Philosophize This!

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Philosophize This!

Philosophize This!

Höfundur: Stephen West

Beginner friendly if listened to in order! For anyone interested in an educational podcast about philosophy where you don't need to be a graduate-level philosopher to understand it. In chronological order, the thinkers and ideas that forged the world we live in are broken down and explained.

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238 þættir
Episode #238 ... Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Episode #238 ... Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Today we talk about the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. We talk about the mix of Romantic and Enlightenment attitudes and how it leads to problems...

2025-10-08 14:52:00 1806
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Episode #237 ... The Stoics Are Wrong - Nietzsche, Schopenhauer

Episode #237 ... The Stoics Are Wrong - Nietzsche, Schopenhauer

Today we talk about two famous critiques of Stoicism. One by Friedrich Nietzsche who thought the Stoics weren’t life affirming enough and so rob thems...

2025-09-30 21:01:00 1827
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Episode #236 ... Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Episode #236 ... Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Today we talk about the collection of journals known as Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. We mark the differences between Stoicism, modern Stoic ethics,...

2025-09-12 16:41:00 2217
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Episode #235 ... The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism - Byung Chul Han

Episode #235 ... The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism - Byung Chul Han

Today we talk about one of Han's earlier books where he offers an alternative to classic western ideas about subjectivity. We talk about Zen as a reli...

2025-09-03 15:33:00 2299
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Episode #234 ... The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

Episode #234 ... The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

Today we try to produce a philosophical guide for the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. We talk about Parmenides, Nietzsche's e...

2025-08-13 04:57:00 2103
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Episode #233 ... A philosophy of self-destruction. (Dostoevsky, Bataille)

Episode #233 ... A philosophy of self-destruction. (Dostoevsky, Bataille)

Today we talk about two different theories for why we ritualize self-destructive behavior. We check out a lesser-known work from Dostoevsky called The...

2025-08-04 07:01:00 2037
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Episode #232 ... Byung Chul Han - The Crisis of Narration

Episode #232 ... Byung Chul Han - The Crisis of Narration

Today we talk about the book The Crisis of Narration by the philosopher Byung Chul Han. We talk about the history of storytelling. Walter Benjamins di...

2025-07-07 11:50:00 1781
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Episode #231 ... The Late Work of Wittgenstein - Language Games

Episode #231 ... The Late Work of Wittgenstein - Language Games

Today we talk about the late work of Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations. We talk about the meaning of words. Augustine's theory. Forms of li...

2025-06-28 13:53:00 1562
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Episode #230 ... Hope as an Existentialism (Ernst Bloch)

Episode #230 ... Hope as an Existentialism (Ernst Bloch)

Today we talk about the early work of Ernst Bloch. Hope as anticipatory consciousness. The darkness of the lived moment. Educated hope vs false hope....

2025-06-14 14:51:00 1723
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Episode #229 - Kafka and Totalitarianism (Arendt, Adorno)

Episode #229 - Kafka and Totalitarianism (Arendt, Adorno)

Today we talk about Kafka's book The Castle and how the symbolism is interpreted by two powerhouse philosophers: Theodore Adorno and Hannah Arendt. Ho...

2025-05-24 15:01:00 1738
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Episode #228 ... Albert Camus - Kafka and The Fall

Episode #228 ... Albert Camus - Kafka and The Fall

Today we talk about Camus' book The Fall and what the main character represents in his larger project. We also talk about someone Camus deeply admired...

2025-05-12 04:26:00 1845
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Episode #227 ... Albert Camus - On Exile

Episode #227 ... Albert Camus - On Exile

Today we talk about the concept of exile from the work of Camus. We focus on a couple stories from his book Exile and The Kingdom. We talk about why C...

2025-04-18 05:11:00 2181
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Episode #226 - Albert Camus - The Rebel

Episode #226 - Albert Camus - The Rebel

Today we talk about Camus’ concept of rebellion and how it offers a powerful alternative to abstract ideologies. We talk about solidarity as the found...

2025-04-04 05:51:00 2090
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Episode #225 ... Albert Camus - The Plague

Episode #225 ... Albert Camus - The Plague

We look at Albert Camus' The Plague. We talk about a common misreading from the Myth of Sisyphus. We talk about different cycles of his work from his...

2025-03-27 09:38:00 1972
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Episode #224 ... Albert Camus - The Stranger

Episode #224 ... Albert Camus - The Stranger

Today we talk about the book The Stranger by Albert Camus. We talk about why Camus saw himself as an artist and not a philosopher. We talk about happi...

2025-03-15 09:00:00 1798
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Episode #223 ... Religion and the duck-rabbit - Kyoto School pt. 3

Episode #223 ... Religion and the duck-rabbit - Kyoto School pt. 3

Today we talk about the relationship between philosophy and religion. We talk about the duck-rabbit as a metaphor that may have something useful to te...

2025-03-02 15:43:00 2088
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Episode #222 ... Dostoevsky - Love in The Brothers Karamazov

Episode #222 ... Dostoevsky - Love in The Brothers Karamazov

Today we talk about the philosophical themes around love in The Brothers Karamazov. We talk about Dostoevsky's existential, tragic form of Christianit...

2025-02-15 16:10:00 2444
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Episode #221 ... Dostoevsky - The Idiot

Episode #221 ... Dostoevsky - The Idiot

Today we talk about the book The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. We talk about the curse of sainthood. The connection between beauty and morality via his...

2025-01-31 17:45:00 2294
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Episode #220 ... Dostoevsky - Demons

Episode #220 ... Dostoevsky - Demons

Today we discuss the philosophical themes of the book Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky. We talk about western liberalism, the lack of moral leadership, the...

2025-01-12 19:39:00 2383
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Episode #219 ... Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment

Episode #219 ... Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment

Today we talk about the philosophical themes that Dostoevsky had in mind when writing Crime and Punishment. We talk about Russian Nihilism and its con...

2024-12-22 15:42:00 1939
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Episode #218 ... Dostoevsky - Notes From Underground

Episode #218 ... Dostoevsky - Notes From Underground

Today we talk about the philosophical themes of one of Dostoevsky's most famous books: Notes From Underground. We talk about contemplative inertia, th...

2024-12-16 22:31:48 2142
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Episode #217 ... Religion and Nothingness - Kyoto School pt. 2 - Nishitani

Episode #217 ... Religion and Nothingness - Kyoto School pt. 2 - Nishitani

Today we talk about expanding our view of what a religious quest includes. The limits of dualistic thinking. Technological enframing and obsession wit...

2024-12-06 07:27:29 2828
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Episode #216 ... The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism - Kyoto School pt. 1 - Nishitani

Episode #216 ... The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism - Kyoto School pt. 1 - Nishitani

Today we look at the work of Keiji Nishitani. We examine Nihilism in a deeper way than we've ever covered on the podcast before. We talk about The Gre...

2024-11-17 18:36:16 2133
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Episode #215 ... How Mysticism is missing in our modern lives. (Critchley, Heidegger)

Episode #215 ... How Mysticism is missing in our modern lives. (Critchley, Heidegger)

Today we talk about whether it's possible to achieve not just freedom of the will, but freedom from the will. The technological enframing of reality f...

2024-10-30 11:12:00 1876
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Episode #214 ... Framing our Being in a completely different way. (Heidegger)

Episode #214 ... Framing our Being in a completely different way. (Heidegger)

Today we look at Heidegger's critique of metaphysics and the traditional subject-object framing in philosophy. How multiple framings are necessary for...

2024-10-21 05:40:49 2274
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Episode #213 ... Deleuze Interprets Nietzsche (Difference, Joy, Affirmation)

Episode #213 ... Deleuze Interprets Nietzsche (Difference, Joy, Affirmation)

Today we talk about Deleuze's interpretation of Nietzsche's work. We talk about difference taken to radical new levels. The image of thought from the...

2024-10-13 08:28:06 2223
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Episode #212 ... Nietzsche and Critchley on the tragic perspective. (Amor Fati pt. 2)

Episode #212 ... Nietzsche and Critchley on the tragic perspective. (Amor Fati pt. 2)

Today we begin by talking about Nietzsche's concept of life-affirmation. Contrasting it with the renunciative, rational traditions of Western thought....

2024-09-30 10:14:00 2309
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Episode #211 ... Nietzsche returns with a hammer!

Episode #211 ... Nietzsche returns with a hammer!

Today we talk about Nietzsche's views on the decay of western society. We talk about his problems with Socrates. The genealogy of Egalitarianism that...

2024-09-22 08:29:00 2432
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Episode #210 ... The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Paulo Freire, Education)

Episode #210 ... The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Paulo Freire, Education)

We talk about Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. His critique of the banking model of education. The importance of critical consciousness. His...

2024-09-12 08:14:00 2322
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Episode #209 ... Improving our world through applied ethics. (Peter Singer, Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek)

Episode #209 ... Improving our world through applied ethics. (Peter Singer, Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek)

Today we talk about Peter Singer's response to an anticapitalist critique of his work. Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek's thoughts on the wrong ways to be th...

2024-08-25 21:46:00 2163
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Episode #208 ... The moral evolution of a philosopher. (Peter Singer)

Episode #208 ... The moral evolution of a philosopher. (Peter Singer)

On this episode, we track the changes in Peter Singer's ethical views throughout his career. We talk about Emotivism. R.M. Hare's Prescriptivism. Nozi...

2024-08-18 09:21:00 2658
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Episode #207 ... Fear is toxic to a democracy. (Martha Nussbaum)

Episode #207 ... Fear is toxic to a democracy. (Martha Nussbaum)

Today we talk more about the work of Martha Nussbaum and her book The Monarchy of Fear. We discuss emotions as important appraisals of reality. The co...

2024-07-31 19:16:00 2154
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Episode #206 ... Capitalism is dead. This is Technofeudalism. (Yanis Varoufakis)

Episode #206 ... Capitalism is dead. This is Technofeudalism. (Yanis Varoufakis)

Today we talk about the concept of Technofeudalism as described by Yanis Varoufakis. We talk about the comparisons of our world to the feudal system,...

2024-07-20 19:48:00 2248
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Episode #205 ... Why a meritocracy is corrosive to society. (Michael Sandel)

Episode #205 ... Why a meritocracy is corrosive to society. (Michael Sandel)

Today we talk about the dark side of meritocracy, the effects it has on the way people see each other, the dialectic of pride and humility, education...

2024-06-30 19:04:00 1922
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Episode #204 ... The importance of philosophy, justice and the common good. (Michael Sandel)

Episode #204 ... The importance of philosophy, justice and the common good. (Michael Sandel)

Today we talk about some of the benefits of being a practitioner of philosophy. Michael Sandel's view of the three main approaches to justice througho...

2024-06-23 18:27:00 2273
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Episode #203 ... Why the future is being slowly cancelled. - Postmodernism (Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism)

Episode #203 ... Why the future is being slowly cancelled. - Postmodernism (Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism)

Today we continue developing our understanding of the ideas that have led to what Mark Fisher calls Capitalist Realism. We talk about tolerant relativ...

2024-06-16 16:38:00 2386
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Episode #202 ... Why we can't think beyond capitalism. - Neoliberalism (Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism)

Episode #202 ... Why we can't think beyond capitalism. - Neoliberalism (Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism)

Today we begin our discussion on the work of Mark Fisher surrounding his concept of Capitalism Realism. We talk about the origins of Neoliberalism, it...

2024-06-02 20:10:00 2116
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Episode #201 ... Resistance, Love, and the importance of Failure. (Zizek, Byung Chul Han)

Episode #201 ... Resistance, Love, and the importance of Failure. (Zizek, Byung Chul Han)

Today we talk about a potential way to find meaning for someone prone to postmodern subjectivity. We talk about surplus enjoyment. Zizek's alcohol use...

2024-05-05 19:59:00 2218
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Episode #200 ... The Postmodern subject and "ideology without ideology" (Zizek, Byung Chul Han, Marx)

Episode #200 ... The Postmodern subject and "ideology without ideology" (Zizek, Byung Chul Han, Marx)

Today we talk about several different common versions of the postmodern subject in contemporary culture. Hope you enjoy it! :)

Thank you...

2024-04-26 22:05:00 2040
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Episode #199 ... A conservative communist's take on global capitalism and desire. (Zizek, Marx, Lacan)

Episode #199 ... A conservative communist's take on global capitalism and desire. (Zizek, Marx, Lacan)

Today we talk about the distinction between left and right. Lacan's thoughts on desire. How Capitalism captures desire and identity. I would prefer no...

2024-04-15 03:20:00 2673
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