The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Continuing on The Human Condition (1958), focusing on the rise of "the social," how that erodes the private sphere (unless you post it on Facebook, it's not real!), yet leads to feelings of loneliness and meaninglessness. The audience at this live Pittsburgh event (with a notable lack of input from people watching from around the world on the live feed!) then joins us in the latter of this release to help us try to figure out what Arendt's positive picture is (including conference headliner Fred Evans). What sort of "great deeds" does she have in mind for the political sphere? Where does philosophy fit into this picture of the public and private? Can one of us eventually pronounce "vita contemplativa" correctly? Read more about the topic and get the book. Listen to part one first, or hear it uncut without ads via the Citizen edition. Support PEL! End song: "Space" by Mark Lint. Read about it.

On The Human Condition (1958), Prologue and Sections 1 and 2. How has our distinction between the private and public evolved over time? Arendt uses this history, and chiefly the differences between our time and ancient Athens, to launch a critique of modern society. In thinking about public, practical necessities like the economy, we've lost sight of the distinction between labor (what we need to do to sustain ourselves), work (the creation of things that will last longer than our lifespan), and political action (which needs to involve a real dialogue among equals, not the rote party posturing driven by economic interests that we have now). We've become a society of laborers, defining ourselves in terms of our jobs and looking at politics as chiefly tasked with economic administration, which is kind of like national housekeeping. "The social" has erased the distinction between public and private realms, crushing us with its demands for conformity and leaving the private realm as merely "the intimate." We need both robust political engagement and a space for deep, private contemplation in order to live fully and avoid catastrophic political blunders (e.g., creating technologies that will destroy us). The fab four conducted this podcast live at the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Conference. Read more about the topic and get the book. Continued on part 2, or get the Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

What is it like to do philosophy in public? As prelude to our ep. 125 appearance at the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Network Conference on theory and public space, Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan sat down for questions by moderator Erica Freeman, conference host Justin Pearl, conference presenters Jeremy Northup and Jonathan Wurtz, Not School luminary Marilyn Lawrence, our editor and sound guy Aaron Watson, and other attendees. How do we pick our topics? What does academia think of us (so far as we can tell)? How do we apply philosophy to our daily lives? What's the future of philosophy (or rather, how do we wildly speculate when asked such a question)? When we philosophize for pennies on street corners, do the police make us stop? Only by listening will your training be complete. This non-episode is presented commercial-free! Consider supporting PEL out of your warm, linty pockets and so fill them with good karma.

More on the Manual of Epictetus, aka The Enchiridion, from around 135 CE. In this part we discuss more about Epictetus's directives, including making your will "conformable to nature," different levels of Stoic expertise, the connection between controlling your emotions and seeing truth, what exactly about our mentality we're supposed to be able to control, personal integrity, how to deal with other people, how not to be a snooty philosopher, and how to behave at parties. Listen to part one first or get the racier, unchopped Citizen Edition. For a subsequent, more charitable look at Stoicism, listen to our episode 132 on Seneca. Please support PEL! End song: "But I Won't" by Mark Lint from Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses (1993). Epictetus image by Sterling Bartlett. P.S. being a Stoic and feeling slighted at our less-than-fawning treatment here of Stoicism is a practical contradiction! You must will what we have actually recorded!

On the Manual of Epictetus, aka The Enchiridion, from around 135 CE. What's a wise strategy for life? What is freedom? Stoicism says that the secret is mastering yourself. If you let yourself be perturbed by things that happen to you, then you're a slave to those external things. Your good lies only in the things you can (with practice) control, i.e., your own attitudes, judgments, and opinions. Even a slave can be free, according to this strategy: Nothing external can break your spirit unless you let it. The full four are joined by comedian Alex Fossella of the Modern Day Philosophers podcast to argue about how weird and misguided Epictetus's advice actually is. Read more about the topic and get the book. Continued on part 2, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL! Epictetus image by Sterling Bartlett.

Continuing our discussion of Amartya Sen's On Ethics and Economics (1987) with some comparisons to F.A. Hayek and his essay "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (1945), with guest Seth Benzell. We attempt to penetrate Sen's problems with the assumptions of welfare economics: Are people really rational maximizers of self-interest? Don't we have to pay attention to philosophical problems in ethics if we're trying to figure out policies to maximize good in society? Also, do the two figures really (based on what we read) disagree as much as their characterizations as Hayek the libertarian and Sen the champion against poverty would suggest? Listen to Seth B's introduction and part one first. Read more about the topic and get the text. End song: "People Who Throw Away Love" by Mark Lint, recorded 1997, remixed now. Sen image by Genevieve Arnold.

On F.A. Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (1945) and Amartya Sen's On Ethics and Economics (1987). Is economics a pseudoscience? Certainly, trying to model a phenomenon mathematically and so predict, for example, the consequences of proposed legislation is better than acting blindly, but given the complexity of the system, are the simplifications required to create a model just too immense? Hayek argues that the whole idea of sitting back and contemplating how to plan an optimal economy is misconceived, because the planners are not in a position to know all the relevant details about supply and demand. Instead, this information is spread among many people, and the price system communicates what people actually need to know to make local economic decisions. Amartya Sen discusses the many simplifying assumptions of economics, such as the claim that individuals are rational welfare-maximizers, and that "welfare,"( i.e., "the good") is equivalent to pursuing one's desires or maximizing one's material gain. Seth, Wes, and Mark are joined by economics guy Seth Benzell to try to figure out to what extent the two readings actually disagree, what the political upshot is, and whether philosophers can simply wander into the domain of this supposed science and say anything worth hearing. Read more information and get the texts. Listen to Seth B.'s introduction to the readings. This is continued on part 2, or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen edition. Please support PEL! Hayek picture by Sterling Bartlett.

Haven't had enough Augustine? Host Danny Lobell and Wes Alwan reflected on our recent discussions on Augustine's Confessions, with an actual Augustine scholar, James Wetzel of Villanova University, author of such books as Augustine and the Limits of Virtue (2008), Augustine: A Guide for the Perplexed (2010), and Parting Knowledge: Essays after Augustine (2013). Also on the call are PEL listeners Terra Leigh Bell, Amogh Sahu, and Scott Anderson. What does it mean to act for the sake of God in Augustine's sense? What is Augustine really trying to do? What's his place in history? Jim says his philosophy is "a Romanized form of Stoicism." The discussion covers humility, love, desire, grief, sex, misogyny, degrees of reality, and how love of God fits in with relating to other people, given that all views of God are "necessarily fictional." (Meaning that by definition, he's infinite and unknowable; see our episode #101 on negative theology.) This was recorded today (9/6/15), and posted with minimal editing, and shared in full for the first time over the full, public podcast feed. To get in on future Aftershows and other Not School discussions, and to listen to full Aftershows like this on most 2015 episodes and subsequent two-episode runs, become a PEL Citizen. Watch it: Watch more Aftershows on YouTube.

Our final installment on The Confessions (400 CE), books 10–13. We continue talking about memory and how it relates to Plato's "recollection," grapple with his take on will (do we pursue something we take to be the good per Plato or do we intentionally pursue evil?), what it meeans to live as hooked up with God, and the kinds of answers Augustine gives to tricky questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of time. Listen to part one first. To reward yourself after now listening to four hours of talk about Augustine, reward yourself by listening to the Aftershow, featuring Augustine scholar James Wetzel! Please support PEL.

Yet more on The Confessions (400 CE), this time on books 10–13. What is memory and how does it relate to time and being? Augustine thinks that memory is a storehouse, but it contains not just the sensations we put in it, but also (à la Plato's theory of recollection) really all legitimate knowledge. It's our route to God, to real Being. Mark, Wes, and Dylan also discuss time, language, knowledge, the existence of evil, and more. This continues our discussion from episode 121 parts one and two. Read more about the topic and get the text. Continued on part 2, or get the ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL.

Guest Seth Benzell outlines Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (1945) and Sen's On Ethics and Economics (1987). Listen to this before jumping into the full discussion. Read more about the topic and get the texts.

More on The Confessions, books 1–9. He tells us to love the world, but only insofar as you're really loving the creator, so don't get too carried away. What are the logical and not-so-logical-but-certainly-predictable implications of this kind of view? Misogyny? Persecution of heretics? We try to relate his comments on the will back to our discussion with Eva Brann and also, what's the deal with all the Bible quotes? Listen to part one first. Read more about the topic and get the text. Includes the 8/14/15 Not School update with Nathan Hanks. Become a PEL Citizen to participate, and you'll also get access to an ad-free, slightly extended version of this discussion! You can also support PEL by making a donation, setting up a recurring micro-donation via Patreon, or buying some merch. End song: "I Still Want" by New People, from Impossible Things (2011), written/sung by Matt Ackerman. Sponsor: Visit thegreatcourses.com/PEL, for massive discounts on great lectures.

On The Confessions (400 CE), books 1–9. The question is not "What is virtue?" because knowing what virtue is isn't enough. The problem, for Aurelius Augustinus, aka St. Augustine of Hippo, is doing what you know to be right. However, we shouldn't expect our capacity to know to be operating well unless we're already oriented correctly, which for Augustine means toward God. Yes, God created all this stuff, and qua creation it is Good, but getting too wrapped up in worldly things is misguided for one, because those things don't last; foolish, because they don't provide true satisfaction anyway (which would have to be eternal); and corrupting, because it rips your will in two, creating exactly this division between what you want to do and what you know you should do. Mark, Wes, and Dylan fight between interest in Augustine's puzzles and overload at his self-loathing and constant, quotation-packed praying. Seth loses the fight. Read more about the topic and get the text. Continued on part 2. Introducing your weekly Not School update with Nathan Hanks. Read more about current goings-on. Beyond Not School, becoming a PEL Citizen will get you instant access to Part Two of this discussion, ad-free! You can also make a donation, set up a recurring micro-donation via Patreon, or buy some merch. Image by Sterling Bartlett

Further hashing over of topics raised in our three-part episode on Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy, your hosts Seth Paskin and Danny Lobell welcome Internet philosophy instructor extraordinaire Dr. Gregory B. Sadler, as well as David Buchanan, Erik Weissengruber, Tom Kirdas, Ken Presting, and Bill Coe. We had a wide-ranging discussion, covering theater, the arts, the sharing economy, slavery, Dionysian festivals, and more. Recorded July 26, 2015. This is the first 15 minutes of a 2-hour conversation. To get the full audio, become a PEL Citizen and look here. Everyone can watch it on YouTube:

Continuing our dicussion of Un-Willing (2014) with the author. In this segment, we explore and critique Eva's picture of the less-willfull life and try to figure out how her historically driven account relates to modern debates about free will. Listen to part one first. Please become a PEL Citizen, consider a donation and/or use our Amazon banner to do your shopping, which will kick us back some cash. End song: "I Insist" by Mark Lint. Read about it. Sponsor: Visit thegreatcourses.com/PEL, for massive discounts on great lectures, and go to pauldrybooks.com and enter "PEL" at check-out for 30% off your order & free US shipping (or $25 max int'l).