Previous attendees of my mostly-defunct philosophy club will recognize several of these episodes and ideas. I understand several of the earlier episodes (my favorite ones) are behind a paywall these days, but people have to make a living, right? They're up on iTunes and all the other podcast aggregators.
The first podcast I ever downloaded, The Partially Examined Life, is a perennial staple of my podcast-listening and self-education. Their Zero Episode does a great job of introducing their project. I have gotten the most out of their podcast by reading the material ahead of time, listening to the podcast, and then talking to someone (anyone) about the material discussed and trying to tease any kind of intellectual response out of them. Previous attendees of my mostly-defunct philosophy club will recognize several of these episodes and ideas. I understand several of the earlier episodes (my favorite ones) are behind a paywall these days, but people have to make a living, right? They're up on iTunes and all the other podcast aggregators. My favorite episode is probably their 100th episode... however, their commentaries on Camus, MacIntyre, Antigone, etc. are amazing. I recommend starting at the beginning and moving on from there, as they do build on past episodes in order to be able to address higher-level and more esoteric concepts later on.
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Today's resource is a little heavy on the terminology, but I think those that are even slightly above-average can at least get the main thrust of the discussion. Today's resource suggestion is the 228th installment of the History of Philosophy Podcast, Without Any Gaps. Truly, the entire series thus far is an invaluable resource for even one who is trained in philosophy, as there really are no gaps in this production, filling in whatever may be overlooked by directed scholarship. Each episode builds on the last, true to the history of philosophy. So, if you find that this episode is beyond your comprehension, you can simply move back through history until you find something that's more your pace. Honestly, though, everyone should start at the beginning and work their way to this episode. The episodes are short and entertaining (as entertaining as the subject matter can be, anyway), and released weekly so, even with more than 200 episodes released, you can still catch up.
Today's suggestion may sound like religious mumbo-jumbo, but there is a serious philosophical point underpinning the article. St. Irenaeus has always been a mainstay for my philosophical inspirations, and this article gives a very brief introduction to his discussions concerning Gnosticism, which was a long-standing pagan and Jewish set of doctrines which predated Christianity by centuries. His specific concerns were regarding a particular Christian heresy that attempted to supplant Scripture through the adoption of some of the pagan Gnostic beliefs.
This particular discussion, as the article points out, has important ramifications to this day, and it is a shame that medieval Thomistic fervor has allowed us to forget one of the most intelligent philosophers the Church has ever employed. I will write full posts on him at a later time, but a primer is good enough for today: http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/bruce-jenner-the-shadow-council-and-st-irenaeus/4785/ Also, nobody should care about the whole Bruce Genner thing, and this article would be all the better if the author had simply left out their inspiration and had focused solely on things that matter. |
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