Episodes

  • Review: Pragmatism: The Classic Writings edited by H. S. Thayer

    Review: Pragmatism: The Classic Writings edited by H. S. Thayer
    Sep 27 2024
    In this episode I look at John Dewey's overview of the early history of pragmatism as described in Pragmatism: The Classic Writings edited by H. S. Thayer. I examine the major themes of pragmatism, including the importance of consequences, human conduct, the vaguery of ends, and the approximateness of knowledge.
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    1 hr and 22 mins
  • Review: History of Political Philosophy (Plato) edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey

    Review: History of Political Philosophy (Plato) edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey
    Sep 23 2024
    In this episode I revisit History of Political Philosophy to look at Leo Strauss' examination of the political theory of Plato. I look at the attempts to define Justice, the viability of absolute communism, and make my first foray into Plato's theory of ideas.
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    1 hr and 24 mins
  • Review: Plato by Constance Meinwald

    Review: Plato by Constance Meinwald
    Sep 16 2024
    In this episode I look at the classic text of Western philosophy, Plato's Republic, as detailed by Constance Meinwald in her wide-ranging book Plato. I focus on the early portions of The Republic dealing with the quest for a definition of Justice, including the arguments of Glaucon and Thrasymachus.
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    59 mins
  • Review: The Trial of Socrates by I. F. Stone

    Review: The Trial of Socrates by I. F. Stone
    Sep 14 2024
    In this episode I analyze I. F. Stone's critique of Socrates and his followers, as described in his book The Trial of Socrates. I focus on Socrates' hostility to democracy, the inadequecy of universalist philosophy, and the classical understanding of the gods.
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    1 hr and 25 mins
  • Review: History of Political Philosophy (Thucydides) edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey

    Review: History of Political Philosophy (Thucydides) edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey
    Sep 1 2024
    In this episode I revisit Thucydides as discussed by David Bolotin in the classic History of Political Philosophy edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey. I focus on Alcibiades, Nicias, and the Sicilian Expedition.
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    47 mins
  • Review: Thucydides on Justice, Power, and Human Nature edited by Paul Woodruff

    Review: Thucydides on Justice, Power, and Human Nature edited by Paul Woodruff
    Aug 25 2024
    In this episode I look at the conflict between Democracy and Oligarchy in the Peloponnesian War as described by Thucydides and translated and abridged by Paul Woodruff.
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    59 mins
  • Review: Social Darwinism in American Thought by Richard Hofstadter

    Review: Social Darwinism in American Thought by Richard Hofstadter
    Aug 23 2024
    In this episode I look at the late 19th Century Darwinian Conservatism of Herbert Spencer, William Graham Sumner, and reactions by William James and others as described in Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought.
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Review: The Social Contract Theorists (Hobbes's War of All Against All) edited by Chris Morris

    Review: The Social Contract Theorists (Hobbes's War of All Against All) edited by Chris Morris
    Aug 10 2024
    In this episode I look at Gregory Kavka's 'Hobbes's War of All Against All' in The Social Contract Theorists edited by Christopher W. Morris, with a special focus on the prisoner's dilemma and nation size.
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    47 mins