Episodes

  • Existence and Being (What is Metaphysics?) by Martin Heidegger and Werner Brock

    Existence and Being (What is Metaphysics?) by Martin Heidegger and Werner Brock
    Aug 3 2025
    In this essay I look at Heidegger's famous essay 'What is Metaphysics?' as well as the accompanying essay by Werner Brock that examines and interprets the essays in the book. I explore Heidegger's assertion that nothingness is a critical component of metaphysics and that metaphysics is a critical compenent of science and the human experience.
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Review: The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton

    Review: The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton
    Jul 21 2025
    Edith Hamilton's The Greek Way is a masterpiece in helping the reader really understand the vital spirit and love of life that contributed to Classical Greek greatness. In this episode I cover this Greek vitalism and also look at Pindar and the true value of Greek aristocracy.
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    1 hr
  • Review: Adaptation and Natural Selection by George Williams

    Review: Adaptation and Natural Selection by George Williams
    Jul 11 2025
    In this episode I look at George Williams' famous rebuke to group selection theory as outlined in Adaptation and Natural Selection. I focus on secondary adaptations, sexual reproduction as an organic adaptation, and the difference between male and female mating strategies.
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Review: Essays in Radical Empiricism by William James

    Review: Essays in Radical Empiricism by William James
    Jul 5 2025
    In this episode I examine William James' 1904 address to the American Psychological Association, The Experience of Activity, as presented in Essays in Radical Empiricism. I focus on the illusory aspect of agency and the need to operate within the version of reality that accessible to our experiences.
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Review: Essays in Experimental Logic by John Dewey

    Review: Essays in Experimental Logic by John Dewey
    Jun 29 2025
    In this episode I look at John Dewey's 1900 essay Some Stages in Logical Thought, as published in this 1916 collection, Essays in Experimental Logic. I focus on Dewey's assertion that both some fixity and some flexibility is required on the part of ideas for them to serve in the human task of overcoming obstacles.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Review: History of Politics (Kant) edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey

    Review: History of Politics (Kant) edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey
    Jun 14 2025
    In this episode I return to Strauss and Cropsey's magisterial History of Political Philosophy to examine the essay on Kant. I focus on the split between science and morality, and the contradiction formed by Kant's fundamental mistake.
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    1 hr
  • Review: Heidegger by Michael Inwood

    Review: Heidegger by Michael Inwood
    May 14 2025
    In this episode I engage in an extra-long two-hour examination of the basic philosophy of Martin Heidegger, as described in Michael Inwood's study, Heidegger. Inwood focuses primarily on Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time. In this episode I pay particular attention to Heidegger's discussion of the state of being he calls 'ready-to-hand,' as well as authenticity and being-toward-death.
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    1 hr and 58 mins
  • Review: Be Like the Fox by Erica Benner

    Review: Be Like the Fox by Erica Benner
    May 10 2025
    In this episode I revisit Niccolo Machiavelli through the lens of Erica Benner's biography of the Renaissance Italian thinker, Be Like the Fox. I examine Machiavelli's dedication to the ideals of the Florentine Republic and his opposition to leaders who come to rule by the blessings of Fortune.
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    59 mins