Nature and the Nation

In this episode I look at George Williams' famous rebuke to group selection theory as outlined in Adaptation and Natural Selection. I focus on secondary adaptations, sexual reproduction as an organic adaptation, and the difference between male and female mating strategies.

In this episode I examine William James' 1904 address to the American Psychological Association, The Experience of Activity, as presented in Essays in Radical Empiricism. I focus on the illusory aspect of agency and the need to operate within the version of reality that accessible to our experiences.

In this episode I look at John Dewey's 1900 essay Some Stages in Logical Thought, as published in this 1916 collection, Essays in Experimental Logic. I focus on Dewey's assertion that both some fixity and some flexibility is required on the part of ideas for them to serve in the human task of overcoming obstacles.

In this episode I return to Strauss and Cropsey's magisterial History of Political Philosophy to examine the essay on Kant. I focus on the split between science and morality, and the contradiction formed by Kant's fundamental mistake.

In this episode I engage in an extra-long two-hour examination of the basic philosophy of Martin Heidegger, as described in Michael Inwood's study, Heidegger. Inwood focuses primarily on Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time. In this episode I pay particular attention to Heidegger's discussion of the state of being he calls 'ready-to-hand,' as well as authenticity and being-toward-death.

In this episode I revisit Niccolo Machiavelli through the lens of Erica Benner's biography of the Renaissance Italian thinker, Be Like the Fox. I examine Machiavelli's dedication to the ideals of the Florentine Republic and his opposition to leaders who come to rule by the blessings of Fortune.

In this episode I return to Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey's History of Political Philosophy, to look at Strauss' own examination of Machiavelli. I focus on Machiavelli's strategic deployment of virtue and vice, and his comparison of Christianity and Paganism.

In this episode I look again at the Sophists with a focus on their dedication to rhetoric, as described by classicist Bernard Knox in his collection of essays, The Oldest Dead White European Males.

In this episode I examine sexual selection and basic mating strategies, plus a look at the possibility of escaping the our evolutionarily acquired behaviors as described in Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True.

In this episode I review the basic elements of Aristotle's philosophy, discussing his conception of nature, the four causes, and the four elements. I also continue the discussion from the previous two episodes regarding eudaimonia, phronesis, ethics, and politics.