Closereads: Philosophy with Mark and Wes
by Mark Linsenmayer and Wes Alwan
Latest episode
Closereads: David Lewis on Mind-Brain Identity (Part One)
Closereads: David Lewis on Mind-Brain Identity (Part One)
About this podcast
A philosophy podcast by the hosts of The Partially Examined Life
Episodes
The newest 20 of 61 episodes
- Closereads: David Lewis on Mind-Brain Identity (Part One) · 55 minOn "An Argument for the Identity Theory" (1966), which unlike U.T. Place who merely argued that minds could be brains, argues that minds must be brains, in all possible worlds…
- Closereads: Gilbert Ryle on Self-Knowledge (Part One) · 58 minOn The Concept of Mind (1949), Ch. 6, "Self-Knowledge." Ryle is arguing against a Cartesian take on mind that he sees as over-intellectualizing. In this case, it is not the case…
- Closereads: Late Dennett on Consciousness (Part One) · 56 minOn "Are We Explaining Consciousness Yet" (2001), an article published with and commenting on papers by psychologists, neurologists, etc. on the state of consciousness studies at…
- Closereads: Donald Davidson on Self-Knowledge (Part One) · 55 minOn "First Person Authority" (1984). What warrants our superior knowledge of our own mental states, as oppose to those of others? Why is this not obvious? Read along with us…
- Closereads: Peirce’s New Categories (Part One) · 1 h 1 minHow shall we break down the universe into basic types of things? Peirce has an idiosyncratic way of thinking about this problem and coming up with his division, revolving around…
- Closereads: Galen Strawson on Panpsychism (Part One) · 57 minOn "Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism" (2008). Strawson argues that physicalism should not just be taken as matter in motion. Instead, the physical is a…
- Closereads: Hegel on Faith vs. The Enlightenment, aka PEL ep. 394 (Part Three) · 57 minOn Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, sec. 551-559, which are sections assigned for but not actually covered on The Partially Examined Life ep. 394. We get more info on how The…
- Closereads: Horkheimer & Adorno on The Odyssey (Part One) · 60 minWe read part of The Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), specifically the parts about Homer's epic as an allegory for the merely apparent triumph of modernism (capitalism…
- Closereads: Lionel Trilling on Sincerity (Part One) · 58 minOn Ch. 2 "The Honest Soul and the Disintegrated Consciousness" in Sincerity and Authenticity (1972). This chapter focuses on a reading of Diderot's Rameau's Nephew and what Hegel…
- Closereads: Galen Strawson Against Narrativity (Part One) · 60 minOn "Against Narrativity" (2004), where Galen (son of P.F.) argues that the prevalent philosophical and cultural camp is wrong. This objectionable camp (the Narratives) says that…
- Closereads: Kierkegaard on Knowledge (Part One) · 60 minOn an excerpt from Soren Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846) that critiques Hegel's idea of logic (dialectic) and then argues for his own conception of "truth…
- Closereads: Hegel’s “Unhappy Consciousness” (Part One) · 56 minWe're within the Self-Consciousness chapter of The Phenomenology of Spirit, specifically starting at sec. 206, which is the transition between two sections we've already…
- Closereads: Latour on Materialism · 1 h 3 minMark and Wes read and discuss the short 2007 article, "Can We Get Our Materialism Back, Please?" Here Bruno Latour complains that materialism as modern common sense conceives of…
- Closereads: Fanon on Hegel · 1 h 2 minOn Franz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, ch. 7, B. "The Negro and Hegel." Hegel describes the abstract attainment of self-consciousness through recognition, but is this actually…
- Closereads: Aquinas and Scotus on Law (Part One) · 56 minWhile we modern folks have a generally clear distinction between law as in descriptive laws of nature and law as in ethical or civil commandments, these Medieval philosophers saw…
- Closereads: Royce on Interpreting Others · 1 h 7 minOn "The Problem of Christianity," vol. 2, lecture 12, ch. 9, "The Will to Interpret." The point is to help explain Royce's idea of a community of interpretation, and the idea is…
- Closereads: Hegel on Reason (Part One) · 57 minOn Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Part C (AA) Reason, V. The Certainty and Truth of Reason. This section comes right after the self-consciousness sections, and so its big…
- Closereads: Dispute Between a Man and His Ba · 56 minIn this famous, impossibly ancient (ca. 1900 BC!) Egyptian text, a man negotiations with the part of his soul that's supposed to help him in the afterlife. Can he kill himself…
- Closereads: Aquinas and Aristotle on Soul · 1 h 3 minFrom Disputed Questions in De Anima (1269) as presented in Thomas Aquinas: Selected Philosophical Writings (Oxford 1993), "Passage 18: Soul in Human Beings." The question is how…
- Closereads: Hobbes on Liberty · 1 h 1 minOn Leviathan (1651), ch. 21, "On the Liberty of Subjects." Thomas Hobbes is known for defending absolute monarchy, so as you'd predict, he's not going to say we have a lot of…
