The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Continuing on Consciousness Explained (Ch. 5, 12). We talk about appearance vs. judgment and whether Dennett's denial of this distinction makes sense or just holds for very short time-scales, as in the phi-phenomenon experiment. Does the rejection of appearances and rejection of the concept of qualia undermine the very thing Dennett is trying to describe? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Get your free trial at shopify.com/pel .

On "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 . You can choose to watch this on video. Subscribe to Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy ; follow us there via the free tier to get many other episodes like this one ad free, or pay us to get part 2 and everything else we've recorded. (Alternatively, support both PEL and Closereads at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife for a nice combo deal.)

It's been 2019 since our last Spider-Man episode, so what's with the new film ( Brand New Day ), and the Spider-Verse, and Nicholas Cage being Spider Noir ? Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al discuss in this, our SEASON FINALE! Get more at prettymuchpop.com . Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop .

On Daniel C. Dennett's Consciousness Explained (Ch. 1, 5), featuring guest Mark, Seth, Dylan, and guest Chris Heath. What is the mind? Dennett puts forth his "multiple drafts" model against the centralization that he characterizes as the "Cartesian Theater." Dennett claims that there is no central place in the brain, or (more controversally) no central processing center in experience, that receives data from the senses and then initiates action (and memory, and other post-experiential processing). How counter-intutitive is this, exactly? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel .

Chris Sunami, the editor of the PEL book , joins Mark, Wes and Seth as part of the launch of his new book, Free Your Mind , which is a series of PEL-like conversations all coming out of Chris' brain, using the model of Plato's symposium to talk about race, AI, art, religion, and more. Chris then starts us talking about what we all might want to communicate to all the future people, so we get going on empathy (and its limits), loneliness, phone addiction, physical media, used book stores, the first albums we bought, and more. If you're not hearing the full version of this discussion , sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support .

lenn was a central figure in the Hoboken punk scene, fronting the band "a" in the late '70s and then The Individuals in the early '80s. His next band, Rage to Live, was the first release from Bar/None records in 1986, and Glenn then joined the label as a partner and signed They Might Be Giants, Yo La Tengo, etc. He started recording his own music again in the early 2010's and has now released three albums as Glenn Morrow's Cry for Help. We discuss "Sweater Weather" (and listen at the end to "That's That") from Our Final Album Vol. 1 (2026), "Our World" by The Individuals from Fields (1982), and "Swimmer" from the self-titled album (1986) by Rage to Live. Intro: "Yellowed Pages" from 2 (2020). More at glenn-morrow.com . Hear more Nakedly Examined Music at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com . Support us at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic .

Continuing on Consciousness Explained (Ch. 5, 12). We talk about appearance vs. judgment and whether Dennett's denial of this distinction makes sense or just holds for very short time-scales, as in the phi-phenomenon experiment. Does the rejection of appearances and rejection of the concept of qualia undermine the very thing Dennett is trying to describe? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

Future co-host philosophy Jenny joins past co-host improviser Bill along with the usual Mark and Mary for some tag-team mud swimming, hot takes about The Odyssey, and discussion and play about Bill's return to school, Maslow's hierarchy, gamified syllabi, some math stuff, and academic dishonesty. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com . Support the podcast and listen ad-free at patreon.com/philosophyimprov .

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 get many other episodes like this one ad free, or pay us to get part 2 and everything else we've recorded. (Alternatively, support both PEL and Closereads at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife for a nice combo deal.)

On "Mental Events" (1970) and "Actions, Reasons, and Causes" (1963), w/ guest Chris Heath. When we talk about mental events (e.g. desires) causing physical occurrences (an action to obtain what is desired), are we giving a causal picture in the scientific sense, which would rule out free will? Or are reason-giving and causality just different language games? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel . Learn about Mark's fall philosophy of mind class at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class .

We discuss the various films Steven Spielberg has released about alien encounters: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982), War of the Worlds (2005), and our inciting film, Disclosure Day . Featuring Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al. How is the new film as "mature Spielberg"? Is it as fun as the older films? Is it too heavy handed? Do the older films hold up? Would YOU go with the aliens? Are we as a society too jaded at this point for the Spielberg magic to fully work? Get more at prettymuchpop.com . Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop . Sponsor : Get started with Claude AI at claude.ai/pmp .

We now have a free-form discussion in light of what was raised in part one about the Federalist Papers and Frederick Douglass' Fourth of July Speech: What should we do about the problems identified? Is the system broken beyond repair? Was it built with fatal flaws in it? Is it just working as normal, and the pendulum will inevitably swing away from madness as the system reasserts itself? We then open it up for a Q&A, which gets us talking about property vs. liberty, the power of corporations, the moral basis of our government, and our outlook on the future. Learn about Mark's fall philosophy of mind class at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class .

Dan was Ben Vaughn's sound-man and released his first solo album of Americana rock in 2004. We discuss "Busted" from his eighth album (produced by Vaughn), the just Dan-and-his guitar effort Dispatches from the Desert , then "Beaumont" from Cast-Iron Songs and Torch Ballads (2023), "Favorite Color" from Rosetta, Please (A Love Story) (2006). End song: "Lookin' for a Fight" also from the new album. Intro: "Always" from Man from Out of State (2004). More at danmontgomery.bandcamp.com . Hear more Nakedly Examined Music at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com . Support us at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic .

AmirAli is a philosophy researcher in Iran who tries to make Islamic philosophy speak to and with the West. We hear about doing philosophy in the "Islamic Republic of Iran," life during wartime, the relationship between play and philosophy, Islamic philosophy in Arabic vs. Persian, Amanah ("sacred trust"), philosophy as empathy, plus the Dream Police and fun with imperialism. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com . Support the podcast and listen ad-free at patreon.com/philosophyimprov . Sponsor: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code IMPROV at oneskin.co/IMPROV .

Enrollment is now open for our new online class. It will be nine 75 min sessions, running from late Aug. to mid Dec., starting with Aristotle and Descartes but then spending the rest of the time on the most influential texts in this area since 1950: Alan Turing, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, John Searle, Hilary Putnam, etc. We're offering sections to fit the various time zones and work schedules: Saturday mornings, Monday mid-day, Wednesday evenings, or just purchase the recordings of these sessions to take them in at your own pace. Read more about it at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class, or go ahead and sign up via partiallyexaminedlife.com/enrollment.

To celebrate our nation's 250th birthday, we gathered in front of a lovely audience near Madison WI to discuss Federalist Papers 70, 78, 39, 54, 10 by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison from 1787-1788, Anti-Federalist Papers 78-80 (aka Brutus 11 and 15), and Frederick Douglass' Fourth of July Speech (1852). Is the American experiment working out as planned? We talk about the Founders' arguments regarding the unitary executive, the independence of the judiciary, factionalism, the 3/5 compromise for representing slaves, and finally, whether slavery corrupted the whole thing. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel . Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health. Learn about Mark's fall philosophy of mind class at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class .

We discuss the already over-discussed Christopher Nolan adaptation of Homer's classic poem. Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al discuss their cinema-going experiences, Ludwig Göransson's soundtrack, choices re. the book-to-film transition, the various performances, the Emily Wilson connection, and more. Get more at prettymuchpop.com . Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop . Sponsor: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code PMP at oneskin.co/PMP .

With his roots in folk, Josh released three rock albums in the '90s before his big hit "Camera One," from Useful Music (2001), which is getting a Silver Anniversary rework/reissue. (The intro music for this episode is the new version.) He has released seven more albums since then. We discuss "Goodbye Berlin" from GpYr (2025), "History of I Do" from Figure Drawing (2023), "Juniper" from Boxing Nostalgic (1997), and conclude by listening to "High, Low & Wide" from the self-titled album by his folk unit, Among the Oak & Ash (2008). More at joshjoplingroup.com . Hear more Nakedly Examined Music at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com . Support us at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic .

Continuing on "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." We talk about inference, the self, introspection, willing, the limits on what kinds of terms can have meaning, and more. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com . Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at shopify.com/pel . Learn about Mark's Key Ideas in the Philosophy of Mind fall class at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class.

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! Subscribe to Closereads (and get a link to this text to read along) 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.)