The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

On three of Karl Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, "Estranged Labor," "Private Property and Communism," and "The Power of Money on Bourgeois Society." Featuring guest Lawrence Dallman.

What is the plight of the working poor? It's that they are in an unnatural situation with regard to their work, which is supposed to gain them a sense of self but doesn't do so when it's a result of selling one's time.

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Mark, Wes, and Seth talk about horror media and what scares us in light of Halloween. We then give some follow-up discussion re. our Williamson and Chappell interviews. Do we actually want to participate in Williamson's science-minded analytic philosophy of the future? Were we too one-sided in our trans coverage? We respond to an email about our trans episode.

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As an advisor to Henry VIII and ambassador to France and Italy, poet Thomas Wyatt was something of a professional court-surfer, practiced in riding the peaks and troughs of royal favor. Such were his verbal and diplomatic gifts that, though twice accused of and imprisoned for treason, he was twice released. His poetry reflects all the intrigue, paranoia, airlessness, and downright cruelty of the Tudor Court, where a misplaced word or an ill-timed look might see you not just out of favor, but a head shorter. In two of his most celebrated poems—which might draw upon the affair he might have had with Anne Boleyn—certainty is suspect, irony thick, allegiance changeable, and hunters apt to find they’ve become the hunted. Wes & Erin discuss Thomas Wyatt’s “Whoso List to Hunt” and “They Flee from Me.”

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We continue talking with Tim about Overfitting and Heuristics in Philosophy (2024), considering Tim's overall project and view of what philosophy should be doing and with what tools. We get into modeling, ethics, public philosophy, and more.

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Oxford philosophy professor Timothy Williamson talks to us about his new book, Overfitting and Heuristics in Philosophy.

How can we best apply the insights of philosophy of science to philosophy itself? Maybe some alleged philosophical counter-examples are just the result of psychological heuristics gone wrong.

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Many people use shows like Last Week Tonight or The Daily Show to not just satirize the news but to provide us with our news. Late night shows, SNL, and many other shows get in on this, and conservative media is catching up via Gutfield! How does the comedy news format relate to panel shows, podcasts, and other light-hearted political talk?

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Lorraine teaches at Middlebury college and has recently written The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It. How does "the interesting" fit into human flourishing? How do we know when some attractive stimulation is really in our interest and really good?

Can we find something interesting even the most tedious, repetitive tasks? Is it interesting to start an improv scene by declaring that your scene-mates are dealing with alcoholism and divorce? Certainly it is rude. Also, Happiness 12 Step Programs.

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Concluding our treatment of "Of Seeing" in Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense.

We continue to hammer at this idea of "resemblance" between mental contents and physical objects, consider more carefully Reid's level of support for the primary/secondary quality distinction, how he treats non-signifying feelings like pain and warmth, and his comparison of sense experience to testimony.

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Steve fronted Chicago's Dolly Varden for six albums from the '90s through 2013. He also started releasing albums under his own name 2003 and has just released his seventh.

We discuss "A Mile South of Town" (and listen at the end to "Oh, California") from Ghosts (2024), the title track from The Dumbest Magnets by Dolly Varden (2000), and "Bronko Nagurski," a 1989 recording by the early iteration of Varden, Stump the Host. Intro: "Saskatchewan to Chicago" by Dolly Varden from For a While (2013). More at stevedawsonmusic.com.

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We're continuing our treatment of Thomas Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), now discussing ch. 6: "Of Seeing."

Does vision provide the exception to Reid's point that our sensations do not resemble objects in the world? Images surely seem to do so! What does this mean for Reid's epistemology?

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