No specific background required. I'll be your guide on a journey of the mind, a journey in which we take a hard, unflinching look at the nature of the human condition through the eyes of some of history's greatest philosophers.
Are we 'hardwired' to believe in God?Episode Link
Saving the world, one accusation at a time.Episode Link
Points initially spread across the spectrum.Dials turned, frequencies adjusted.Out of the noise something began to take form.Episode link
Are we honest enough about what each and every one of us is capable of doing to others under certain environmental pressures?Episode Link
Were you naughty or nice in 2018?Episode Link
In this episode, we wrap up our extended focus on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason by coming full circle and looking at his view on personal identity, the topic of Episode 1 of this podcast. Recall, in that episode, we were introduced to David Hume's thoughts on the topic.Episode Link
An intuitive breakdown of the threefold synthesis of the first edition of Critique of Pure Reason.Episode Link
We begin Kant's famous Transcendental Deduction this episode, focusing first on what he called 'the threefold synthesis' of cognition.Episode LinkReadings from Critique of Pure Reason [first edition], by Immanuel Kant:A96-98Â A 99-100: 1. ON THE SYNTHESIS OF APPREHENSION IN INTUITIONA101-102: 2. ON THE SYNTHESIS OF REPRODUCTION IN IMAGINATIONA103-106: 3. ON THE SYNTHESIS OF RECOGNITION IN THE CONCEPTÂ Â
Is transcendental idealism philosophically inconsistent? Does Kant not fully get the love he should from the philosophy community because he seems to have violated one of his own doctrines?Episode Link
In this episode, hopefully we nail down what it is that Kant means when he uses the term 'transcendental.' Also, the cognitive mechanism Kant calls 'synthesis' is introduced.Readings from Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant:(A56/B80) - General logic vs. transcendental logic(A57/B82) - Brief but clear description of what transcendental logic is(A58-59/B82-83) - A little about what truth is(A77-79/B102-105) - Synthesis is introducedReading from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume:Book I, Part III, Section VIII - Intensity of belief in terms of probabilityEpisode link
What makes cognition possible according to Kant? We dive slightly deeper into Transcendental Logic.Episode link
We briefly touch upon the opening section of Transcendental Logic in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.Episode Link
Continuing Kant's Critique of Pure Reason...What does the mind bring to experience? A little more on transcendental idealism as touched on in Transcendental Aesthetic.Episode link
A little on how Hume's controversial claim about the nature of cause-and-effect associations led Kant to rethink his approach to metaphysics.Episode link
What was it that Hume said that awoke Kant from his so-called dogmatic slumber? In this episode we look at how susceptible we are to the inferences our minds make.Link to this episode.
In this episode we contrast Hume's idea of space as a concept derived from experience and Kant's idea of space as an a priori presentation.Link to this Episode
A brief tangent from our survey of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, here we take a look at one of David Hume's unpopular discussions from A Treatise of Human Nature, namely his ideas on Space and infinite divisibility.Link to this episode
We slow things down a little bit and spend a little more time on the analytic/synthetic distinction. A few thoughts from Leibniz and Hume, as well as Kant.Link to this episode
Continuing Transcendental Aesthetic in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. In this episode we cover the pure intuition of time.Link to this episode
A brief message about a change to the podcast.
Continuing Transcendental Aesthetic in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. We transition from empirical intuition to pure intuition. First up - SpaceLink to Episode 12
Kantian terminology explored in more detail, particularly the terms intuition and sensibility.Episode 11 Link
A brief introduction to Transcendental Aesthetic from Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Some basic vocabulary from the Critique is introduced to get started on Kant's theory of perception.Link to Episode 10
What are the basic rules we follow? We guess that they lie deep in the human psyche. How can we get at them?Episode 9 Link
How much of our experience with the world is predetermined by the contents of our mind?Episode 8 Link
A few last words concerning Nietzsche's writing style and how it affects our image of him.Episode 7 Link
This episode concludes a four-part series focusing on Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals. Final commentary is presented as a recording of a talk given by Nietzsche scholar Bernard Reginster at Amherst College in 2017.Episode 6 Link
In this episode, sections 9 - 12 of the first essay of On the Genealogy of Morals are covered. Nietzsche's concept of Ressentiment is introduced, and he laments the diminution of the spirit of man.Link to Episode 5
Here we cover sections 5 - 8 of the first essay of On The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche. These sections cover Nietzsche's explanation of the transition from a culture of hero worship in ancient Greece and Early Rome to one in which people worship a god who demands self denial, one he (Nietzsche) calls a slave morality.Link to Episode 4
This episode begins a short series of episodes dedicated to the first essay in Friedrich Nietzsche's "On the Genealogy of Morals." The first 4 sections are read and very briefly commented on. The overall theme of these sections is the origin of our concepts of "good" and "bad."Link to Episode 3
The first in a series of episodes covering some of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche. This episode introduces Amor Fati and Eternal Return.Episode 2 - Nietzsche - Part 1: Eternal Return
An introduction to the philosophical topic of personal identity, with a focus on David Hume's ideas on the matter.