Athens Corner

This is the opening hour and a half of the sequel to my recording "Thucydides, Plutarch, Nietzsche" for my Technology and Nihilism series.  Subscribers will have access to the full 4 hour recording soon.

Here I discuss the significance of Thucydides's turn to speeches after the "archaeology."  In this recording I discuss Thucydides as the alternative to the Platonic and Aristotelian tradition, and how it is that Nietzsche sees in Thucydides the standard which we are to look towards going forward.

Among other things, what is at issue is the status of the divine in the life of man, particularly with respect to what we mean by "history" and how, if at all, we even have access to "history."

I include numerous and meticulous juxtapositions of Thucydides with Plato (particularly the dialogues of the Gorgias, the Republic, and the Laws) and Aristotle (particularly the Nicomachean Ethics, the Politics, and the Physics). I also draw upon specific examples from Montesquieu, Hegel, Nietzsche, William Butler Yeats, and Heidegger to connect everything that comes tumbling out from a very subtle and detailed reading of Thucydides and a representative sampling of the entirety of the great books of our Western tradition to emphasize the living relevance of them all for us today

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This is an X/Twitter space where I discuss Plutarch and his relevance for us today, particularly as Americans on the 4th of July

Themes of the discussion:
— Plutarch and the American Founding
— Plutarch on “history” in relation to greatness, the beautiful, the heroic, the sacred

I took 3 different approaches:

1) Explaining why Plutarch is relevant for us via the tradition from Machiavelli to the Federalists and AntiFederalist (with hints at the much early sources than Machiavelli)

2) What even is “history”?

3) Simply opening Plutarch and reading

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Subscriber-only episode

This is the recording of an X/Twitter space where I discuss how addiction and "depression" have always been a defining theme of what we refer to as “philosophy” — the questioning pursuit of the good life — in everything from Homer to Nietzsche and Heidegger.

As a consequence, the discussion is about diagnosis and prognosis *without* any reference to "Big Pharma" or facile and/or extremely speculative theories of the so-called "unconscious" mind.  

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In this recorded X space, I discuss the history and the philosophy of the crisis of the sciences that emerged in the late 18th and continued through the 19th century and into the 20th century.

This discussion is meant as a broad introductory survey to where things stand presently with regard to science in its relationship to philosophy which justifies why my entire "Technology and Nihilism" series is relevant for all of us, despite our own various fields of study and particular areas in interest in philosophy.

Subscriber-only episode

One of the most common questions I receiver is where people should begin in the study of Nietzsche.

In this recorded X space, I discuss a number of different and helpful ways to begin the study of Nietzsche from his various texts.  Along the way, I also discuss a few of the common errors I see in the approaches some people take in their attempts to study Nietzsche.

Subscriber-only episode

Here I host the discussion of a two month weekly series devoted to the first book of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. This particular discussion is on chapter five of book one. I especially appreciate chapter five of book one because it's where Aristotle introduces the competition of lives for the happy life. Is it the life of pleasure? Is it the life of politics? Is it the life of contemplation?

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A discussion of the image of the divided line in Plato's Republic and what it means for Socrates's presentation of reason

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Here my friend @AncPhi and I discuss various aspects of the meaning of nihilism, both as it appears practically in our everyday lives and theoretically in Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. We also discuss what it might mean to "overcome" nihilism.

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In this recording my good friend Ancient (@AncPhi) discusses Aristotle’s critique of Plato’s unwritten teaching.  There are a few audio glitches during the recording but it is still very much worth your time.”

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A discussion on Strauss with Alex Priou and Justin Gottschaulk.