The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast Partially Examined Life

We're concluding our treatment of the Daoist sage, focusing on the relation between metaphysics and ethics. Is a "wu wei" (non-action) philosophy compatible with fighting for justice? Does it even necessitate kindness?
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We read the first pages of Emmanuel Levinas' 1958 article, "Martin Buber and the Theory of Knowledge." In these initial sections, subtitled "The Problem of Truth" and "From the Object to Being," he's recounting how Heideggerian phenomenology argued that being (including our unarticulated awareness of being) is more fundamental than knowledge (a verbalized, objectifying attitude toward the world attributed to a tradition initiated by Descartes).

Read along with us (starting on p. 60): https://monoskop.org/images/f/f9/The_Levinas_Reader_1989.pdf

For more about Levinas, you can listen to PEL eps. 145 and 146, plus ep. 71 on Buber.

This is the first of at least three Closereads episodes going through this text. You can hear them all by signing up to support Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy. Sign up for the public Closereads feed at closereadsphilosophy.com, and please leave Closereads a nice rating and review on Apple Podcasts if you like the show.

More on the Zhuangzi, books 1-6 and 17-19 with guest Theo Brooks.
We discuss epistemology (Can we know the mind of someone else? How can virtue make truth more accessible?), metaphysics (Is the world constantly changing such that we can't actually refer to anything? Does each thing somehow contain its opposite in virtue of being defined by its contrast with all that it is not?), and ethics (What constitutes the Utmost Person, i.e. the sage?).
Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.
Learn about our new book at partiallyexaminedlife.com/book.

Kim has recorded about ten meticulously recorded country-evolving-to Americana albums out of Nashville since 1995. We discuss "Joy Rider" (and listen at the end to "Floating on the Surface") from Every New Beginning (2024), "A Place Called Home" from Rise (2002), and "I’m Alright" from Bitter Sweet (1997), which is also the home of the intro, "Every River." More at kimrichey.com.
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Mark and Wes read through and discuss the first couple of pages of ch. 19, "Fathoming Life," following up on ep. 341.
How does Daoism compare to Stoicism, Aristotelianism, and Existentialism? How can being a Daoist sage keep one from harm? How is a really effective cicada catcher such a sage?
Get more on Zhuangzi at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Sign up for the new Closereads public feed at evergreen.com/closereadsphilosophy, and check out Evergreen's other cool shows. For an ad-free experience with many extra episodes, sign up to support Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy, or combine your support for PEL and Closereads at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife.
Learn about our new book at partiallyexaminedlife.com/book.

The ancient Mariner kills his Albatross with a carelessness that stands in stark contrast to his impulse for confession. For several days he and his shipmates feed the albatross, play with it, and treat it as if it were inhabited by a “Christian soul.” The mariner never tells the wedding guest why it is that he kills the bird, but the casual and seemingly unmotivated act is followed by a psychedelic nightmare that gives us some clues. Why do we rebel against our position within the natural world, even to the point of self-destruction? What is required to restore us? Today we discuss Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s classic poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”