In this episode, Becca Rothfeld, an essayist, literary critic, and PhD candidate in philosophy at Harvard University, discusses her essay "Having a Cake and Eating It, Too," which was published in AGNI, as well as her scholarship on aesthetic value more generally. Rothfeld begins by describing the thought of Simone Weil, and how it inspired her essay. Specifically, she reflects on Weil's desire to consume only beauty, in order to be consumed by it. Rothfeld explains how this concept of beauty as both consumed and consumer differs from the Kantian conception of beauty, and why she advocates consumption to excess. She also discusses the relationship between beauty and philosophy, and her ideas on aesthetic value. Rothfeld's work is available on her website.

This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye.

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