I Learned Nothing

Pat was feeling well mental, innit? So Ben decides to spill the tea about perhaps the most intractable problem in the history of philosophy: The Mind-Body Problem. This issue has been a titanic pain in the ass since Descartes very Frenchly waded into it back in the 1600's. Basically, it boils down to this: We clearly experience an inner, subjective dimension of life consisting in thoughts, beliefs, desires, intentions, etc, that also seems to be autonomous from the external, physical world we encounter. Some would say that this mental aspect of our experience can control parts of the external, physical world, specifically through our bodies. But how do we square this with our current scientific understanding of the world, which is purely materialistic and doesn't need The Mind to explain our behavior. Anyway, in 400+ years, philosophers haven't really made any significant progress on this, so of course Pat is bewildered and furious. Listen, Learn and Subscribe!

Pat was feeling A E S T H E T I C so Ben continues their meandering discussion about Art and its role in philosophy. In our first ever sequel -- Art Part II: Son of Art -- the WisdomBois discuss art's capacity as a medium of expression, giving voice to those ineffable aspects of human life that can't normally be put into words. In the wake of Banksy's totally bonkers stunt at Sotheby's, where he shredded his own art piece after it was purchased for over $1 million bucks (LOLOL), they go into art's dubious role as a political/social tool. Also, Ben tricks Pat into analyzing comedy.

Pat was feeling artsy so Ben sends him on a sensual journey thru A E S T H E T I C S. The youngest and sexiest of the six branches of philosophy, aesthetics covers questions like “What is Beauty?”, “What is Art?” and “How much can I pawn my Oberlin degree to pay for this $12 Old Fashioned?” Haha just kidding. Pat faces down his old nemesis once again as he takes on the Virgin from Germany, Immanuel Kant, on the issue of aesthetic judgement & taste, and whether your opinion on deep-dish pizza makes you a bad person.

Pat was feeling lucky so Ben destroys his whole world with the maddening paradox of Moral Luck. Devised by philosophers Bernard Williams & Thomas Nagel, this dilemma basically occurs when you get blamed for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Why should you get slapped with a manslaughter charge just because that kid ran into the road? You were just as drunk as Pat driving home and all he got was a DUI. This time Ben loses his shit at Pat as they discuss the intersection of morality & chaos, and ask "Is it Justice?" or is it "Just Us?"

Pat was feeling traumatized so Ben introduces him to the unhinged ramblings of Jacques Lacan, Freud acolyte and harbinger of French Postmodernism. Through the yearly lectures he hosted in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan developed a bonkers theory that our unconscious is structured like language, navigating three zones: The Imaginary, The Symbolic, & The Real. Also, as infants, we witness an Ideal we'll never achieve when we look at ourselves in the mirror for the first time in a horrifying ordeal called The Mirror Stage. Ooh-la-la!

Pat was feeling virtuous so Ben schools him on the ethical theory of British philosopher/schoolmarm Philippa Foot. As the granddaughter of US President Grover Cleveland (true story), Foot knew a thing or two about what it is to be virtuous and all but single handedly revived the long lost tradition of virtue ethics pioneered by Aristotle over 2000 years ago. By concentrating on what makes a good person rather than a good action, her approach was a response to pedantic legal eagle virgins like Kant or Spike Lee who insist on "doing the right thing."

Pat was feeling deconstructed so Ben bewitches him with the philosophy of influential French pompadour Jacques Derrida. Derrida is perhaps THE bad boy of postwar French philosophy. In calling out the trendy school of Structuralism dominating the intellectual landscape of 1950s Europe, this Algerian French Jew became the inadvertent poster boy for Postmodernism. His groundbreaking critical approach known as Deconstruction has since made every CompLit major of the past 40 years nut at the mention of it. Basically, he upended millennia of Western metaphysical tradition by denying the presence a fixed meaning behind texts, leaving Ben & Pat to pick up the shattered pieces.

Pat was feeling lucky so Ben convinces him to wager his ETERNAL SOUL. Just joshing ya! We like to have fun here at I Learned Nothing. Seriously, though, on our latest episode, Ben teaches Pat about French philosopher/theologian/mathematician/dipshit Blaise Pascal and his famous thought experiment, Pascal's Wager. It goes like this: instead of proving the existence of God, why not gamble on it? What've you got to lose? Subscribe & listen to learn more!

Pat was feeling altruistic so Ben opens his eyes to the utilitarian philosophy of Australian lunatic and Princeton professor Peter Singer. As Ol' Tomato Can Dean and Benny Culo discuss the pros and cons of murdering Hitler back when he was a helpless infant, they suss out the finer points of Singer's consequentialist ethics.The greatest benefit to the greatest number and the ends justify the means. Sounds good on paper right? So would you kill a baby to save millions of people? (Pretend you didn't know he was gonna grow up to be Hitler.) (Ok, whatever, just listen to the episode.) (Subscribe on iTunes and check out our Patreon.)

Pat was feeling proportional so Ben riles him up with some crazy talk about numbers, music, and reincarnation -- oh shit, it's Part 3 of our Third Greek Triple Stack. The Circle is Complete. The WisdomBois cap it off with a riveting account of the OJ of the Ancient World: Pythagoras. Haunting the nightmares of middle school masturbaters everywhere, Pythagoras did way more than just nerd out about triangles. He started a cult based on the mystical property of numbers, their expression through music, and how we're all gonna be reincarnated so who cares if you sleep with a few of your followers' wives. Also, he may or may not have killed a dude lol.