Ep. 324: Plato's "Cratylus" on Language (Part...

On the first half of Sigmund Freud's Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921). Why do members of a mob get dumber and less inhibited? Freud considers Gustave Le Bon's famous book on crowds but then turns to more organized groups like armies and churches. For all groups ...  Afficher plus

In a special holiday episode, we get to meet musician and podcaster Roger Heathers, who edits this show. Together, Roger and I discuss how we make the show and share some highlights and challenges re. recent guests. At the beginning and the end of the show, you get to hear two tr ...  Afficher plus

In this week's episode, we learn about Plato's "Symposium", which you might think of as philosophy's version of fan fiction. We also learn about Plato's "Theory of Forms" and ask ourselves what makes a tree, well, a tree. This leads to discussion of Plato's famous "Allegory of th ...  Afficher plus

This week we talk about the prosperity of athens and how it led to the rise and ideas of a group of philosopher teachers called the Sophists, we tied up some loose ends and helped put all that we've learned in the last two episodes into context with a graph of the presocratics, a ...  Afficher plus

The Greek thinker Socrates was put to death for encouraging his students to question everything - from their own beliefs to the laws and customs of Athenian society. But his ideas didn't die with him.  Here's a chance to hear two episodes from our archive examining the legacy of ...  Afficher plus

Philosophy of language and Heraclitean flux in Plato's Cratylus