
Sadler's Lectures
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Latest episodes

Mar 10, 2025 • 18min
Pierre Hadot, Philosophy As A Way Of Life - Christianity As Philosophy - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses the 20th century philosopher and historian of ideas, Pierre Hadot, and focuses on chapter 4 of his book, Philosophy As a Way of Life.
He discusses how Christianity was explicitly identified by a number of early Christian thinkers as a "philosophy". This continued on through the middle ages, where Christian monasticism was also termed "Christian philosophy". Hadot points out that not only is there considerable continuity as well as contrast between the emergent Christian philosophy and pre-Christian pagan schools, but that they all are philosophies as ways of life.
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Mar 7, 2025 • 20min
Seneca, Letter 70 - Ethics Of Choosing Death - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 70, in which Seneca discusses whether or not ending one's life deliberately is permissible or not from a Stoic perspective. He considers a number of aspects of the question, arguing that what we should take into consideration is the quality of a life rather than its quantity. He refers to a number of examples of people who, in his view, rightly and even courageously chose to end their lives.
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Mar 6, 2025 • 18min
Seneca, Letter 63 - Grief For Lost Friends - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 63, in which Seneca tells a friend who is grieving after the death of another friend that it is reasonable for him to grieve and even to cry tears, but that he should keep from excessively grieving. Seneca provides advice about how to regard and make use of the memories one has of friends, why one ought to value and take advantage of the time one has with friends, why one should have more than one friend, and why replacing a lost friend can be good when grieving
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Mar 6, 2025 • 19min
Alasdair MacIntyre, Plain Persons - How Far Should Plain Persons Be Moral Philosophers?
This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Plain Persons and Moral Theory"
It focuses upon the extent to which what MacIntyre calls "plain persons" need to be or become moral philosophers. He writes:
"We can now say something more not only about how much of a moral
philosopher the plain person has to be, but also about what kind of a
moral philosopher the plain person has to be and how this may differ
from situation to situation. The plain person needs as much of a theory
as will enable her or him to identify what the significant alternatives
are which now confront her or him, and to understand why and how it
was in the past that she or he did or did not make mistakes in acting in
one way rather than another. That need may not be met, not only if the
plain person is insufficiently a theorist, but also if the theory which is
made available to her or him, even if true and adequate qua theory, is
stated in too much abstraction from the specificities and particularities
of her or his historical and autobiographical situation."
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Mar 6, 2025 • 17min
Alasdair MacIntyre, Plain Persons - Narrative and Moral Development - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Plain Persons and Moral Theory"
It focuses upon MacIntyre's discussion of moral development and a person's life understood as a narrative
To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler
If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM
You can find over 3,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler
You can find MacIntyre's essay "Plain Persons and Moral Theory" here - https://amzn.to/3KUbXVf

Mar 5, 2025 • 19min
Seneca, Letter 59 - Pleasure, Joy, And Wisdom - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 59, in which Seneca distinguishes between the senses that ordinary people and Stoics give to the terms pleasure (voluptas) and joy (gaudium), and discusses why it is that most people go wrong in the views they have about what will produce genuine joy for them, by contrast to the Stoic sage, who is able to enjoy lasting joy.
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Mar 4, 2025 • 20min
Seneca, Letter 47 - Treatment Of Slaves - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 47, in which Seneca discusses how masters in the ancient would should regard and treat their slaves, namely in a familiar manner, as fellow human beings, housemates, lowborn friends, and even fellow slaves. He suggests that masters ought to remember that which people happen to be in the position of slaves is a matter of chance not merit, and that masters themselves can easily be slaves.
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Mar 3, 2025 • 16min
Seneca, Letter 30 - Attitudes Towards Death - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 30, in which Seneca uses the example of an aged friend Bassus who is approaching his own death in a good manner, as an opportunity to set out some ideas about how we can regard and prepare for our own inevitable death in a Stoic manner.
To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler
If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM
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Feb 28, 2025 • 14min
Seneca, Letter 23 - Feeling Joy In Right Things - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 23, in which Seneca tells Lucilius that he wants him to learn how to attain and feel genuine lasting joy, which Stoicism teaches that we can do by focusing on what is actually within the scope of our control and agency, rather than on externals.
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Feb 28, 2025 • 15min
Alasdair MacIntyre, Plain Persons - Narratives of Moral Decline - Sadler's Lectures
This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Plain Persons and Moral Theory"
It focuses upon a generalized narrative that MacIntyre calls "the story of the decline and fall of the plain person", with four main "episodes".
1. The protagonist strives to answer the question "what is my good", but doesn't develop a temperateness needed toward less than supreme goods
2. A "radical discrepancy develops between rules needed for pursuit of the good and the multiplicity of goods
3. The discrepancy gets resolved in one of two incompatible ways. Either rules take priority or goods do. The protagonist learns that they cannot avoid taking sides
4. The protagonist discovers that the major issues at stake cannot be rationally resolved
MacIntyre also maintains that this is not just a story of individuals but of our moral culture from the 16th-20th centuries, as set out in his book After Virtue
To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler
If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM
You can find over 3,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler
You can find MacIntyre's essay "Plain Persons and Moral Theory" here - https://amzn.to/3KUbXVf