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Stephen West

Beginner friendly if listened to in order! For anyone interested in an educational podcast about philosophy where you don't need to be a graduate-level philosopher to understand it. In chronological order, the thinkers and ideas that forged the world we live in are broken down and explained.

Philosophize This!

Today we talk about the work of the philosopher Charles Taylor. First, we trace the historical origins of how he views the modern self. From the Greeks to the Reformation. From Descartes to Rousseau. The modern self to him is something "irreconcilably multileveled". Then we talk about our modern focus on authenticity as a moral ideal and why Taylor thinks many people misunderstand what it requires. Hope you love it! :)

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Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

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Episode #239 ... Authenticity and the history of the self. (Charles Taylor)

Today we talk about the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. We talk about the mix of Romantic and Enlightenment attitudes and how it leads to problems without the proper oversight. We talk about technology and the responsibility that comes with creation. We talk about how ostracized people often learn to resent the world they live in. Hope you love it and have a great week! :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

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Episode #238 ... Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Today we talk about two famous critiques of Stoicism. One by Friedrich Nietzsche who thought the Stoics weren’t life affirming enough and so rob themselves of some of the best parts of life. The other by Arthur Schopenhauer who thought the Stoics were too life-affirming of worldly things to ever reach a deep understanding of things. Hope you love it! :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

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Episode #237 ... The Stoics Are Wrong - Nietzsche, Schopenhauer

Today we talk about the collection of journals known as Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. We mark the differences between Stoicism, modern Stoic ethics, and the journals of Marcus Aurelius. We talk about the divine logos, indifferents, and how metaphysical assumptions ladder up into the virtue ethics of the ancient Stoics. We talk about some of the context that Marcus was writing each of these journals in. All of this while trying to relay some of the biggest ideas that he wrote about. Hope you love it. :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

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Episode #236 ... Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Today we talk about one of Han's earlier books where he offers an alternative to classic western ideas about subjectivity. We talk about Zen as a religion without God. Substance and emptiness. Alternatives to the reified self. Dwelling nowhere. Original friendliness. And death as an event we desperately try to control. Hope you love it! :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

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Episode #235 ... The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism - Byung Chul Han

Today we try to produce a philosophical guide for the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. We talk about Parmenides, Nietzsche's eternal recurrence, kitsch as something more than just an aesthetic category, existential codes and his animal test of morality. Hope you love it! :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

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Episode #234 ... The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

Today we talk about two different theories for why we ritualize self-destructive behavior. We check out a lesser-known work from Dostoevsky called The Gambler. We consider how much we can hold people morally accountable for this kind of stuff. Then we look at the work of Georges Bataille, his book The Accursed Share, and how a hidden underlying economics may be a way we can understand self-destructive behavior from a new angle. Hope you love it and have a great week. :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow

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Episode #233 ... A philosophy of self-destruction. (Dostoevsky, Bataille)

Today we talk about the book The Crisis of Narration by the philosopher Byung Chul Han. We talk about the history of storytelling. Walter Benjamins distinction between a Paris fire and a revolution in Madrid. The effects of social media on memory. Story telling vs story selling. AI as pure Intelligenz lacking Geist. The ability for stories to give shape to suffering. The importance of boredom for self-discovery. Hope you love it! :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow

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Episode #232 ... Byung Chul Han - The Crisis of Narration

Today we talk about the late work of Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations. We talk about the meaning of words. Augustine's theory. Forms of life. Rules and practices. Grammar. Geometry. Family resemblance. And the role of a philosopher on the other side of accepting this view of language. Hope you love it. :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

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Episode #231 ... The Late Work of Wittgenstein - Language Games

Today we talk about the early work of Ernst Bloch. Hope as anticipatory consciousness. The darkness of the lived moment. Educated hope vs false hope. Music as an experiential metaphysics and gateway to the Not-Yet. Hope you love it. :)

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Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast

X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow

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Episode #230 ... Hope as an Existentialism (Ernst Bloch)

On this episode of the podcast, we begin our discussion of Immanuel Kant. We first examine the historical context Kant was born into and consider the challenges philosophy was faced with, thanks to David Hume. We also discuss the change in the way humans were beginning to look at the universe during Kant’s time. Finally, we hear what Kant has to say about whether or not we can know anything beyond “I think, therefore I am.” All this and more on the latest episode of Philosophize This!

Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. 

Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis 

Social:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast
X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow
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Episode #056 ... Kant pt. 1 - An Introduction to the Introduction

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