Phi Fic

Continuing on Allan Bloom's 1987 book critiquing the current fragmented structure of the university that promotes technical and professional education over the ability to think philosophically. Does Bloom's vision require aristocracy, or can a Great Books education be available for all?

Listen to part 1 first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Your Citizenship will also get you access to an exclusive follow-up discussion. Please support PEL!

End song: "Greatness (The Aspiration Song)" by Colin Moulding's TC&I, explored on Nakedly Examined Music #74.

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL, the Outside the Box podcast, St. John's College at partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjc, and lightstream.com/PEL for a loan.

On Allan Bloom's 1987 best-selleing polemic. What is the role of the university in our democracy? Bloom thinks that today's students are conformist, relativistic, and nihilistic, and that great books and thinking for thinking's sake are the cure.

Continued on part 2, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition plus an exclusive follow-up discussion. Please support PEL!

Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

She would not say of any one in the world now that they were this or were that. She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged. She sliced like a knife through everything; at the same time was outside, looking on. She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxicabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day.

—Mrs. Dalloway

Listen as Dylan Casey from The Partially Examined Life Podcast joins us to discuss this remarkable novel, in which many scholars believe Woolf found her voice. Written in a stream of consciousness, the plot of the book is written inside the souls, struggles. and angst of the characters.

In the novel, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, we follow Clarissa Dalloway for a single day, as she prepares for a party she is hosting that evening. At the start of her journey, she picks up flowers for the party and as the day proceeds, she finds herself reconsidering her husband, Richard Dalloway, and her choice in marrying the very stable, conservative member of Parliament. Her thoughts are starkly contrasted by her youthful memories of a competing suitor of Richard’s, Peter Walsh, who was more passionate, unconventional, yet capricious. As the day proceeds we also come across Septimus Smith, a WWI veteran who suffers from hallucinations, many involving the death of his close friend Evan during the war. He is ultimately committed to a hospital and commits suicide by jumping out a window.

At the party later attended by the Prime Minister, Clarissa learns of the unknown war veteran’s suicide and is impressed by his choice, as she wanders into a room to talk to Peter, who has shown up at the party.

But she feared time itself, and read on Lady Bruton’s face, as if it had been a dial cut in impassive stone, the dwindling of life; how year by year her share was sliced; how little the margin that remained was capable any longer of stretching, of absorbing, as in the youthful years, the colours, salts, tones of existence…

—Mrs. Dalloway

Also check out the movie Mrs. Dalloway from 1997, starring Vanessa Redgrave:

If you have thoughts, recommendations, or questions that you want to send our way, please do via [email protected].

Hear more Phi Fic..

Thanks to Chrisopher Nolen for our music.

Finishing Davidson's "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" (1974) and moving on to Carnap's "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (1950).

Carnap claims that we talk about mathematical objects or subatomic particles or whatever, we're not really (contra Quine) making metaphysical claims. Ontological questions like "Are there really numbers?" are just pretentious nonsense. With guest Dusty Dallman.

Listen to part 1 first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End Song: "Shut Up" by Chandler Travis, as heard on Nakedly Examined Music #46.

Sponsors: Listen to the Outside the Box podcast. Learn about St. John's College at partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjc.

On Davidson's "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" (1974) and Carnap's "Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology" (1950).

What does it mean to say that we grasp the world through a conceptual scheme? Are schemes different between cultures or even individuals, such that we can't really understand each other? Davidson thinks that this doesn't make sense.

We'll get to Carnap in part 2, but you needn't wait. Get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Listen to the Outside the Box podcast! Get an interest rate discount on a loan at lightstream.com/PEL.

Listen here to a few highlights from a recent discussion between Mark and Wes: We chase down some issues from ep. 189, relating authorial intent to philosophy of language more generally.

Get the full discussions by becoming a PEL Citizen or $5/month Patreon supporter.

On Darren Aronofsky's philosophical 2017 film about humanity's relationship to nature. We discuss the philosophical content of the film (Gnosticism, anyone?) and explore the relation between meaning and the sensuous aspects of an artwork. Can a work be both allegorical and yet have fully fleshed out characters and the other elements that make a film feel real? This was a very polarizing film; how do the circumstances of viewing affect reception? With guest Tim Nicholas.

End song: “The Day of Wrath, That Day,” by Sarah McQuaid, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #72.

Please support PEL! Citizens and $5 Patreon supporters will get access to a bonus discussion on identity politics this week.

Sponsors: Free month trial of The Great Courses +: thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL. St. John's College: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjc.

Continuing on "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967) and "What Is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and finally getting to “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982).

What could it mean to say that a text, once written, speaks itself? We get into Foucault's critique of the cult of the author and the reader-centric types of analysis he proposes in its place. Plus, Knapp and Michaels's poem written by natural forces on a rock. Crazy stuff!

Listen to part 1 first, or get the Citizen Edition plus citizen access to part 3.

End song: "The Auteur" by David J (2018). Listen to Mark's interview with him soon at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com.

Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

On four essays about how to interpret artworks: “The Intentional Fallacy” by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley (1946), "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967), "What is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). When you're trying to figure out what, say, a poem means, isn't the best way to do that to just ask the author? Most of these guys say no, and that's supposed to reveal something about the nature of meaning.

No need to wait for part 2. Support us for access to the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition plus a one-hour follow-up conversation.

Sponsors: Rover.com/partiallyexamined, code "partiallyexamined" = $25 off pet care, storyworth.com/pel for $20 off. partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjc to learn about St. John's College.