Continental Philosophy

Continental Philosophy episodes:

• 02.21.2023

  Henri Bergson on the Two Sources of Morality and Religion

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• 02.17.2023

  Henri Bergson on Creative Evolution

  In Henri Bergson’s bestselling 1907 book Creative Evolution (Évolution créatrice in French), Bergson attempts to make his theory of duration speak to evolutionary science. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution would seem to be diametrically opposed to what we have heard...

  
• 02.11.2023

  Henri Bergson on Matter and Memory

  In the last lecture I spoke about Bergson’s radical distinction between space and time, quality and quantity, duration, and extension. In another of Bergson’s major works Matter and Memory Bergson builds on the insights of his earlier work, this time...

  
• 02.03.2023

  Henri Bergson on Time and Free Will

  Henri Bergson is one of our most significant vitalist thinkers who from the late 1800s until his death in 1941 offers one of the most sophisticated modern versions of vitalism. His work is constructed as a reaction to variety of...

  
• 01.24.2023

  Félix Ravaisson, Habit, and the Metaphysics of Life.

  The reason Félix Ravaisson is worth studying is because in his work we find a confluence of themes from Aristotle, debates in 18th and 19th century French vitalism, or spiritualism as it was called then, and a foreshadowing of European Philosophy...

  
• 01.24.2023

  A Short History of Vitalism

  This podcast provides a short history of the philosophical theory of vitalism. Vitalism is a set of philosophical propositions claiming that matter is not foundational, that the material world cannot be described in reductive terms. Put positively, vitalism proposes the...

  
• 04.13.2022

  Lecture 12 - Heidegger on Science

  This week we talk about what Heidegger has to say about science. This is a useful topic to conclude with because the theme of science straddles both the earlier and later Heidegger. In Being and Time Heidegger speaks about the...

  
• 04.08.2022

  Lecture 11 - Heidegger and Architecture

  This week we look at another of Heidegger’s preoccupations in his later philosophy: architecture and dwelling. While buildings, like the Greek Temple are present in Heidegger’s other work from the later period, he has only one short essay – “Building...

  
• 04.05.2022

  Lecture 10 - Heidegger and Technology

  This week I want to explore Heidegger’s main points in his essay the "Question Concerning Technology." It is worth noting that while the essay is relatively short it can in parts be obscure. The essay devotes a lot of time...

  
• 03.25.2022

  Lecture 9 - Heidegger and Art

  This lecture I am going to explore one of Heidegger’s first major post-Being and Time engagements. I want to look at what he has to say about the nature of art, it’s significance and what art can tell us about...

  
• 03.18.2022

  Lecture 8 - Heidegger on the Time of History

  This week we examine the final chapters of Division Two of Being and Time. These last sections of Being and Time represent Heidegger’s effort to strengthen the concept of ecstatic temporality. From sections 72-83 Heidegger talks about the difference between history...

  
• 03.11.2022

  Lecture 7: Heidegger and Time as the Meaning of Care

  After last week’s exploration of death and demise, we get a shift in gears so to speak in sections 60-70. Here Heidegger confronts the question of temporality, the meaning of care and just what exactly is ‘anticipatory resoluteness.’ All of...

  
• 03.04.2022

  Lecture 6: Heidegger on Death, Demise and 'Thrown Projection'.

  In division two of Being and Time Heidegger changes register somewhat. While Division One was focussed on average everydayness, and revolved around understanding Dasein as a practical, pragmatic being, in Division Two we see Heidegger offer an even more fundamental...

  
• 02.25.2022

  Lecture 5 - Fundamental Moods II – Heidegger on Fear and Anxiety, Idle Talk

  In the last lecture we discussed the different ways Dasein is ‘there’ and ‘with,’ and the ways states-of-minds (moods) disclose to Dasein it’s available possibility. We need to understand, however, how inauthentic modes, the they-self, idle talk, help make apparent...

  
• 02.18.2022

  Lecture 4 - Heidegger on Being-With, Resoluteness, They-Self

  One of the things that Heidegger thinks characterises Dasein is its ‘withness.’ Prior to being a subject, or a self, Dasein is always with. You will very well ask with what? Well, as we saw in a general sense...

  
• 02.11.2022

  Lecture 3 - Being-in-the World and Tool-Being

  I want to proceed with Heidegger’s preliminary sketch of how to interpret Dasein as a being-in-the-world. Firstly, I want to explain just what Heidegger means by being-in-the-world, secondly, I want to explain what he means by world. Finally, I will...

  
• 02.04.2022

  Lecture 2 - Martin Heidegger - What is the Meaning of Being?

  Last week we looked at some of the core elements of Husserl’s phenomenological method: natural attitude, bracketing (epoché), reduction and intentionality. The last concept, intentionality, was the one I said was of the most significance for Martin Heidegger. Intentionality, Husserl’s...

  
• 01.28.2022

  Lecture 1- Phenomenology and Ontology - Husserl

  To understand Husserl’s phenomenological method we need to do a couple of things. Firstly we need to engage in the steps of the method themselves. Husserl saw phenomenology as something that was available to anybody; it was something anybody could...

  
• 12.22.2021

  Lecture 13: - Merlau-Ponty, Time and Freedom

  Given Merleau-Ponty deemed it necessary to conclude PoP with a reflection on the nature of freedom tells us of the importance he placed on the idea. In this lecture then I want to do three specific things. Firstly, I will...

  
• 12.17.2021

  Lecture 12 – Merleau-Ponty, Space and the Sexual Body

  This lecture will begin with a discussion of Merleau-Ponty’s account of space. It is important to grasp what Merleau-Ponty means by space, the body is not a neutral and disinterested ‘thing’ but something projecting itself into space, into situations. Once...

  
• 12.10.2021

  Lecture 11- Merleau-Ponty - From the Body to Habit

  In this lecture, I want to look at one famous, and very specific topic which Merleau-Ponty tackles, and that is the phantom limb. Although Merleau-Ponty tackles a number of, what were then called ‘abnormal psychologies,’ his approach to the phantom...

  
• 12.03.2021

  Lecture 10: Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology and the Body

  In this lecture I would like therefore to do a couple of things. Firstly, I would like to provide some brief biographical background on Merleau-Ponty. Then, I would like to talk about Merleau-Ponty’s primary philosophical method: existential phenomenology. Merleau-Ponty, in...

  
• 11.26.2021

  Lecture9: Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence

  Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence is the most difficult, most obscure, and most fragmented of all of his philosophical proposals. It has been interpreted in a variety of ways by a variety of different philosophers and in the end, there...

  
• 11.19.2021

  Lecture 8: Nietzsche and the Übermensch

  In Thus Spake Zarathustra Nietzsche says, ‘The overman is the meaning of the earth.’ So, it is pretty important in Nietzsche’s view. Here, I will begin by excluding some potential interpretations of what the übermensch is, in order to get...

  
• 11.12.2021

  Lecture 7: Nietzsche and the Will to Power

  In this lecture I outline how Nietzsche conceives of the will-to-power as a metaphysical question, how the will-to-power becomes a relational theory of forces, which in turn lays the ground for Nietzsche’s theory of perspectivity and the will-to-truth.  These lectures are...

  
• 11.05.2021

  6- What is Nihilism? Friedrich Nietzsche

  This week we turn our attention to Friedrich Nietzsche. In this lecture I outline what nihilism means, and then turn to Nietzsche’s explanation of active and passive nihilism from his book The Will to Power. My overall claim is that...

  
• 10.29.2021

  5 - Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

  This week I am going to look at some key moments in the latter part of the PoS. Primarily, I am going to look at what Hegel has to say about culture and religion, moral theories, and ethical life (sittlichkeit)....

  
• 10.22.2021

  4 - Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

  Before we get to culture, politics, ethics and religion, there are still more steps to be carried out before we can understand ourselves as historical beings. Firstly, we need to understand how Hegel conceives of reason as a type of...

  
• 10.15.2021

  Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

  This week’s lecture examines the transition from sense-certainty and perception to 'force and understanding'. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Subsequently, I will explain Hegel's account of desire, as well as the famous master-slave dialectic. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire...

  
• 10.08.2021

  2 - Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

  This week’s lecture will begin with some historical and biographical context of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. I will proceed to explain what the text overall is trying to accomplish. Subsequently, I will turn to the opening chapters of the PoS...

  
• 09.14.2021

  Kant's Transcendental Philosophy

  This lecture concern's Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. I examine some of the core features of Kant's famous text - noumenal and phenomenal, conditions of possibility, time and space, intuition and concepts. Most importantly, I try to explain just...