Shakespeare's Hamlet, Is He a Philosopher?

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The whole play is kind of trapped a bit in Hamlet's head. He seems in this weird way apart from the world, and he seems kind of trapped inside his own head. And so it's almost like maybe somebody, you know, Descartes has this sort of thought experiment that he engages in in the meditations, right? That systematically doubt everything that you believe and see what you come to.

Is a written dialogue the best way to learn from philosopher Agnes Callard?

If so, what does that say about philosophy? Is Plato’s Symposium about love or mere intoxication? If good people lived forever, would they be less bored than the bad people? Should we fear death? Is parenting undertheorized? Must philosophy rely on refutation? Should we read the classics? Is Jordan Peterson’s moralizing good? Should we take Socrates at his word? Is Hamlet a Cartesian? Are we all either Beethoven or Mozart people? How do we get ourselves to care about things we don’t yet care about? To what should we aspire to?

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Recorded March 22nd, 2018 Other ways to connect

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