History of Philosophy Audio Archive

William Engels
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Jul 21, 2025 • 2h 9min

Bad Role Models #2a: Lord Byron with Richard, Earl of Sinex - European Grand Tours, Childhood Trauma, Crappy 18th century Dads, the Elgin Marbles, Bad Teenage Poetry, Dodging the Coppers Like a Dandy

It's not easy being a gay brain-sex icon and a straight brain-sex icon at the same time but ya boi Byron did it. Part 1 of 2. Poll in the thing for the next topic. I will abide by the results.Come join the Patreon!https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreonAlso, I decided Richard and I's biographical series is gonna be called "Bad Role Models" since that seems to be the theme... Also "Behind the Bastards" was already taken.Citations:Malcolm McDowell Movie "If...." (1968)Byron: Life and Legend by Fiona MacCarthyTchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by Anna Fedorova and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie led by Yves Abel (Creative Commons, version I used here)IMHO the 1958 version with Van Cliburn and Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony on RCA is best.
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Jul 20, 2025 • 2h 41min

Hemlock #27 - Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025): My Talk w/ Greg Sadler on Virtue Ethics, Zizek and Lacan, Modes of Rationality, Effective Altruism /Bentham, After Virtue, Thomism, Mill, & Heavy Metal

Alasdair MacIntyre's book After Virtue:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_VirtuePatreon for Supporters/Fans:https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreonGregory Sadler:https://www.miad.edu/faculty/gregory-sadler
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Jul 14, 2025 • 1h 20min

DocDocs #3 - Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat: Patrice Lumumba and the CIA, Dizzy Gillespie for President, Malcolm X, Fidel Castro, The Great Nina Simone, Frantz Fanon, Congo Liberation, Uranium, IMF, Jazz

Check out the Documentary!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RwLdIiZk_8Sabrina's Bluesky:https://bsky.app/profile/notetoselfzine.bsky.socialWill Patreon:https://patreon.com/c/hemlockpatreonBooks and Sources Mentioned:Black Skins, White Masks, and The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (Algerian Revolutionary Psychoanalyst)The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Life of Frantz Fanon by Adam Shatz (About Fanon)Congo, Inc by Marjolijn de JagerThe Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played the World by Hugh WilfordAlso by Wilford: The CIA: An Imperial HistoryKing Leopold's Ghost by Adam HochschildPoisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control by Stephen KinzerRelated, Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'NeillMalcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable (cited by Sabrina)Documentary about SS Officer turned NATO Commando: "Der Lachende Mann"MusicAlbum: Ballads (1963) by John ColtraneIntro Piano Music: Schubert Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major perf. Max JohnNina Simone: See Line Woman (Live 1989, GDR, Creative Commons)Nina Simone: My Way (same as above)
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Jul 13, 2025 • 55min

#170 - 2nd Biannual Report to the Shareholders: Roy Casagranda, Boethius, the American Terror Series, Virginia Woolf, Alasdair MacIntyre, Getting Emailed by Kn@tsies, Contrapoints, Gratitude

Contact: williamengels@substack.comSabrina's Stuff: https://bsky.app/profile/notetoselfzine.bsky.socialBoethius Critical Edition I Used (Although not the Translation)https://a.co/d/7qpk2BVMusic Credit: Schubert, Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major, performed by Max John https://youtu.be/icowasnkEqwPatreon:https://patreon.com/c/hemlockpatreon
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Jul 6, 2025 • 9h 5min

#169a - Death: Shelly Kagan on Plato, Immortality, Physicalism versus Dualism, Individual Continuity Across Time and Space, Arguing the Existence of the Soul, Phaedo and Socrates, Memento Mori

Patreon/Tip Jar: ⁠https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon⁠Table of Contents Below >>>Original Course Listing on YouTube:⁠https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEA18FAF1AD9047B0⁠Buy Prof. Kagan's Book on Death:https://a.co/d/8FnPcW1About the Course (Yale)There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?Link to Syllabus/Readings and Course Description:https://oyc.yale.edu/death/phil-176This course has 26 lectures - these (169a) are the first 13, in order. The forthcoming 169b will contain the back half. Shelly says 1-13 are about metaphysics of death, and 14-26 are about value theory of death.Chapters(00:00:00) Intro(00:01:57) Course Introduction(00:45:47) The Nature of Persons(01:23:52) Arguments for the Existence of the Soul I(02:05:09) Arguments for the Existence of the Soul II: Plato's Phaedo(02:47:38) Arguments for the Existence of the Soul III: Free Will and Near-Death Experiences(03:30:56) Arguments for the Existence of the Soul IV: Plato Part 1(04:03:00) Plato Part II(04:44:30) Plato Part III(05:26:55) Plato Part IV(06:09:08) Personal Identity Part I: Identity Across Space and Time and the Soul Theory(06:49:07) Personal Identity Part II: Body and Personality Theory(07:33:58) Personal Identity Part III: Objections to the Personality Theory(08:17:42) Personal Identity Part IV: What Matters?(08:58:21) Schubert Impromptu No. 3 in G-Flat Major performed by Max John, CC License, YouTube-//-
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Jul 4, 2025 • 1h 47min

Hemlock #26 - Targeting the Death Star with Guillermo Zapata: Palantir, ICE Camps, Peter Thiel & the Antichrist, Vaclav Havel, Star Wars and Rogue One, Maersk/BDS, Deporting Zohran, Melancholia, Gaza

Support the Rebel Alliance: https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreonPeople Mentioned:Mahmoud KhalilMaria LugonesByung-Chul HanLars von Trier (dir. Melancholia, 2011)Hannah ArendtTyson YunkaportaConcepts:Kenosis (self-emptying)Books:Putnam, Bowling AloneNews/References:Zinc Mine in Georgia/https://thecurrentga.org/2025/06/20/okefenokee-mine-sale-conservation-fund/Minister of Loneliness UKhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/minister-loneliness-appointed-united-kingdom-180967883/Guy dies in ICE Facilityhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/30/us-ice-detention-deathsFinger Shot Off (graphic)https://www.resetera.com/threads/los-angeles-police-blew-off-my-finger-for-protesting-ice-content-warning-amputation.1233627/ChatGPT Datacenter Depletes Groundwaterhttps://energytheory.com/chatgpts-thirsty-data-centers-are-draining-water-resources/Peter Thiel/Greta Thunberg Interviewhttps://archive.ph/HTIF6Palestinian Youth Movement and Mask off Maerskhttps://www.maskoffmaersk.com/Andrew Callaghan Channel Five Uranium Minehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcPsy8734Vg&pp=ygUlYW5kcmV3IGNhbGxhZ2hhbiBjaGFubmVsIGZpdmUgdXJhbml1bQ%3D%3D
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Jul 3, 2025 • 50min

Hemlock #25 - Maturity: Taoism, Confucianism, Epicureanism, Kierkegaard's Aesthetic/Hedonistic Way of Life, the Origins of Evil, Ahimsa/Nonviolence, and Disputing the Tao

Patreon: https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreonPhoto Credit:Morning Tai Chi by Shuolong MaMusic Credit:Music Copyright Kevin MacLeodhttps://youtu.be/qGAcClayOqkCoconut Tree Meme Musichttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7_5nHIbsjoBooks/SourcesHans-Georg Moeller Daoism Explainedhttps://www.amazon.com/Daoism-Explained-Butterfly-Fishnet-Allegory/dp/0812695631Oliver Sacks, the Man Who Mistook His Wife for a HatIain McGilchrist, the Master and His EmissaryJean Piaget, Concrete Operational/Formal Operationalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaget%27s_theory_of_cognitive_development#Concrete_operational_stage
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Jun 24, 2025 • 1h 12min

Hemlock #24 - Countdown: Journalist Sarah Scoles on Nuclear Weapons Safety, Jill Tarter and SETI, Nuclear LARPing, the Golden Dome and Missile Defense, and What Really Happens at Los Alamos

Buy Sarah's Book:https://a.co/d/6zROOvVSarah's Socials:Website: https://www.sarahscoles.com/books.htmlBsky: https://bsky.app/profile/sarahscoles.bsky.socialPatreon:https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreonREFERENCES:Trump Golden Dome Cost ProjectionSDI / Star Wars in the 1980s with ReaganCosts associated with SENTINEL and ICBM UpgradesFallout and Downwinders, Thyroid Cancer, Nevada Test SiteContact: A Novel by Carl SaganBeethoven's 13th String QuartetYear Zero - Rob ReidHegemony or Survival - Noam ChomskyRussell-Einstein Manifesto on Abolition of War/NukesKellogg/Briand Pact 1928 Abolishing WarOperation Able Archer 83CHROMEDOME/Goldsboro B-52 Crash in NCPalomares Incident in SpainCarnegie Corporation Psychologists:-Moran Cerf-Paul Slovic
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Jun 23, 2025 • 59min

Consolatio #5 - For the Evil, Show Your Pity: Book 4 of the Consolation of Philosophy, All Things Depend Upon Will and Power, Virtue is the Health of the Soul, Our Aim Is To Be Unlike Those We Hate

At long last, Book 4 of the 5-book masterpiece, De Consolatione de Philosophiae by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. Translated by W. V. Cooper, critical edition by Goins and Wyman.I would describe this one as "a comfy doozy slightly too close to home."Enjoy~
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Jun 22, 2025 • 46min

Hemlock #22 - Congratulations to the Neocons: We're Now At War with Iran - Also the Effective Altruist/AI Grifters, Because That's What I Wanted To Talk About Before The Bombing Began

Patreon: https://patreon.com/c/hemlockpatreonBreaking News.....America has bombed 3 Iranian nuclear reactors.Happy summer solstice.ReferencesIraq 1981 Nuclear Reactor Bombing by Israelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Opera?wprov=sfla1Kissinger's Flip-Flop on the Iran Deal"Today, the standard claim is that Iran has no need for nuclear power, so it must be pursuing a secret weapons program: "For an oil producer such as Iran, nuclear energy is a wasteful use of resources," Henry Kissinger explains. When the shah was in charge, Kissinger, as Secretary of State, held that " introduction of nuclear power will both provide for the growing needs of Iran's economy and free remaining oil reserves for export Or conversion to petrochemicals." Washington acted to assist these efforts, with Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Rumsfeld also playing significant roles. US universities (my own, MIT, for one, despite overwhelming student opposition) were arranging to train Iranian nuclear engineers, doubtless with Washington's approval, if not initiative. Asked about his reversal, Kissinger responded with his usual engaging frankness: "They were an allied country" before 1 979, so therefore they had a genuine need for nuclear energy."-Noam Chomsky, Failed States, 2006, page 73.Blowback Podcast about Iraqhttps://blowback.show/Season-1Adam Becker's New BookSarah Scoles' New BookHorror and Terror Theory (The Italian Philosopher I Cite)Adriana Cavarero, HorrorismSection on AI and Effective Altruism and MarsSam Bankman-Fried and Will MacAskillInterstellar Astronaut Fight Scene

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