Ep. 399: Dan Dennett's Model of Mind (Part Two)
Continuing on Consciousness Explained (Ch. 5, 12). We talk about appearance vs. judgment and whether Dennett's denial of this distinction ma...
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The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a short text...
Episodes
20 of 834 episodes
PEL Presents Closereads: Donald Davidson on Self-Knowledge (Part One)
On "First Person Authority" (1984). What warrants our superior knowledge of our own mental states, as oppose to those of others? Why is this...
PEL Presents PMP#229: What's Spider-Man Up To?
It's been 2019 since our last Spider-Man episode, so what's with the new film ( Brand New Day ), and the Spider-Verse, and Nicholas Cage bei...
Ep. 399: Dan Dennett's Model of Mind (Part One)
On Daniel C. Dennett's Consciousness Explained (Ch. 1, 5), featuring guest Mark, Seth, Dylan, and guest Chris Heath. What is the mind? Denne...
PREMIUM-PEL Sunami Nightcap August 2026
Chris Sunami, the editor of the PEL book , joins Mark, Wes and Seth as part of the launch of his new book, Free Your Mind , which is a serie...
PEL Presents NEM#259: Glenn Morrow (Bar/None): Songwriting Re-Emergence
lenn was a central figure in the Hoboken punk scene, fronting the band "a" in the late '70s and then The Individuals in the early '80s. His...
Ep. 398: Donald Davidson on Mind vs. Body (Part Two)
Continuing on Consciousness Explained (Ch. 5, 12). We talk about appearance vs. judgment and whether Dennett's denial of this distinction ma...
PEL Presents PvI#123: Brain Spritzing w/ Bill Arnett and Jenny Hansen
Future co-host philosophy Jenny joins past co-host improviser Bill along with the usual Mark and Mary for some tag-team mud swimming, hot ta...
PEL Presents Closereads: Peirce's New Categories (Part One)
How shall we break down the universe into basic types of things? Peirce has an idiosyncratic way of thinking about this problem and coming u...
Ep. 398: Donald Davidson on Mind vs. Body (Part One)
On "Mental Events" (1970) and "Actions, Reasons, and Causes" (1963), w/ guest Chris Heath. When we talk about mental events (e.g. desires) c...
PEL Presents PMP#228: Spielberg's Alien Fetish
We discuss the various films Steven Spielberg has released about alien encounters: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. The Extra...
Ep. 397: Federalist Papers LIVE (Part Two)
We now have a free-form discussion in light of what was raised in part one about the Federalist Papers and Frederick Douglass' Fourth of Jul...
PEL Presents NEM#258: Dan Montgomery: Direct Communication
Dan was Ben Vaughn's sound-man and released his first solo album of Americana rock in 2004. We discuss "Busted" from his eighth album (produ...
PEL Presents PvI#122: Hello from Iran w/ AmirAli Maleki
AmirAli is a philosophy researcher in Iran who tries to make Islamic philosophy speak to and with the West. We hear about doing philosophy i...
Announcement: Mark's "Key Ideas in the Philosophy of Mind" Fall 2026 Class
Enrollment is now open for our new online class. It will be nine 75 min sessions, running from late Aug. to mid Dec., starting with Aristotl...
Ep. 397: Federalist Papers LIVE (Part One)
To celebrate our nation's 250th birthday, we gathered in front of a lovely audience near Madison WI to discuss Federalist Papers 70, 78, 39,...
PEL Presents NEM#257: Josh Joplin Doesn't Look Back… Until Now
With his roots in folk, Josh released three rock albums in the '90s before his big hit "Camera One," from Useful Music (2001), which is gett...
Ep. 396: Peirce on Knowledge (Part Two)
Continuing on "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." We talk about inference...
PEL Presents Closereads: Galen Strawson on Panpsychism (Part One)
On "Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism" (2008). Strawson argues that physicalism should not just be taken as matter in mo...
PEL Presents PMP#226: Toy Story Played Out
In light of Toy Story 5 , the gang (Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn and Al) consider the Pixar franchise that started in 1995. We consider the prem...