Closereads: Philosophy with Mark and Wes

Mark Linsenmayer and Wes Alwan
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Philosophy
  • Updated Weekly

A philosophy podcast by the hosts of The Partially Examined Life

  1. 2d ago

    Peirce's New Categories (Part One)

    How 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 the steps and presuppositions involved in predicating something. Read along with us. You can choose to watch this on video. Subscribe to Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy; follow us there via the free tier to part two and many other episodes like this one ad free, or pay us to get parts 2-5 and everything else we've recorded. (Alternatively, support both PEL and Closereads at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife for a nice combo deal.) The post Closereads: Peirce’s New Categories (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

  2. Jul 27

    Galen Strawson on Panpsychism (Part One)

    On "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 broader category that includes not just chairs and molecules, but also "my experience of red." Yet he's not trying to say that experiences are just brain states; they clearly include qualia (what it's like to experience red). And he's also not just trying to solve the problem by redefining "physical" to include "mental" (though he is doing that). Instead, he's claiming that we have no warrant to claim that the properties of the physical are exhausted by what third-person science can investigate, and that we can't solve the mind-body problem unless we posit that (at least some) physical objects have a mental aspect. Sounds like Spinoza to us! Read along with us. Get subsequent parts of this ad-free at ⁠patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy⁠. You can choose to watch this on unedited video. The post Closereads: Galen Strawson on Panpsychism (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

  3. Jul 13

    Hegel on Faith vs. The Enlightenment

    On 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 Enlightenment supposedly mischaracterizes faith, but also how faith sees The Enlightenment and what Hegel considers to be good points coming out of The Enlightenment's critique. Get more parts to this via patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy. You can choose to watch this on video. The post Closereads: Hegel on Faith vs. The Enlightenment, aka PEL ep. 394 (Part Three) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

  4. May 20

    Horkheimer & Adorno on The Odyssey (Part One)

    We 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, instrumental reason) over myth (savagery, magical thinking). Homer is odd for H&A because even stylistically, the epics present a mixture of cultures: They glorify violence, but their form is very ordered, and their very popularity makes them the first mass-culture products of the West. Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus is in effect saying goodbye to the mythical world as he turns each challenge into a tool in his quest to get home. H&A use the episode with the Sirens as an allegory for how the workers are deafened to the call of anti-social myth (they have their work to do!), while the upper class can hear it but is helpless to actually act on it; like Odysseus tied to the mast, they too are strapped into the capitalist machine. Read along with us; Ch. 2, "Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment," starts on PDF p56 (p35), but we quickly backtrack to the first mention of Odysseus in Ch. 1 (the same essay we began previously) on PDF p46 (p25). Get more parts of this at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy. You can choose to watch this on video. The post Closereads: Horkheimer & Adorno on The Odyssey (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

  5. May 1

    Lionel Trilling on Sincerity (Part One)

    On 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 made of it in the Phenomenology, so it's essentially for us a second opinion re. what we've been talking about on The Partially Examined Life. Read along with us. Watch this as unedited video. To get future parts, subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The post Closereads: Lionel Trilling on Sincerity (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

  6. Apr 10

    Galen Strawson Against Narrativity (Part One)

    On "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 we understand our lives by telling ourselves a story about ourselves. Moreover, this is how we make meaning out of our lives, and how we thus behave ethically, taking responsibility for our past and future: how we have integrity. Galen rejects both the descriptive claim here (that this is how we all, or at least those of us functioning as designed, process our experience) and the moral claim (that ethical comportment requires that we experience our lives narratively. Read along with us. You can choose to watch this on video. To get future parts, subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The post Closereads: Galen Strawson Against Narrativity (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

  7. Mar 6

    Kierkegaard on Knowledge (Part One)

    On 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 as subjectivity." In this first part, he's mostly focusing on Hegel. First (along with the rest of the world), K. denies Hegel's idea that logic is equivalent to physics (or biology, or any other analysis of what actually exists). Furthermore, the idea of a "system" is only one that (according to K) makes sense if you're looking down on the universe from God's perspective. Everything else is in progress: the object you're trying to know is changing, and you as subject are changing. Follow along, starting on PDF p. 2 (document p. 196). To get all parts of this discussion, you'll need to support us at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy⁠. The post Closereads: Kierkegaard on Knowledge (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

  8. Feb 2

    Hegel's "Unhappy Consciousness" (Part One)

    We'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 considered on this podcast: Stoicism (and Skepticism) and Reason. The more famous part of the self-consciousness portion of the book is on the Master-Slave conflict, and in this section, we've got a similar dividedness, but it's all within one psyche, like you're being tortured by a voice in your head that you don't realize is just part of you. We go between three different translations here: Pinkard, Inwood, and finally Miller, which is what we normally use and will use going forward. You can choose to watch this on unedited video. To get future parts, subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy⁠⁠⁠⁠. The post Closereads: Hegel’s “Unhappy Consciousness” (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

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A philosophy podcast by the hosts of The Partially Examined Life

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