PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: Over a century ago, the American philosopher and psychologist William James argued in his book Pragmatism that what he called “the present dilemma in philosophy” is that philosophers may not be as objective as they […]
Category: The Examined Life
The banality of evil
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: The second chapter of Leo Tolstoy’s short story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” begins with the following sentence: “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” I […]
How do you become a philosopher?
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: It’s customary for people in my profession to answer this question in the following way: you become a philosopher by earning usually three degrees in philosophy from the best universities you can get into and for which you can […]
The search for meaning
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: One of the questions that first attracted me to philosophy when I was a teenager is the perennial problem of the meaning of life. The search for meaning drove me to read widely […]
25 Rules For Life
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: I’ve always made it a point to listen to anyone who dispenses advice on how to live, whoever they are. Anything from ancient moral philosophy to clickbait headlines that read something like “Top […]
The individual against the mass
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: If you’re anything like me, when you see a large mass of humanity going in one direction your instinct is to go another way. I can’t say what this instinct is exactly, where […]
Rural Royalty
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: On your next day off consider getting in your car and driving far out of the city and deep into the countryside. You’ll find some interesting things there. Some of them are funny […]
Philosophy As A Way of Life
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: When you see a philosopher staring out a window, they’re not daydreaming. They’re working. A philosopher is always working. We don’t keep regular hours. We don’t clock in and clock out, and we […]
Adversity IV: Flee The Cities, Work From Home
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: How will COVID-19 change our society, not only in the months ahead but over the longer term? Many are offering predictions about how our lifestyles might change as a result of the pandemic, […]
The Art of Living in Questionable Times
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: One of the oldest and most central questions of philosophy is, how should we live? What is the good life for human beings? Another has to do with understanding the times: what is […]
Philosophy Crush 