Results of the Vote - Heidegger Podcast Episodes Coming Up Next

Today, I've finished releasing my latest series of podcast episodes in the Sadler's Lectures podcast, a set on Simone de Beauvoir's work, The Second Sex. I wanted to get some input from viewers, subscribers, followers, and supporters about which thinkers they would like to see the next podcast episodes focus on. So I created and ran polls on my YouTube channel, Patreon page, and Twitter stream. I weighted Patreon supporters' votes much more heavily, since they make a monthly commitment to underwriting the work I do.

Each of the options was a thinker that I've already created some podcast episodes on in the past.  Aristotle, Cicero, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, or Martin Heidegger.  The results were quite interesting.  the formula for each of these is Patreon (x20) + YouTube + Twitter.

• Heidegger 140 + 259 + 56 = 455 total
• Dostoevsky 100+ 259 + 31 = 390 total
• Aristotle 160 + 168 +30 = 358 total 
• Cicero 120 + 84 + 22 = 226 total

So Heidegger was the clear winner of the combined polls, and I'll be producing a set of episodes on one of his key essays, What Is Metaphysics?, with releases starting tomorrow.

It's interesting and heartening to see that there were quite a bit of people wanting to see podcast episodes on the other three thinkers as well.  Once the Heidegger podcast episodes are done, I'll move on to Dostoevsky, and convert my recent core concept lectures on portions of The Brothers Karamazov to podcast episodes.  

After those two thinkers, I'll shift to Aristotle and Cicero, and I plan to concentrate on their discussions of the complex topic of friendship and relationships. So for Aristotle, that's Nicomachean Ethics books 8-9 (supplemented here and there by the Eudemian Ethics).  And for Cicero,  his book On Friendship, of course!

I'll be producing and releasing all of those podcast episodes over the next two months, so if you follow my Soundcloud, you can be sure to hear them as they come out.  One of the perks for my Patreon supporters, of course, is that they get early releases of these, so if that's something you're interested in, you might consider becoming a supporter.

Six Core Concepts on Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue

One of the thinkers whose work I teach regularly in my Ethics classes is Alasdair MacIntyre.  In addition to his essay "Plain Persons and Moral Philosophy", I like to introduce my students to portions of MacIntyre's highly influential work, After Virtue.  Years back, I produced some core concept videos on chapters 2 and 3 of that work. 

Recently, I created a sequence of videos on another chapter of After Virtue - number 14, "The Nature of the Virtues" - that often gets anthologized and discussed.  MacIntyre sets out several conceptions of the virtues, corresponding to different types of moral philosophies, foundational conceptions, and cultures and institutions.  He zeroes in on a conception that he views as broadly Aristotelian, and elaborates it in relation to what has become one of his most distinctive and famous ideas - that of practices.

Here are those six core concept videos focused on the main ideas, distinctions, and arguments of the chapter:

• Differing Accounts of the Virtues
• What is a Practice?
• Practices, Standards, Rules, and Goods
• Justice, Courage, and Honesty
• Virtues and Institutions
• How MacIntyre's Account Is Aristotelian

If you'd like to make a contribution to helping me continue my work making classic philosophical texts, thinkers, and topics accessible for people worldwide, consider becoming a monthly supporter on Patreon.  If you'd like to make a one-time donation, you can do so directly on Paypal, or on Buy Me A Coffee.

Wisdom for Life Radio Show Goes Weekly!

Earlier this year, my co-host Dan Hayes and I launched a new radio show.  It's called Wisdom for Life, and it focuses on taking ideas from practical philosophy and applying them to issues, challenges, and problems of everyday life.  We draw upon a number of different philosophical traditions - Stoicism, Aristotelianism, and Existentialism in particular - as well as insights from various psychological approaches.

Our latest show, episode 5 - devoted to the topic What Makes Relationships Good? - aired on Riverwest Radio (WXRW 104.1) last Saturday (you can listen to that show here).  We've been getting really positive feedback about the show itself, the topics we're focusing on, and the conversational approach that Dan and I are taking.  That's great for two reasons.

The first is that this is a rather unique radio show.  There aren't too many shows out there that discuss and apply practical philosophy with any depth or rigor and also in ways accessible to the ordinary, non-academic listener.  In fact, who are we kidding - there isn't much philosophy content out there in radio period!  So the fact that the show is getting some interest and appreciation is good for philosophy and also good for the people who listen.

The second is that Riverwest Radio is a local community radio station.  It's here to provide a diverse array of voices, interests, and programs for the Riverwest neighborhood, and also for the Greater Milwaukee community.  If that term "community radio" is unfamiliar to you, think NPR and PBS, and now imagine an even more community-centered focus.  Less for the elites, more for the person on the street.  Shows don't just have hosts.  The hosts are also the show producers.  A program like what we're doing would likely be a hard sell to NPR, but we have a home in community radio!

We started out as a bi-weekly show, but have decided during the COVID-19 crisis to step up show production to one episode a week, and we've managed to keep to that schedule now two weeks in a row!  You can listen live over the internet anywhere in the world, Saturdays, 4-5 PM Central Time.

If you'd like to hear any of the five episodes we've produced so far, here are the links.

• Wisdom For Life Episode 1 - Philosophy as a Way of Life
• Wisdom For Life Episode 2 - Dealing With Fear in a Crisis
• Wisdom For Life Episode 3 - Defining What's Good and What's Bad
• Wisdom For Life Episode 4 - Setting and Maintaining Boundaries
• Wisdom For Life Episode 5 - What Makes Relationships Good?

And if you'd like to support the work that Riverwest Radio does, offering a wide range of quality programming you won't hear anywhere else, consider making a donation to the station!

Wisdom for Life Radio Show Coming Up - Questions Welcome!

In the last few years, I've done ethics consulting work and a number of guest appearances with a local radio station, WXRW-Riverwest Radio. This is a community radio station, so there's a considerably wider variety of shows than on most other radio stations and networks.  They've been asking for some time whether I'd be interested in producing a philosophy-focused show for the station. And starting at the end of the month, that is going to be the case!

The new show is called Wisdom for Life, and will be focused on how insights and practices derived from philosophy can help people understand and deal with problems and issues arising in the course of life.  One of my fellow co-organizers of the Milwaukee Stoic Fellowship, Dan Hayes, is also the co-producer of this show. We did a 2-hour special fundraising show for Riverwest Radio, focused on generosity and giving, back in December. And earlier this month, we completed our training at the station.  So we are now ready to go on the air live!

The show will run every other Friday from 5-6 PM Central Time, starting on February 28. If there's sufficient interest, and if Dan and I manage to find the available time in our schedules, we'll consider turning it into a weekly show.  There's certainly enough topics available that we'll never run out of material to discuss.

In the very first episode, we'll introduce ourselves and briefly present the broad outlines of what the show is about.  We'll also devote a good bit of discussion to how it is that philosophy - which many people encounter as an abstract subject, rather detached from everyday life - turns out to have a lot to contribute to thinking about our lives.  And, by practical applications, to living better lives as well.

We're also planning for each show to have a segment during which we'll tackle questions coming from listeners.  We can't do call-in on-air, so we'll take questions provided to us prior to the show, and then try to work out some decent answers to them.  You can send them to me by email, in Twitter, or on the Facebook event page for the episode.  

Five Recent Guest Appearances and Interviews

It's been a while since I did a roundup of my recent appearances on radio shows, podcasts, and video channels, so it's time for another one!

I make these lists every so often, as the appearances accumulate. I also have a more comprehensive list of most of my appearances in the last seven or eight years over at my company website, if you'd like to check any of those out.

I get fairly regular requests to talk about a variety of topics because of my philosophy-focused YouTube channel, my podcast, my business ReasonIO, and my work as editor of Stoicism Today. If you'd like to invite me for a television, radio, video, or podcast appearance - or even for a live, in-person event, feel free to contact me.

Interview on Cooper Cherry podcast - two-hour conversation hosted by Cooper Cherry, discussing the nature of Hegelian dialectics, Marxism and post-structuralism, political perspectives of the present, and what's right and what's wrong with Hegel - you can listen here

Interview on Rendering Unconscious podcast - hosted by Vanessa Sinclair, discussing how philosophy gets put into practice, what philosophical counseling is and how it is connected with psychotherapy, and a range of other topics - you can listen here

Guest Show on Riverwest Radio - "Why It's Good To Give (Philosophical Perspectives)" - fundraising two-hour show with Dan Hayes, discussing philosophical insights about generosity, giving, and supporting community from Stoic and other perspectives - you can listen here.

Interview on Nathan Ormand channel - video interview hosted by Nathan Ormand, discussing Anselm of Canterbury's works and key ideas, what the "single argument is", Anselm's views on human freedom, how Anselm revolutionized prayer, and other topics - you can watch or listen here

Guest Appearance on the Post-Structuralist Tent Revival podcast: hosted by Eric Aldieri, Jacob Given, and Paula Landerreche Cardillo, discussing perspectives on anger in ancient philosophy and theology, and techniques for managing anger – you can listen here

There are several other podcast interviews I've done in the last month or so which aren't yet out.  As they appear, I'll post about them in my social media and on my Patreon site.

Eight Podcast Episodes on Aristotle's Metaphysics book 1

As my heavy-load semester begins to grind to an end, and I see some of the proverbial light glimmer at the end of the tunnel, I've been able to set aside some time to resume converting my core concept videos into Sadler's Lectures podcast episodes. Right now I'm working on a set of lectures on Rainer Maria Rilke's work, Letters to a Young Poet (I released the first of those today). 

One of the other texts that I teach very frequently is Aristotle's Metaphysics, and I generally stick with book 1 of that work, in which Aristotle engages in a number of important things.  He discusses the nature and objects of modes of human cognition, leading to the disciplines, and to philosophy.  He also introduces his famous distinction of the "four causes" (material, formal, efficient, and final).  Then he provides us with a a critical and developmental overview of metaphysical accounts up to his own time, including that of his own teacher, Plato.

If you missed any of these podcast episodes when they first came out, you can find them all here.  They take you through the entirety of Metaphysics book 1, providing you with my overviews and explanations of what Aristotle is up to at each point.  All told, they're about 2 hours of lecture that you can listen to anywhere. Here they are:

• Philosophy's Origin in Wonder
• Experience, Art, and Science
• Metaphysics and the Four Causes
• Accounts Based on Material Causes
• Accounts Introducing Efficient Causes
• The Pythagoreans' Metaphysical Account
• Plato's Metaphysics of Form
• Criticisms of Plato's Forms

If you'd like to support my ongoing work taking the 600+ core concept videos I've produced over the years, and turning them into these downloadable podcast episodes, available to learners worldwide for free, consider becoming a monthly supporter on Patreon, or just make a one-time donation to Buy Me A Coffee

Moving Video Premiere Date to November 30

One of the new series of videos I started this year provide viewers with my expert advice about how to engage in self-directed study in the field of Philosophy.  Once I have produced a video in this series, I premiere it on YouTube.  That allows anyone who is interested in the topic and the particular thinker to join in via live chat, while everyone watches it for the first time.  I answer questions and address comments over the hour that the video airs.

This month, the plan is to produce, release, and premiere a video focused on how to productively study the range of writers that fall under the rubric of "early Christian philosophy".  This includes a host of thinkers from the very early generations of that new religion, way of life, and indeed in some cases, philosophy all the way though what we might call the "era of Augustine" (though some are his contemporaries).

There were quite a few early Christian writers who explicitly framed Christianity as a "philosophy" and sometimes even called themselves "philosophers".  These were almost invariably Christian writers who had a substantial background in a wide range of the philosophical schools, ideas, and controversies of ancient Mediterranean culture, and who engaged some of those movements and thinkers as interlocutors.  Sometimes they willingly borrowed from pagan thinkers, when there was something of value to incorporate into the new synthesis and the new philosophy as a way of life, centered around the figure and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and the developing community of the Church.

In the case of some of the authors I'll be discussing - Justin Martyr, Lactantius, Clement of Alexandria, John Cassian, as examples - I've been reading and thinking about their works (and occasionally teaching them as well) for about two decades.  So I've got a lot of advice to assemble and organize for the video.  Given my extraordinarily heavy teaching load this semester (seven classes), I'm a bit behind on video production.

I was hoping to have this next video on self-directed study in philosophy ready to premiere this Saturday, but now think that unlikely.  Accordingly, I'm moving the date for this release - and the Q&A session - out to Saturday, November 30.  In the meantime, here's the other videos in the series:

• Self-Directed Study - Plato's Philosophy
• Self-Directed Study - Aristotle's Philosophy
• Self-Directed Study - Stoic Philosophy
• Self-Directed Study - Epicurean Philosophy
• Self-Directed Study - Cicero's Philosophy
• Self-Directed Study - Anselm of Canterbury's Philosophy

Aristotelian Magnificence And Student Loans

Last weekend, Robert Smith, the commencement speaker at Morehouse College's graduation ceremony, announced a gift of major significance.  Every member of the graduating class would have all of their student loans paid off.  The average student debt, reported by Morehouse's president, is around $24,000, and the entire payout is estimated to be about 40 million dollars.

Smith is a billionaire - they estimate that his net worth is 4.47 billion dollars - so this massive, generous, and for many people life-changing act of charity shaves off a little under 1% of his current assets. That's still quite a bit.  And this isn't the only act of philanthropy on Smith's part - he donated $50 million to Cornell University, his alma mater, a few years ago. 

Paying off college loans en masse like this might be lumped into the same category as donating money directly to a college or university.  In some cases, alumni donations go right into the institution's endowment.  In others, they may be earmarked for a new building project, for a program, for enjoying a chair, or all sorts of other ends.  One can argue that those sorts of uses are of general benefit to everyone within the educational institution that receives such largesse, and even to the wider communities which the institution is involved with.

This strikes me as something quite different.  It certainly has a much more direct impact upon the lives of many young people.  It brightens their futures, perhaps emboldens them about their prospects, removes anxiety over finances.  It will likely steer some of them by the power of example toward smaller-scale acts or attitudes of generosity on their own part. 

Ancient Greek virtue ethicists, like Aristotle, had a name for the type of large-scale, big picture generosity that Smith chose to engage in.  They didn't call it "generosity" (or to use an older-fashioned term, "liberality"), eleutheria in Greek, because they recognized that scale mattered.  They called it megaloprepeia, "magnificence".  And this virtue played an important role in social or civic life.

Rich people were expected to pull their weight within their communities, not simply cordon themselves off securely, enjoy their wealth, and leave the affairs and needs of the city to the rest of the citizenry.  To use Aristotle's own examples, one rich person might spend a portion of their wealth on equipping a ship for the city's naval forces.  Another might underwrite the expenditures for an important cultural event, specifically paying for a chorus and staging for a dramatic production. Yet another might provide a common meal for the public.  Funding a public building project would be another example.

It isn't enough - if you adopt a virtue ethics perspective - to just throw money around, of course.  One vice opposed to the virtue of magnificence is that of vulgarity.  Being a show-off, looking for admiration, making the act of public beneficence into a transaction for recognition, prestige, or power - all of that is vulgarity rather than generosity. Motive, and not just the money spent, matters.

There's more that I intend to write about Smith's act of largesse and the virtue of magnificence. I'll do later this week in my Medium site.  For the time being, here's a few interesting pieces on Smith, his gift, and its recipients.

• Robert Smith Pledges To Pay Off Student Loans For Morehouse College's Class Of 2019 (NPR)
• Morehouse’s student loan forgiveness is an incredibly useful economics experiment (Vox)
• Who is Robert F. Smith? (Chicago Tribune)
• Robert Smith’s Gift to Morehouse College Left This Student Behind (Vice)

Video Premiere Today - How To Study Aristotle On Your Own

Coming up at Noon (Central Time) today, I have a new video premiering, the second one in the new series on Self-Directed Study in Philosophy.  You'll see the embedded link for the videos right below

The videos in this series are designed to help people who want to study philosophy on their own - not enrolling in a traditional academic institution - get started and get the most out of their studies.   This one is specifically about Aristotle, and I'll be following it up next month with a video providing  expert advice about how to productively study Stoic texts and thinkers on one's own.

If you join me at the premiere later today for this video, you'll not only be one of the first people to get to see it.  You'll be able to ask questions and make comments in real time, in the chat window.  And I'll be there, doing my best to answer and respond to them (sometimes it's not possible to keep up with all of the chat comments.

If you click on the video just below, that will take you to the actual page where the premiere happens.  I hope to see some of you there, and chat with you, in this premiere session!  If not, you can always watch the video after it airs, and see the side-conversation in the recorded chat window.

Virtue Ethics and Pleasure as an End

At a philosophy dissertation defense I attended today - on an excellent project bearing on sex education by Shaun Miller, which I have been following for some time (here's an interview with him on his project) - a very interesting question got put to him.

After critically examining the moral assumptions and foundations of existing sexual education curricula, Shaun advocates for an ascesis- and virtue-ethics-informed approach, general outlines of which are worked through in his nearly 500-page dissertation.

The question that got asked by one of the members of the dissertation committee had to do with Aristotelian virtue ethics and pleasure as a telos (goal, end, or purpose).  The question was asked as a challenge, and unfortunately neither the asker nor Shaun knew the relatively straightforward answer that is easily drawn out of Aristotle's own text, particularly the Nicomachean Ethics, books 3 and 4.

Here is the problem that bringing in Aristotle's virtue ethics as a basis seems to raise when it comes to sex.  When it comes to virtuous behavior, and a virtuous disposition, Aristotle thinks that pleasure is not the goal, the telos, of the behavior or disposition.  It "accompanies" or "follows upon" behaving virtuously and being virtuous.  In fact, if the person doesn't feel some sense of pleasure in being, say generous, or just, or temperate, then that person doesn't yet fully possess that virtue.  But if a person is virtuous, it's not pleasure that orients their practical reasoning, their evaluations, their choices, their actions.

This view of Aristotle's position is right, broadly speaking.  He does say things along these lines in book 2 of the Nicomachean Ethics. But. . .  there are two virtues in Aristotle's listing that explicitly bear upon pleasures and pains.  In fact, he examines these in considerable detail in books 3 and 4, and his discussions there make it clear that while pleasure is not the sole end in these virtues, pleasure plays a central role in them.  It doesn't just accompany them as a side-effect.  These virtues - in Aristotle's own words - bear directly upon pleasures.

What are these two virtues?

One of them is pretty easy for anyone to guess - that is, if they've encountered or studied much Aristotelian moral theory.  It's sophrosune in Greek, often translated as "temperance," or "self-control" (though that is something a translation of enkratia), or "moderation".  This virtue has to do specifically with bodily pleasures, our indulgence in them, and our desires for them.  A temperate person will enjoy and indulge in pleasures, at the right time, to the right extent, for the right reason, and so forth.  But they will - as a central component of this virtue - focus upon pleasure.

The other is a virtue that many people skimming through the Nicomachean Ethics, or getting the typical classroom teaching treatment, won't focus on all that much - which is a real shame, since what Aristotle has to say is pretty insightful.  It's called philia, but it's typically translated as "friendliness" rather than "friendship" (which Aristotle discusses in books 8 and 9 of the Nicomachean Ethics).  It too deals with pleasure - as well as pain - but not one's own.  It has to do with giving pleasure or pain to others. What it has to do with is what activities, discourses, and practices we share or don't, approve of or criticize, with others.  We give people pleasure or pain depending on what limits we lay down, observe, or enforce.

This issue of virtues and pleasures is likely worth digging into further, so once my semester is finished, I'll do so at greater length over in my Medium site.

My Students' Interest in Aristotle's Social Virtues

This semester I am teaching two sections of Foundations in Philosophy at Marquette University.  We are running through a number of texts and thinkers (you can read the list of them here), and among those are Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.  Because I added more Plato, we can't do quite so much from Aristotle, so we are giving the Ethics just three days.  

The first was devoted to books 1 and 2 - so teleology, happiness, and the nature of virtue.  Next class session, we're doing the first part of book 3, a bit of book 6, and parts of book 7 - so matters of moral responsibility, choice and deliberation, and the issue of weakness of will (akrasia).  Our most recent class session last week was devoted to books 3 and 4 - where Aristotle goes into depth in examining each of the virtues (except justice and practical wisdom) and their associated vices.

I created a poll for each class section in which the students could choose the three virtues they most wanted me to go over in class.  About 40% of my students participated, and the numbers weren't exactly the same from section to section.  But there was one interesting area of overlap.  Students were definitely interested in - and wanted to know more about - the "social virtues".

The three that Aristotle discusses that particularly have to do with our social existence and nature are found at the end of book 4.  They often get short shrift when people are presenting Aristotle's moral theory - if you run out of time, they tend to get skipped - but his focus upon them as distinctive virtues, irreducible to other moral dispositions, worthy of examination, discussion, and development - that's actually an important innovation on Aristotle's part.

What are these three virtues?  One of them is Truthfulness.  Not truthfulness or honesty in all matters - a good bit of that falls under the virtue of justice - but rather truthfulness about oneself, about who one is, what kind of person one is, one's value and achievements.

Another of these is Friendliness.  Not the same thing as friendship - that's discussed at considerable length in books 8 - but rather a broader disposition that one might show to more than just one's friends.  This one, it turns out, has to do with giving pain or pleasure to others, and participating in common activities.  It involves being able to set limits, but also join in to what one ought to.

And then there's Good Humor.  It's very interesting that Aristotle would single this out as a virtuous disposition.  But it makes good sense - as I pointed out to my class, one old (and not too bad) definition of human being is animal ridens, the animal that laughs.  Humor, comedy, and joking are an important dimension to human existence.

My students wanted to think through what Aristotle had to teach us about all three of these (and about Courage, Right Ambition, Generosity, and Good Temper).  Both classes gave the highest preference to Good Humor.  Quite interesting. . . 

Four New Appearances

It's about time for another roundup of my recent appearances on radio shows, podcasts, and video channels. The last list I made was in November, and several new ones have aired since then.  There are several other appearances and episodes either scheduled for recording, or already recorded and waiting to be released.

I get fairly regular requests to talk about a variety of topics because of my philosophy-focused YouTube channel, my business ReasonIO, and my work as editor of Stoicism Today.  If you'd like to invite me for a television, radio, video, or podcast appearance - or even for a live, in-person event, feel free to contact me.

With no further ado, here are those new appearances:

Interview on the Intellectual Explorers Club podcast: hosted by Peter Limberg, discussing Stoicism past and present, philosophical counseling, intentional living, and how to make philosophy practical - you can listen here

Interview on the Tom Richey Podcast: hosted by Tom Richey, discussing Alexis de Tocquevilles' work Democracy in America, models of democracy, intermediate institutions, soft despotism, and the current state of our democracy - you can listen here

Interview with Faith Colloquium podcast: hosted by Shebuel Varghese, discussing what ancient and medieval philosophers have to tell us about anger and how to manage it successfully - you can listen here

Guest Appearance on RiverWest Radio's Image For Hire show: hosted by the Skrauss, discussing the works and thought of H.P. Lovecraft, after a long warmup discussing the nature of philosophy, teaching classic philosophical works to students of all sorts, and the intersections between philosophy and other fields - you can listen here

Seven Videos on Aristotle's Metaphysics book 1

This semester, in my Intro to Philosophy and Foundations of Philosophy classes, I'm teaching book 1 of Aristotle's Metaphysics to my students.  Whenever I can, I strive to create videos covering the material that I assign them to read, and then we discuss in class.

For my students, these short videos provide an additional set of resources, helping them to understand the readings and consolidate their growing knowledge.  The general public utilizes them for a much wider set of purposes.

I may produce some additional videos on Aristotle's Metaphysics, and even on book 1, but for now, here are the seven videos I currently have available.

• Philosophy's Origin in Wonder
• Experience, Art, and Science
• Metaphysics and the Four Causes
• Accounts Based on Material Causes
• Accounts Introducing Efficient Causes
• Plato's Metaphysics of Form
• Criticisms of Plato's Forms

Down the line, when I find the time, I may even develop an online course on Aristotle's Metaphysics.

Nine Recent Appearances

It's about time for another roundup of my recent appearances on radio shows, podcasts, and video channels. The last list I made was back in April, and nine new ones have aired since then.  There are a few others either scheduled for recording, or already recorded and waiting to be released.

I get fairly regular requests to talk about a variety of topics because of my philosophy-focused YouTube channel, my business ReasonIO, and my work as editor of Stoicism Today.  If you'd like to invite me for a television, radio, video, or podcast appearance - or even for a live, in-person event, feel free to contact me.

With no further ado, here are the nine new appearances:

Over 450 Videos in the Philosophy Core Concept Series

Since the beginning of the semester, I have been quite simply swamped with work!  In addition to teaching 5 different courses at 4 different academic institutions, I had my usual duties as editor of Stoicism Today - including Stoicon 2018 and Stoic Week - as well as a heavy load of speaking, meetings with clients, and consulting work.  I did manage to get some video production in there as well.

One type of video I've been routinely creating are "Philosophy Core Concepts".  These are short (10-25 minute) discussions of key ideas, arguments, or distinctions made by major philosophical thinkers.  They span the gamut from ancient philosophy down to 20th century thinkers (check out the list below).  I've produced quite a few of these.  Today, I took a look at the playlist, to see how many I'd done so far.

Over 450!  That's the number of the ones I've publicly released (my Patreon supporters get an early look at these videos before the general public does).  In fact, we hit number 451 today with the latest release, discussing the Epicurean distinction between mental and bodily pleasures.  So I thought I'd step back a bit, reflect, and write a few things about that video series (which I think will likely pass 500 videos early next year!)

Texts and Authors I'm Teaching This Fall

We're now at the end of Week 2 of the classes I'm teaching locally for Marquette University and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.  Many readers, viewers, subscribers, supporters, and other fans have expressed curiosity about the thinkers and texts we're covering in my Foundations in Philosophy (Marquette) and Philosophies of Human Nature (MIAD) classes, so I thought I'd take a bit of time and discuss those a bit.

There is a good bit of overlap in the material covered in these two classes, and there's several reasons for that.  Every one of the texts and authors we're reading and discussing is someone I think well worth engaging with for a student just beginning in philosophy.  Some of them are thinkers I've previously developed resources on when I taught them in the past, so I have good handouts, lesson page, or videos ready at hand. And, since I'm teaching a LOT this semester, I wanted to keep from having two entirely different preps for these two classes.

So for all of you who have been inquiring about my classes - and anyone else who is interested in the matter - here's the reading lists, followed by a bit more about new resources I'm developing not only for those academic classes, but also for my other online students, as well as for the general public.

A Reminder About Relationships From Aristotle

Aristotle's famous discussion about friendship occurs in Nicomachean Ethics books 8 and 9. What presenters typically draw from his inquiry tends to be restricted to a few topics: the nature of friendship itself, the three main types of friendship, and the three values associated with those types (virtue, pleasure, and usefulness).  His treatment of "friendship" - or really, better expressed, relationships - has much more to offer, however, and one particularly important topic is how relationships break down.

Why do people stop feeling mutual affection?  Why do they cease to desire good for the other person for their own sake?  Why do they begin to complain, feel resentful, or cut back their own involvement in the relationship?  Aristotle doesn't examine every possible reason - how could he? - but he does set out some generally applicable guidelines that remain relevant to relationships in the present.

Among these is the need to pay proper attention to imbalances within relationships.  Does one person bring more to the table than the other?  Do the partners change in themselves, or in what they provide to the other person, over the course of time?  Do desires and expectations change as well - and are these changes noticed, communicated, and dealt with effectively? If not - and particularly when the relationship is on shakier grounds than the partners would like to believe - then it is reasonable, though sometimes lamentable, that the relationship breaks down.

One red flag, which Aristotle touches upon, but doesn't explore as much as one might like, is when the "friends" have markedly different understandings of what their relationship is about.  They might also differ over what goods the friends are providing or producing for each other, what needs ought to be met, and where the limits or boundaries are.  This can be particularly problematic when these differences of basic viewpoint remain unarticulated, or even unsuspected.  But even when they are right out in the open, these differences can gradually erode the relationship, if one of the partners - rightly or wrongly - is unwilling to accept the other person's version of the relationship.

A closely connected problem is highlighted by the passage quoted above.  Getting something "different" or "other" than what one actually desires in some respects feels worse than simply getting nothing. And when that comes from a person partnered to you in a relationship - whether romantic, familial, friendship, business, or even just social - it sends a message:  that person doesn't really desire you to enjoy the good you do desire. 

It ends up producing even more disappointment, sadness, anger - even anxiety - when the person doing the giving insists, for example, that what he or she gives is really what you deserve or ought to have.  Or that what you desire and perhaps even explicitly ask for isn't as good as what they decide to give.  All of us can recall times this has happened to us.  Now with that in mind, consider whether we haven't also engaged in this sort of substitution with others in our relationships.

Podcasting Has Begun!

Yesterday, I uploaded and released the first three files for my new podcast.  Three short lectures on key ideas in Plato's text, The Apology!  I've created a Soundcloud site, which you can access by clicking here.  You can also go to the Sadler's Sound Files blog where I'll be posting podcast episodes individually and most news about the podcast from this point on.

For years, viewers, subscribers, supporters, and other fans have been asking me if I would convert my massive and growing stock of online philosophy lecture videos into mp3 files.

There definitely are some advantages to doing so.  Many people listen to, as well as watch, my philosophy lectures and presentations.  But streaming video requires a lot more data than downloading a podcast.  So that's one good reason.  Another is that it affords me the chance to edit and improve the sound quality of many of the recordings.

It requires that I carve out additional time from my busy schedule, though, so for a long time that held me back.  What has made it possible now is reaching a sufficient level of support through crowdfunding (if you're interested in supporting my work, check out my Patreon site).  That effectively underwrites the time and work needed to produce the sound files.

I'm starting for the moment with converting videos on Plato into podcast lectures.  In the coming months you can expect to see episodes on six other main thinkers, three from ancient philosophy - Aristotle, Cicero, and Epictetus - and three from the Existentialist movement - Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.  I'm hoping to get 10-15 podcast episodes done per month, though greater support will help me work through the videos more quickly, and perhaps eventually get caught up with the videos

The People Have Spoken - Podcasts Start With Plato!

As I start writing this, we are about to hit a major milestone on Patreon.  Thanks to several recent generous pledges, and several longstanding supporters increasing their level of support, we are right on the threshold of another goal!  And once we pass it, I have committed to doing something major.

For several years, viewers, subscribers, followers, and other fans of my main YouTube channel have been asking me to convert those videos into podcast episodes that they could listen to on the go.  I'd say at this point, I've been asked about that well over 1,000 times.  Doing that sort of work takes a good bit of time, so I committed to starting that process once I reach a sufficient level of crowdfunding support on Patreon.  And now we're almost there! (if you'd like to get us over the line, here's where you can become a supporter).

I don't do a lot of "market research" when it comes to my various projects.  Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I do almost none.  I'm much more about studying and presenting the material in ways that are faithful to the texts and thinkers, rigorous but also accessible to the world-wide audience of people interested in philosophy.  Before starting up the podcast, though, I thought it might be prudent to get some input about what material I should start with,  So I ran a poll, and we've already got some useful results.

Aristotle Didn't Say That! - On The Topic Of Criticism

The internet is full of fake quotations attributed to famous authors.  For some reason, Aristotle seems to attract more of these than most others, typically posted and then sometimes commented upon by people who know fairly little about him and his thought.  Here's a gem that has been making its way around the web - particularly in leadership, self-help, and personal development contexts:


Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

This time around it happened to be cited by the Tiny Buddha site - using the quote as a springboard for what proved in parts an interesting article - starting, of course, by parroting an erroneous attribution that just a few moments' casual research would have revealed as such. 

Where does this quote actually come from?  Why couldn't it be from Aristotle?  Why would people unthinkingly accept and repeat that attribution.  Even if it is not from Aristotle, is there some value to the saying?  Those are some interesting questions that I'll answer below - though not in quite that order.