Continuing on Hegel's Phenomenology, "Spirit" chapter, now up to sections 511-526, which finishes off the sub-section of "Self-Alienated Spirit" called "Culture and its Realm of Actuality."

Whereas in our last discussion, obeying the state (public power) ran counter to hoarding wealth (private power), at this stage, the two converge, because the state gets concentrated in a single monarch who both receives our power and doles out wealth to his supporters. So putting your effort into obtaining private wealth ironically requires surrendering your agency (and hence wealth) to the state.

Sponsors: Go to NerdWallet.com/PEL for trustworthy small business loans. Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. Get three months free of online payroll and benefits software for small businesses at gusto.com/pel.

On "Against Narrativity" (2004), where Galen (son of P.F.) argues against the claims that we do and should make sense of our experience by conceiving of it as a story, with a logical progression and dramatic arc. Many normal people do not do this, and are not unethical for being the way they are.

In this pitched, high-stakes battle, your hosts have it out about astrological biases, doing offensive accents, letting go of control in an improv scene, and group-based restrictions on who you feel you date.

Does Jesus have time to appear on your toast? Are all TV characters robots in a shared robot universe? Are zodiac signs based on serial killer characteristics? How does Pluto FEEL about not being a planet any more? So many vital questions definitively addressed in one meditation together...

Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast and listen ad-free at philosophyimprov.com/support.

We talk about the Scream meta-slasher film franchise, from the original Wes Craven /Kevin Williamson 1996 debut starring Neve Campbell, and Courtney Cox to the new one (#7), still with three out of four of those participants (Wes Craven being dead).

Is the self-reflection about the horror genre in these films actually elevating, or just a permission structure to enjoy the base pleasure of seeing people murdered? Are these actually films that people who normally hate slasher movies still might enjoy?

Get more at prettymuchpop.com. Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

Sponsor: Visit squarespace.com/PRETTY (code PRETTY) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain.

Continuing on the "Spirit" chapter (more specifically. "Culture and its realm of actuality") in Hegel's Phenomenology, now covering sec. 490-510. How exactly does the process of acculturation work?

Sponsors: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health. Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel.

Continuing on Hegel's Phenomenology, "Spirit" chapter, now up to sections 484-510, which is the first part of "Self-Alienated Spirit. Culture."

In Hegel's ongoing semi-mythical story about the development of the modern self and society, we're now at a point where people are "bare persons," legally recognized but not distinguished from each other. We thicken these thin selves using cultural contents: your profession, your group memberships, your style, etc. But this way of individuating is fundamentally self-alienating: these ways that we identify ourselves are foreign to our souls!

Continuing on on sec. 469-483 of Hegel's Phenomenology, finishing the analysis of Antigone and bringing in Oedipus to say why the conflict between types of law is both criminal and destined. We then turn to the aftermath: a society alienated from law but with legally recognized self-conscious individuals.

Sponsors: Get three months free of online payroll and benefits software for small businesses at gusto.com/pel. Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. Go to HelloFresh.com/pel10fm to Get 10 free meals + a free Zwilling Knife with your third box.

St. Lawrence philosophy prof Jennifer L. Hansen, one of the most frequent guest on Mark's podcasts and expert in feminist philosophy, here hits it off with our new host Mary. We act out vegan jerky time, snacktime at the all-girls clubhouse, and two gals getting pulled over by a cop.

Does the "come debate me" style of philosophy include unnecessarily masculine tropes? How does this Charlie Kirk model relate to what Socrates was doing? What are alternative, fun ways to get students to talk in philosophy classes?

Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast and listen ad-free at philosophyimprov.com/support.

Sponsor: Visit squarespace.com/LINSENMAYER (code LINSENMAYER) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain.

Photography is a technology of contradictions. It is at once mechanical and mysterious, even magical. It furnishes evidence of presence while being a token of absence. It can show us proof but can’t, without accompanying narration or context, make us understand. And perhaps most perplexing of all, it is an imperialistic technology which, paradoxically, atomizes the world and democratizes all events and experiences, making each viewer of photographs the owner of a facsimile-world in his or her head. Wes & Erin discuss two essays from Susan Sontag’s collection, “On Photography,” “In Plato’s Cave” and “America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly,” and ask what constitutes photography’s “ethics of seeing,” and whether Sontag suggests an alternative comportment towards the camera, the subject, and the photographic image.

In light of Judd Apatow's HBO documentary The 99-Year-Old Man, we discuss the films of Mel Brooks, which were to varying degrees formative on us (i.e. Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al).

Get more at prettymuchpop.com. Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

Sponsors: Get started with Claude AI at claude.ai/pmp. Visit squarespace.com/PRETTY (code PRETTY) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain.