You can picture a bronze statue sprouting wings and flying off — so it's logically possible, right? Brian Ellis says no: your imagination only reaches as far as your eyes do. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 340: Brian Ellis on the Implications of Essentialism (Part One)

New episode — Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part Two) Socrates asks which wrestler is better: the one who takes a fall on purpose, or by accident? Depends which kind of wrestling.

Can you learn virtue from a PowerPoint? Socrates had opinions about the ancient Greek self-help industry. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part One)

The Wizard of Oz quietly contains one of the great thought experiments in philosophy of mind. The Tin Woodman chopped himself to pieces one limb at a time — and stayed himself. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 222: Debating Functionalism (Block, Chalmers)

Seth invents a constellation to make a point about Plato. It works better than it should. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part One)

Aristotle noticed something strange 2,300 years ago: the corpse that repels you in life gives you pleasure as a picture. "That's a mind blowing insight." On the Poetics. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 243: Aristotle’s “Poetics” on Art and Tragedy

Susanne Langer thought the first words weren't names for things — they were interjections shouted during a ritual. Here is that theory of the origin of language, reconstructed entirely out of the word "booyah." The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 290: Susanne Langer on Our…

Plato: nobody does wrong on purpose. Augustine: that's exactly what sin is. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part One)

Plato calls the sophist a magician. One translation says "enchanter." The Partially Examined Life on why that word is better — and why nobody working children's birthday parties uses it. The Partially Examined Life · Episode 143: Plato’s “Sophist” on Lies, Categorization, and…

How much do we admire the truly impotent good? Seth volunteers to take a bullet. It does not go well. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part One)

Zarathustra spends ten years in a cave on a mountaintop — which raises a question nobody asks about Plato's cave: what's the sunlight situation? Four philosophers try to work it out. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 213: Nietzsche’s Zarathustra

New episode — Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part One) The trick at the heart of Plato's Hippias Minor, explained.

A comedian's job is to entertain. A philosopher's job is to stay obsessed. On Jaspers, comedy, and why philosophy never gets to the punchline. The Partially Examined Life · Episode 109: Jaspers’s Existentialism with Guest Paul Provenza

After the battle, Arjuna asks Krishna if he could maybe run through the whole thing again, because he's forgotten it. Some scholars think it's satire. On the Bhagavad Gita. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 204: The Bhagavad Gita’s Hindu Theology

J.J.C. Smart's own admission of where his theory is weakest. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 401: Mind/Brain Identity Theory (U.T. Place, J.J.C. Smart) (Part Two)

Augustine's father sees him at the public baths, notices something, and runs home delighted to tell his wife. The Confessions, Book 2 — and the theological problem it creates. The Partially Examined Life · Episode 121: Augustine on Being Good

Is the mental something over and above the brain? Galen Strawson has a firm answer. The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 401: Mind/Brain Identity Theory (U.T. Place, J.J.C. Smart) (Part Two)