the Age of On-Demand Content.” Admission is free, and you should attend. Meet and greet Seth afterwards at the conference reception.

willemszoonvineyard

Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 14: Fairness

October 14, 2016 By Peter Hardy Leave a Comment

The abundance of moral concepts at play in the parable of the Vineyard Workers makes it a favorite among moral philosophers.

undergraduate-admissions-sign

One-on-One

October 12, 2016 By Jonathan Haber Leave a Comment

Dialog of hot-button topics with a family member doesn’t have to be unpleasant, or unfruitful.

universe

Beauty as Evidence in Physical Theories

October 5, 2016 By Thomas Morrison Leave a Comment

The physicist Paul Dirac believed that “it seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of a mathematical theory of great beauty.” Not only that, he even believed that beauty was more reliable a measure than experimental evidence. He claimed “it is more important to have beauty in one’s equations than to have them fit experiment.”

Cannibalism, Brazil. Engraving by Theodor de Bry for Hans Staden's account of his 1557 captivity.

Rhythm 0, Marina Abramović, and Freudian Ambivalence

October 4, 2016 By Ana Sandoiu 1 Comment

“If you leave decisions to the public, you can be killed.” A 1974 performance art piece by Marina Abramović explores our deepest human instincts.

solidarity

Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 13: Solidarity

September 29, 2016 By Peter Hardy 3 Comments

Not only do Jesus’s moral values make sense when applied to socioeconomic issues, but there is reason to believe they were intended to do so as part of a political call to solidarity with the poor.

borderfence

Cosmopolitanism, Rawls, Borders, and Trumpism

September 26, 2016 By Owen Goldin 12 Comments

Nationalism has a bad reputation. Varieties of nationalist thought have been responsible for many of the horrors of the last century. Nonetheless, important philosophers and political theorists have made the cases that more reasoned forms of nationalism can provide credible theoretical justification for determining the boundaries between those within a political community and those outside of it.

tyler

NEM #24: Tyler Hislop (Sacrifice): Copious Rhymes

September 25, 2016 By Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Tyler (editor of this podcast!) can rap endlessly, and has filled up ten albums with his machine-gun musings on life and politics. A great intro to indie hip-hop for the ignorant (like me)!

Songs: “Negative Space,” “Long Way Down,” and “Ciphers” (feat Grimm) from Long Way Down (2015), and “Kids of the Earth” from Quest for Meaning (2008).

Hear more at soundcloud.com/sacrifice.

Hear more Nakedly Examined Music.

The Religious Right - Jerry Falwell and President Ronald Reagan during a 1987 speech at Liberty University

Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 12: Personal or Political?

September 22, 2016 By Peter Hardy 4 Comments

People from opposing ends of the political spectrum claim Jesus as their own. But is Jesus’s moral philosophy broad in scope, such that it includes a political morality, or narrower, consisting only of private virtues?

marina_abramovic_the_artist_is_present_2010marina_abramovic_the_artist_is_present_2010_4422516908

Facing the Other: Performance Art and Emmanuel Levinas

September 21, 2016 By Ana Sandoiu 2 Comments

A look at performance artist Marina Abramović might shed some light on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas.

seanbeeson1

NEM #23: Sean Beeson’s Two-Minute Hi-Tech Symphonies

September 17, 2016 By Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

Sean writes music for video games. He uses five computers, with massively realistic orchestra sounds, and he performs every part with a breath controller for expression.

We discuss “Beyond the Desert” (from Empires Apart), “Mega Adventure Time” (from Adventure Time: Magic Man’s Head Game for Gear VR), and “Celestial Light” (from Stellar Wanderer).

We conclude by listening to a non-video-game tune, “Salve Regina” featuring Fr. Gabriel. Opening music is “Dr. Evil’s Lair of Doom.”

Hear more at seanbeeson.com. Hear more Nakedly Examined Music.

Generous Widow

Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 11: Poverty

September 15, 2016 By Peter Hardy 6 Comments

A look at how poverty was valued, in connection to virtue and to justice, within Jesus’s philosophy.

Emmanuel_Levinas

Humor and Infinite Responsibility: Can Levinas Use a Little Stand-Up Comedy?

September 13, 2016 By Ana Sandoiu 6 Comments

What is infinite responsibility? And can we live with it?

Jesus Clears the Temple

Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 10: More Mammon

September 8, 2016 By Peter Hardy 12 Comments

Jesus’s continued critique of the imperial economic system identifies what immoral uses of money look like.

De Tocqueville - Brown - October 2016

PEL Live Show/Election Special at Brown University on October 27: de Tocqueville and the Problem with Democracy

September 6, 2016 By Wes Alwan 7 Comments

Grab your hats: PEL will be doing a live recording at Brown University on October 27, 2016.

More Posts...

  • Humor and Infinite Responsibility: Can Levinas Use a Little Stand-Up Comedy?
  • Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 10: More Mammon
  • PEL Live Show/Election Special at Brown University on October 27: de Tocqueville and the Problem with Democracy
  • Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 9: Mammon
  • How Moral Is the Moral Machine?
  • Paulo Freire’s Philosophy of Education and Our Ontological Incompleteness
  • STOICON 2016 – October 15 in Manhattan
  • The Trouble with Functional Explanations in the Social Sciences
  • The Hubris of Transhumanism
  • Effi Briest and Lacan’s “Mirror Stage”; or Constant Alienation
View All Blog Posts


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Why Are We Here?

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion. 

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