What do you own? Why do you own it? Are things owned individually or collectively? Do citizens own public parks and do they have an obligation to its maintenance? Can you own ideas or other intangible things like money and time? Join us for this exploratory episode on the concept of property.  Contact us via email at [email protected] Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.com

In this bit of nonsense, we talk about Taylor's cardigans, how Mr. Parsons avoided fraud, Andrew's mysterious travel, and the difficulties of the Polish language.  Contact us via email at [email protected] Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.com

In this episode, we delve into the rich work of political philosophy by Leo Strauss, John Rawls, and Robert Nozick. We begin with Strauss's influential ideas on liberal education, examining how he views cultural cultivation as essential for intellectual development and a bulwark against the homogenization of mass culture. Strauss's Aristotelian perspective on nurturing the individual's nature through education sets the stage for a deeper exploration of societal structures. Transitioning to...

Need a bit of the ODP crew without the philosophy? Welcome to ODP Shorts! Andrew needs a haircut and thinks David Beckham is a fine American, Mr. Parsons' football team is struggling, and Taylor reviews former Houston Astros Jerseys.   Contact us via email at [email protected] Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.com

At one point in history, European countries were ruled by monarchs.  The Catholic Church also exerted a great deal of control. And our physical explanations for why nature is comprised the way it is relied on  metaphysical explanations reliant on God. Then enter the Enlightenment. Thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were instrumental in this transition from Medieval conceptions of the divine rights of kings and original sin to that of representative governments,...

Welcome to a very spectral, spooky episode of Open Door Philosophy! Since this episode releases on Halloween, we thought how better to celebrate than talk about our spookiest philosophers! You'll have to listen to find out who they are though, because suspense is the name of the game! Contact us via email at [email protected] Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.com

We know war happens all the time, unfortunately.  Caught up in war are states and individuals who wish for others to see their actions as reasonable, for the best, and ultimately just. But it seems war involves many actions which are considered wrong in other circumstances, killing another human being for example.  Most people will agree that self-defense is justifiable, but how far does that defense go before it becomes vengeance? And a particular difficulty for aggressor states is that they...

Philosophy is a notoriously massive subject, and for someone unfamiliar, it might be difficult to figure out where to start. Do you look for a famous name on the bookshelf? Try to choose a subject? Start with self-help? Maybe join a book club? In this episode, we answer a listener question by exploring how to get started in philosophy by recounting our own experiences and plotting a course.  Contact us via email at [email protected] Open Door Philosophy on Instagram...

The Shawnee, a native American tribe, tells a tale of brother crow and brother buffalo which imparts the wisdom of balance: to only hunt the buffalo when it is necessary for food and skins, but to remember that each creature is our brother and sister too. Tales like this one are not uncommon in many indigenous cultures around the world.  Through an illustrative story set in nature, they transmit the ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical beliefs of the tribe from one generation to the...

On first listen, you might think this episode is about the Tao Te Ching. We thought it would be too, but it became a meandering conversations about the origin of authority, premises that lead to conclusion, justification, wisdom versus reason, and social media.  Open Door Philosophy on Twitter @d_parsonage or @opendoorphil Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.com Contact us via email at [email protected]

It’s pretty common in the self-help age we live in, with piles of well meaning books and as many podcast as the stars, to pursue happiness. But often the focus is on what we can change or tweak in our life to obtain it rather than what exactly it is. What is happiness? Perhaps if we identify what happiness is, we can create a foundation on which to build. Open Door Philosophy on Twitter @d_parsonage or @opendoorphil Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy...

Love is a driving factor in our decisions. People plan their lives around who they love: they stay close to their parents, take a completely random job to stay with their spouse, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars for their future children’s education. But just as the people we love drive our decisions, so do what activities we love. Famously, Paul Gauguin ran away from his wife and children, culture and country to pursue his love of painting in Tahiti. The composer Piotor Tchaikovsky...

Around 2500 years ago in Ancient Greece, Empedocles contemplated the essential questions of the universe, including the role of love and strife. Empedocles is known as a pre-Socratic philosopher, although he was primarily a poet. In his surviving works, On Nature and Purifications, Empedocles posits that the cosmic powers of Love and Strife govern the four indestructible elements of the universe. Love unifies the elements with each other and draws like to like. Since then, philosophers,...

Roughly 3700 years ago, in the fertile crescent of mesopotamia, the first Western epic was composed. The character Gilgamesh, and his friend Enkidu, have many adventures battling mighty beasts. But when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh is thrown into, what we would today call, an existential crisis, as Gilgamesh grapples with themes such as friendship and love, mortality, free will and fate, and the search for meaning. Since that time, literature has been consistently used as a vehicle to explore...

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in 1889 into a wealthy and aristocratic family in Austria. He was a brilliant child, and he was educated at some of the best schools in the country. After graduating from Cambridge University, Wittgenstein began a career in mathematics and logic. He quickly made a name for himself as a brilliant thinker, and he published several important works on these subjects. In the early 1900s, Wittgenstein began to turn his attention to philosophy. He was particularly...

One of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, British philosopher Bertrand Russell's reach is inescapable.  He was a true polymath, with interests in mathematics, logic, philosophy, politics, and social reform. And he was also a controversial figure, often outspoken in his criticism of the status quo. Join us as we ask, who was Bertrand Russell? Episode Resources A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell Problems of...

Join us for this exploration of the concept of hope from a philosophical perspective. What is hope? Can hope ever be justified?  What are the uses of hope? And what do different philosophical schools say about hope? Plus a visit to the bookshelf! The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet: John Green Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way: Kieran Setiya Open Door Philosophy on Twitter @d_parsonage or @opendoorphil Open Door Philosophy on Instagram...

The philosophy of Transcendentalism  advocated for living simply, evaluating tradition, and cultivating your inner-self. Join us as we explore some of the practices that Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson participated in attempting to cultivate the soul. We also discuss the new Snapchat AI. Apologies for the poor audio track.  Episode Resources Transcendentalism and The Cultivation of the Soul by Barry M. Andrews Nature and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson Walden, Civil...

Surely despair is a state of mind we all experience from time to time, and once through it we never want to experience such a state again. The Danish philosopher and father of Existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard, believed that despair was a universal feature of existence. In other words, none of us are getting out of it, and it's also not a temporary state, but something we endure all the time. Fear not though, Kierkegaard has an answer. Join us as we explore is text The Sickness Unto Death as...

Who doesn't love a little Marcus Aurelius? Join us for our third annual visit with our old philosophical friend, Marcus. He hasn't change much, but maybe we have. Also tune in for another installment of ChatGPT versus Mr. Parsons and Taylor orchestrated by the gamemaster Andrew, as well as a visit to the bookshelf! Good times had by all. Episode Resources Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Hays Translation) Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Waterfield Translation) Open Door Philosophy on...

Hinduism is the oldest continuous eastern philosophy in the world. In this episode we look at a bit of it's history, some of it's main beliefs, the influential Bhagavad Gita, and offer some practical application. Episode Resources The Bhagavad Gita  Open Door Philosophy on Twitter @d_parsonage or @opendoorphil Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.com Contact us via email at [email protected]

The Four Noble Truths, The Eight Fold Path, the interdependent nature of all things, and licking honey from a razor blade. Buddhism has a tremendous following world wide, but with such notoriety comes many misconceptions, or at least misguided approximations, from those who do not practice or live in a region where it is widely practiced. Join us this episode as we focus on some of the more philosophical claims Buddhism makes such as the nature of suffering. Episode Resources Old Path White...

One of the three great Chinese philosophical traditions, join us as we explore Confucianism. What is the gentleman? What does it mean to be benevolent? And why follow the rites? Episode Resources The Analects  Open Door Philosophy on Twitter @d_parsonage or @opendoorphil Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.com Contact us via email at [email protected]

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name." Thus begins one of the most famous and mysterious claims in philosophy from one of the two primary texts of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching. Join us as we explore the philosophy of Taoism which values balance, flexibility, and non-attachment in this first of a four part series on Eastern Philosophy! Episode Resources Tao Te Ching - Feng/English Translation Open Door Philosophy on Twitter...

It's our 50th episode, and we decided to celebrate by answering your questions! Do we have free will? What's a philosophical tv show/movie we like?  What got us into philosophy, and what keeps us there? And more! Plus a little retrospective, some looking forward, and a lot of laughs! Open Door Philosophy on Twitter @d_parsonage or @opendoorphil Open Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophy Open Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.com Contact us via email at...