What does eternal recurrence mean in the historical sense? Nietzsche invites us to explore that question in his raising of the Problem of Science, and the notion of conflict as central to life. Today, in the penultimate episode of the season, we'll take a look into a section from Will to Power called "The History of European Nihilism", in which Nietzsche tak ... Show More
Oct 7
Untimely Reflections #47: Melanie Coughlin - Nishitani, Nietzsche & The Kyoto School
Melanie Coughlin, a scholar whose work focuses on Nishitani and the Kyoto school, joined me for a conversation that will hopefully provide a nice conclusion to the recent focus on Buddhism. We discussed karma, the misleading nature of intentions, Nishitani's theory of affect, emp ... Show More
1h 8m
Sep 29
151: Julian Jaynes, part 2 - The Witness of History
How did the bicameral mind emerge, and how did consciousness eventually take its place? Join me for an exploration of ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, in which Julian Jaynes traces the evidence over the centuries that suggest a disappearance of the gods and the emergence of su ... Show More
1h 56m
Sep 22
150: Julian Jaynes, part 1 - Hearing Voices
What is consciousness? Julian Jaynes rejects all of the popular answers: that consciousness is thinking, reason, memory, or the capacity for learning. Nor does he think it can be accounted for as a merely accumulative development of "sentience" through evolution. In his controver ... Show More
1h 25m
Feb 2024
Class 2: The Heritage of the Enlightenment
“Our Western heritage is reason—reason, analysis, action, progress!” –Settembrini the organ-grinder in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. HIST 271/HUMS 339: European Intellectual History since Nietzsche is a survey course designed to introduce students to the dominant trends in mo ... Show More
47m 7s
Feb 2024
Class 6: Nietzsche and the Death of God
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, the murderers of all murderers, comfort ourselves?”—Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science. HIST 271/HUMS 339: European Intellectual History since Nietzsche is a survey course designed to introduce students to th ... Show More
50m 59s
Jun 2023
Episode 262: Supposing Truth is a Woman (Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil")
<p>David and Tamler dive into the first two parts of Nietzsche's <em>Beyond Good and Evil</em> which contain some of Nietzsche's best drive-bys on philosophers like Plato, Descartes, the Stoics, Kant, and Hegel along with beliefs in free will, hard determinism, Christianity, mora ... Show More
1h 28m
<p>In this <a href="https://youtu.be/i5owZnjblT4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">live-streamed show</a>, we discuss "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life" (1874), aka Untimely Meditation #2.</p> <p>What is the healthiest way to relate to our history? Nietzsche descri ... Show More
