

History of Philosophy Audio Archive
William Engels
Curated lectures, interviews, and talks with philosophers, social scientists, and historians together in one place. Each week, we explore brand new research in history, economics, psychology, political science, philosophy, indigenous studies, and human rights while presenting the work of canonical scholars in a way that is accessible to newcomers while retaining interest for students and specialists. If you are an author in nonfiction or a scholar in the humanities/social sciences and are interested in being interviewed for the show please email me at williamengels@substack.com or @Bluesky.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 30, 2024 • 1h 39min
#87 - Jeremy Rifkin: The Promise of the Third Industrial Revolution
How can the economy be reorganized to serve human needs and preserve the environment while maintaining growth and technological advancement?
What future technologies promise a better future?
Jeremy Rifkin is a path-breaking and heretical economist with a vision of a future in which the economy is re-conceived from the ground-up to ensure that everyone has what they need in order to flourish.
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Credit for the episode art:
https://www.reddit.com/r/VaporwaveAesthetics/comments/5lf1qz/hokusai_vaporwave/

Jul 29, 2024 • 2h 10min
#86 - Roy Casagranda: The American Presidency (A User's Guide)
It's election season and Professor Roy would like to tell you how unreal the Presidency is and give you some political science pointers while he's at it.

Jul 20, 2024 • 47min
#85 - Kurt Vonnegut: We Are All Dancing Animals
"I am suing the cigarette company - I have been smoking nothing but Pall Malls since I was 11. Right there on the package it says 'this stuff will kill you' - and I'm still alive, god damn it!"
-Kurt Vonnegut, 81 years, old, Case Western Reserve University, 2004.

Jul 17, 2024 • 57min
#84 - David Bentley Hart: The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss (Satchitananda)
David Bentley Hart is an American theologian that works at the intersection of faith, philosophy, aesthetics, and Eastern religion. In this talk, he discusses the convergences of thought between (so-called) Eastern and Western mystics and outlines his critique of New Atheism.
Original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt9HSQZMQYM
Enjoy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bentley_Hart

Jul 14, 2024 • 1h 34min
#83 - Richard D. Wolff: Intro to Marxism (Crises and Openings) REUPLOAD
How would a Marxist economy function without a state that backs property rights? How could a corporation operate without a board of directors? How could wealth be redistributed in an orderly, rational, and humane way?
These questions and more answered in Professor Richard Wolff's seminar on the fundamentals of practical Marxist economics.
Enjoy.
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Original video:
https://youtu.be/T9Whccunka4?si=BJSo2f64p5TTPDUv

Jul 12, 2024 • 2h 1min
#82 - Wassily Kandinsky: Concerning the Spiritual in Art (Full Audiobook)
The Russian painter and synesthete Wassily Kandinsky developed a vision of art as a spiritual pursuit and elaborated that vision in his book "Concerning the Spiritual in Art".
Digitized on Librivox, edited by yours truly.
Enjoy.
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https://librivox.org/concerning-the-spiritual-in-art-by-wassily-kandinsky/

Jul 12, 2024 • 42min
#81 - The Question of (Everyone's) Guilt
Do you ever feel guilty? You probably should.
Especially if you're an American.

Jul 8, 2024 • 5h 5min
#80 - John Dupré: Process Philosophy, Philosophy of Biology, and Evolution
John Dupré is a leading philosopher of biology working at the intersection between the humanities, social sciences, and biological sciences.
The term "process philosophy" is drawn from Alfred North Whitehead who advanced a metaphysics of panpsychism in his text Process and Reality driven by what he called the "experience" embedded in all wave-like entities. In this Gifford Lecture series Dupré presents his approach to evolution, determinism, materialism, and the dynamics of process philosophy and indeterminacy in six parts.
(00:00:00) Why All Life Is Process
(00:50:33) Evolution
(01:43:36) Humans And Their Fellow Travelers
(02:34:30) Personal Identity
(03:22:35) Human Nature and Human Kinds
(04:15:56) Free Will
Professor Dupré is associated with the "Stanford School" in philosophy of science along with Nancy Cartwright, Ian Hacking, Patrick Suppes, and Peter Gallison.
Enjoy.
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Background of John Dupré
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dupr%C3%A9
Background on "A Process Perspective on Human Life"
https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/gifford-lectures/2023/03/20/2022-23-gifford-lecture-series-professor-john-dupre-a-process-perspective-on-human-life/

Jul 4, 2024 • 4h 18min
#79 - US Foreign Policy in the Middle East: Roy Casagranda on Petroleum, Arab Nationalism, and the War on Terror
What happens when an unstoppable force (Arab Nationalism) meets an immovable object (US Economic Dependency on Saudi Oil)?
Will we achieve independence from foreign oil as Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump have all unfailingly promised in the past?
Tune in to Dr. Roy's lecture this holiday season and find out!
Happy "Independence" Day, dear listeners, enjoy my cartoonish and amateurish album art: what it lacks in style it more than makes up for in substance.
Peace.
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YouTube Original
https://youtu.be/_JrWYc4pavE?si=pIdIOJmLhdBlFwCx

16 snips
Jul 4, 2024 • 5h 55min
A Jazz-Soaked Philosophy [Complete] - Cornel West
This year (2024) Dr. Cornel West was invited to give the annual Gifford Lecture Series at the University of Edinburgh. He shook things up - rather than outlining a theory or justifying a method for doing philosophy, he traced a new approach rooted in the language of jazz, blues, and the black freedom struggle in America.
(00:00:00) Philosophic Prelude
(00:49:55) Metaphilosophic Andante
(01:43:07) Folly Presto
(02:33:36) History Adagio
(03:26:47) American Allegro Molto Vivace
(04:25:41) A Love Supreme (A Way Through)
I've published these lectures before on this podcast, but have now remastered them and combined them into one super-episode. I really hope you enjoy this special presentation.
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Original YouTube Source:
https://youtu.be/cAXjezpNKIU?si=McXhN_cSraLEOu0J