History of Philosophy Audio Archive

"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.

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

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. -//- Original video: https://youtu.be/T9Whccunka4?si=BJSo2f64p5TTPDUv

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. -//- https://librivox.org/concerning-the-spiritual-in-art-by-wassily-kandinsky/

Do you ever feel guilty? You probably should. Especially if you're an American.

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. -//- 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/

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. -//- YouTube Original https://youtu.be/_JrWYc4pavE?si=pIdIOJmLhdBlFwCx

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. -//- Original YouTube Source: https://youtu.be/cAXjezpNKIU?si=McXhN_cSraLEOu0J

In 1993 Rick Roderick. professor of philosophy at Duke University and elsewhere delivered a capstone eight-part series reviewing philosophers who posed the deepest and most contemporary challenges to our conventional (Western) concept of "the self". They were: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud ("The Masters of Suspicion"), Martin Heidegger, Jean Paul Sartre, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Jean Baudrillard. (00:00:00) The Masters of Suspicion (Marx, Nietzsche, Freud) (00:48:46) Heidegger and the Rejection of Humanism (01:34:01) Sartre and the Roads to Freedom (02:14:13) Marcuse and One-Dimensional Man (02:59:48) Habermas and the Fragile Dignity of Humanity (03:47:35) Foucault and the Disappearance of the Human (04:33:34) Derrida and the Ends of Man (05:18:01) Fatal Strategies: Baudrillard In this super-episode I've combined all eight episodes into one with chapters for easy navigation. The Marcuse episode was previously syndicated as the second half of the "Herbert Marcuse Double Episode" but it's well worth a second listen. Enjoy. -//- Original information found here: https://rickroderick.org/300-guide-the-self-under-siege-1993/

In 1988 veteran journalist Bill Moyers sat down for a series of six interviews with leading scholar of comparative religion and mythology Joseph Campbell. In their wide ranging discussion, televised to millions, they discuss the origins of human storytelling, the unitary character of religious motifs, and how mythology from around the world can serve as a blueprint for personal spiritual growth and bliss. For this format, I have taken all six and condensed them down into a single podcast, edited for clarity and accessibility and have included chapter titles and timestamps below: (00:00:00) The Hero's Adventure (00:56:46) The Message of the Myth (01:51:21) The First Storytellers (02:47:25) Sacrifice and Bliss (03:42:27) Love and the Goddess (04:38:30) Masks of Eternity Enjoy. -//- The playlist I used was provided by Kino Lorber. Original playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiYnNom7SVRMjsi2WSpIGBlo1UDhlXyvz&si=iH5HZ6tzgvzS5hUk Source channel: https://www.youtube.com/@kinolorber