Category: Political Philosophy Podcasts

Introduction to Alasdair MacIntyre and After Virtue (Audio)

September 30, 2019

After Virtue was first published in 1981, but MacIntyre wrote a new preface in 2007 reasserting his full confidence in the arguments. After Virtue promises to take on emotivism and moral relativism generally and to help us navigate not toward moral absolutism but toward moral judgment through a renewal of Aristotelian virtue ethics. This video introduces key themes, including his disagreement with communitarianism, and a bit of the life of MacIntyre–who’s still going at 90– in preparation for a reading of the third edition of After Virtue. … More Introduction to Alasdair MacIntyre and After Virtue (Audio)

To Greta Thunberg and All Climate Strikers (Audio)

September 22, 2019

If you’re going to succeed where others have failed you have to avoid the pitfalls and stay the course. I start with a brief introduction to the Greta Thunberg and the youth Climate Strike movement, then discuss the movement’s underlying assumptions, the pitfalls associated with those assumptions, and some suggestions for how to avoid those pitfalls. … More To Greta Thunberg and All Climate Strikers (Audio)

Gifts Instead of Taxes? Peter Sloterdijk: Honor the Wealthy (Audio)

September 15, 2019

Near the end of Dreaming Dangerously, Zizek mentions German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s idea of encouraging the wealthy to give gifts in exchange for honor instead of forcing them to pay through taxation. This video explains Sloterdijk’s position and how it fits and doesn’t fit with Zizek’s notions about what truly motivates people. … More Gifts Instead of Taxes? Peter Sloterdijk: Honor the Wealthy (Audio)

Climate Strike v. Occupy: Do Protests Matter? (Audio–Dreaming Dangerously 7)

September 7, 2019

Do protests and demonstrations accomplish anything? And, if they often don’t, why? Answering that question should determine what we choose to do, and how, in any particular call for action. Zizek’s Chapter 7 on Occupy Wall Street serves as a launching pad for some observations on political demonstrations, including the Climate Strike scheduled for September 20, 2019.\ … More Climate Strike v. Occupy: Do Protests Matter? (Audio–Dreaming Dangerously 7)

Unsafe and Alive in Zizek’s Post-Ideology (Dreaming Dangerously 5, audio)

August 24, 2019

I return to an interpretation of Zizek, The Year of Dreaming Dangerously, this time chapter 5: “Welcome to the Desert of Post-Ideology.” Zizek, through Lacan, distinguishes the controlled pleasures of capitalistic rationalism from the excessive enjoyment of the unsafe smoker and pointless rioter, and then evaluates what things like the UK riots of 2011 mean for advanced capitalism. … More Unsafe and Alive in Zizek’s Post-Ideology (Dreaming Dangerously 5, audio)

Not About the Market: Oakeshott on Friendship, Fishing and Tools (audio)

August 18, 2019

Classical conservative Michael Oakeshott identifies the marketplace and its attendant encouragement of trendiness as an area that runs counter to the conservative disposition. The conservative disposition can instead be seen in activities like friendship, fishing, a person’s tool collection and how he uses it. Sawzall meme included. … More Not About the Market: Oakeshott on Friendship, Fishing and Tools (audio)

Don’t be Nostalgic: Oakeshott on Conservative Disposition

August 11, 2019

In this second reading from Michael Oakeshott’s essay “On Being Conservative” we get into what counts as a true conservative disposition and what does not. Two aspects of contemporary conservatism are questioned–the desire for rapid and ongoing change, supposedly for the better, and a sentimental nostalgia for an idealized past. … More Don’t be Nostalgic: Oakeshott on Conservative Disposition

Alternative Conservatism: Michael Oakeshott’s Model

August 4, 2019

The term “conservatism” is so laden with unfortunate meaning and associations by now that it’s hard to explain to people what it meant before it was confused with liberalism. But it’s really important to do so, because unlike the revolutionary culture-, family- and community-busting market-prioritizing conservatism everyone knows about now, the older version has positive contributions to make in a time of openness to different ways of thinking and living. Michael Oakeshott was a 20th century British thinker who wrote “On Being Conservative.” We’ll read from the essay and mark some notable differences between the natural conservatism of Oakeshott and US conservatism today.
… More Alternative Conservatism: Michael Oakeshott’s Model