HoP 487 Showing Good Judgment: The Port ...

The “Quietists” Jeanne Guyon and François Fénelon argue that self-love can be overcome by cultivating a “pure love” for God. Their reward: to be accused of heresy. 

How the “neo-classical” tragedies of Racine explore the battle between passion and reason. 

Molière’s famous comedies scandalize Paris and dramatize themes from French moralism, especially the danger of hypocrisy. 

Discussing Plato's Theatetus and Meno. 

Renaissance & Reformation, the critique of saintly virtue, the color we have thrown onto life and how it differs from that of the ancient world, and Nietzsche's attempt to "untangle the knot" of his moralization of the world by returning to the style of the moral maxim. Rapid fir ... Show More

Philosophy can sometimes be an exercise in abstract, "pure" reason, unsullied by the demands of the body or the contingencies of history. But this week we're placing history and corporeality front and centre, with a look at the intimate lives of four eminent philosophers, and ask ... Show More

A chat about spirituality, religion, and philosophy.  

Discussion of the origins of Christianity as the apotheosis of sin, the Christian attack on the passions versus the Greek deification of the passions, as well as scattered remarks about German pessimism, and diet as the cause of one's metaphysics. 

<p>Massimo Pigliucci, philosophy professor and author, joins Breht once again, this time to discuss his newest book <em><a href= "https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/massimo-pigliucci/the-quest-for-character/9781541646957/"> "The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and ... Show More

The Skeptic Editor Michael Marshall talks to Matthew Sweet about how we judge actions and truth. They're joined by New Generation Thinkers Elsa Richardson, who is a historian of the emotions at the University of Strathclyde working on a popular history of the gut-brain connection ... Show More

<p>On René Descartes's <em>Discourse on Method</em> (1637), an overview of his work that distills his method, outlines his famous <em>Meditations</em>, presents a provisional (Stoic) ethics, and considers whether he wants to be a public intellectual. This is all meant as a prefac ... Show More

<p>Humans have wrestled with questions about identity and purpose for millennia. So it’s no surprise that the insights of people who lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago have stood the test of time. This week, philosopher Tamar Gendler explores how three great thinkers f ... Show More

A weird speech by Antonin Scalia, a visit with some serious legal tortoises, and a testy exchange with the experts at the Law School Admissions Council prompts Malcolm to formulate his Grand Unified Theory for fixing higher education. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://w ... Show More