Carl Jung, known for archetypes and the collective unconscious, explores mythic language, religious dreams, and the anima archetype. He delves into the wise old man motif, transformation, and Nietzsche's critique, emphasizing the complexity of the human psyche.

Exploring the aesthetics of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the influence of Schopenhauer on Wagner's music, the concept of Eros in Plato's Symposium, philosophy and art as luxuries of civilization, and Nietzsche's critique of the scientific worldview

Author Daniel Tutt discusses Nietzsche's influence on leftist thinkers, exploring his complex views on socialism, hierarchy, and revolutionary politics. Tutt emphasizes the need for a critical engagement with Nietzsche's philosophy, highlighting his critiques of Marxism and his call for a pugilistic relationship with his readers.

Stephen Hicks, author of Understanding Postmodernism, discusses Nietzsche's influence on postmodernism. Contrasting Nietzsche and Ayn Rand's ethics and epistemology. Examines individual worth and native intelligence. Explores modernity vs. postmodernism in the current cultural landscape.

Explore the profound impact of Sigmund Freud's pioneering ideas on psychology, his theory on dreams and the Oedipus complex, and the concept of unconscious desires. Discover Freud's insights on the id, ego, and super ego, and the comparison of libido to Nietzsche's will. Delve into Freud and Nietzsche's perspectives on sexuality, creativity, and societal implications.

Among Nietzsche's critics, René Girard is perhaps unique. Girard's understanding of human civilization and the origins of human culture is that it is based on ritual, collective violence against a scapegoated individual - and he argues that Nietzsche is one of the only thinkers hitherto who understood this. Nietzsche's famous formula - Dionysus versus the Crucified - is the title of Girard's critical essay on Nietzsche. He does not quibble with Nietzsche's framing of the situation, but rather with Nietzsche's conclusions. While Nietzsche takes up for the side of Dionysus, Girard stands on the side of the Crucified, arguing that Nietzsche was fundamentally wrong to lament the ascendance of Christianity and to yearn for a return to the Dionysian. In the course of Nietzsche's defense of Dionysus, he put forward moral theories that were "untenable", and become increasingly "inhuman". Among the many commenters of Nietzsche, both disciples and critics, it is rare to find a figure like Girard, who recognizes Nietzsche's brilliance, but totally condemns his legacy. Join me today to learn about the life of Rene Girard, his theories of mimetic desire and scapegoating, and the impassioned case he puts forward for The Crucified.

Today we examine an 1875 Fragment, entitled "Science and Wisdom in Battle". Not only does this fragment contain one of my favorite quotations of Nietzsche's, it represents his continual grappling with the meaning of Ancient Greek culture. In particular, we discuss the importance of "relations of tension" in Nietzsche's earlier work: art versus science, culture versus the state, history versus forgetting, and of course, science and wisdom. Both are drives to knowledge, and the tension between them created philosophy in the tragic age of the Hellenes. Science is characterized by logical, objective, specialized knowledge, whereas Wisdom is defined by Nietzsche as a tendency for illogical generalization, leaping to one's ultimate goal, and an artistic desire to reflect the world in one's own mirror. Episode art: Sofia & Athena

In this episode, we continue our discussion of the Pre-Platonics, and cover the ideas of Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and Democritus. The episode begins with a brief recap of the previous philosophers and the dialogue up to this point. After considering the remaining Pre-Platonics, I have some brief concluding remarks in which I attempt to make sense of the entire picture as Nietzsche lays it out in this unfinished essay.

Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks is one of the more obscure texts in Friedrich Nietzsche’s corpus. There are many good reasons for this: it is unfinished, and ends abruptly; it was never published; and it concerns subject matter that is not as immediately accessible as Nietzsche’s more popular writings. You will not find his major concepts in this work – such as the will to power, or the critique of metaphysics - except insofar as those ideas appear in the background, inchoate, unnamed… not yet fully formed. In Nietzsche’s interpretation of the Pre-Platonic philosophers of Ancient Greece, we find the starting place for his later philosophical career. The inspiration for many of those great ideas, can arguably be found in his exegesis of these extraordinary figures from the Hellenic world, from the 6th to the 4th century BC. In today's episode, I'll introduce the text, then we'll cover the first three figures who I've classed as "the first cosmologists": Thales, Anaximander, and Heraclitus. While I'm mostly sticking to the text of the essay, I fill in some details using Nietzsche's lectures on the Pre-Platonics, on which this essay was based. Episode art: photo of the Temple of Poseidon

I answered questions from the Patrons. Enjoy!