This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher and head of the Japanese Kyoto school, Nishitani Keiji's book, The Self-Overcoming Of Nihilism Specifically it examines his discussion in chapter 1 "Nihilism As Existence", which distinguishes several unproductive and inadequate approaches to nihilism, and then frames nihilism as a problem of the self. He notes that the self can be broken into two selves, one which observes and questions, the other which is observed and...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' work The Myth of Sisyphus Specifically it examines his discussion of Dostoevsky, his novels, and his characters' perspectives in the third part of the work, "Absurd Creation". While several of the characters that Dostoevsky discusses are people whose thought, life, and engagements emerge from and grapple with the absurd, according to Camus Dostoevsky himself makes a leap out past the...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' work The Myth of Sisyphus Specifically it examines the section "Ephemeral Creation" in the third part of work. Camus discusses the possibility of an "ascesis" of he absurd that would remain true to it despite our tendency to succumb to hope. He discusses how this would work for the creative novelist, and the role that revolt, freedom, and diversity play To support my ongoing work, go to...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' work The Myth of Sisyphus Specifically it examines his discussion in the third part of the work, Absurd Creation, examining how art and specifically fiction or the novel end up intersecting with philosophy in their engagements with the absurd. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler or Buy Me A Coffee - https://buymeacoffee.com/a4quydwom If you'd like...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' work The Myth of Sisyphus Specifically it examines the third of the sketches or examples Camus provides in part 2 of the work, illustrating ways in which a person might live out an "ethics of quantity" in the face of the absurd. Camus discusses conquest and the person he calls "the conquerer", but this person in late modern times will be quite different from conquerors in earlier...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' work The Myth of Sisyphus Specifically it examines the second sketch or example he discusses in the second part of the work, "The Absurd Man". Taking the stage actor as a paradigm, Camus examines how living out a life that imitates many other lives on the stage, portraying passions through the body, can be one kind of an "ethics of quantity" To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' work The Myth of Sisyphus Specifically it examines one of the sketches or examples that he provides in the second part of his work, illustrating one particular "ethics of quantity" that remains consistently engaged with the absurd. This one centers around the fictional figure of Don Juan, reinterpreted by Camus. He engages in a seemingly endless series of seductions of women throughout...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' work The Myth of Sisyphus Specifically it examines his discussion in part 2, which develops a sort of ethics confronting the absurd in human existence. This ethics would be developed within the scope of a person's life, and would not be reducible to universal rules or principles. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on the importance of moderating, or placing some limits on frankness of speech (in ancient Greek, parrhesia) within the scope of genuine friendship. These include advice to avoid approaches that are likely to be insulting to the person being criticized, since frankness has room for graciousness. Frank criticism...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on how flatterers engage in imitation of, rather than genuine, frankness of speech with the people that they want to deceive into thinking they are actually friends. Plutarch identifies several ways in which the seeming frankness of flatterers differs from that of friends, and notes a particularly problematic...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on the importance of frankness of speech (in ancient Greek, parrhesia) within genuine friendship. Plutarch argues that we all need friends not only to be pleasant to us and praise us, but also to point out where we are going wrong in our attitudes, words, and actions. He provides advice about how and when we...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of a number of tricks and techniques that more sophisticated flatterers use to attempt to imitate friendship. Among these are using a fake frankness of speech, imitating similarities with the person targeted, pretending to share the same problems or deficits, praising the person wrongly for...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on the role that similarity plays in generating and sustaining real friendships between people, and the deliberate and deceptive imitations of similarity on the part of flatterers. He also notes that flatterers will imitate negative characteristics and actions, whereas friends will generally share similarities...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of assistance, services, ministering, and courtesies that flatterers and friends provide. Merely providing these or not does not allow us to distinguish flatterers from friends, so we need to look to other characteristics, such as the eagerness that a person shows, the moral quality of the...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on one area in which we can tell flatterers from genuine friends, namely their attitudes and behavior towards other flatterers and towards our genuine friends. Flatterers will be envious of other flatterers and compete with them, and they will attempt to isolate their target from genuine friends. Real friends,...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on criteria we can use to tell flatterers from friends. Early on in the work, Plutarch considers three potential criteria, namely whether a person gives pleasure to the other person, whether a person gives praise to the other person, or whether a person does services and courtesies to the other person. None of...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on the vulnerabilities to flatterers and flattery that we have within our own selves and characters. These stem from our own excessive self-love (philautia) which makes us liable to be flatterers of our own selves, and renders us liable to listen to those who confirm what we would like to think about ourselves,...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" This lecture discusses different modes of alienation or estrangement within the story, largely but not solely concerning the character Gregor Samsa. He is already somewhat alienated in economic and social terms at the start of the story, and more so as the story goes on, but he is even more so in terms of the Samsa family dynamics and in relation to his own...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" This lecture discusses the responses and attitudes towards Gregor on the part of different minor characters in the short story, namely the cook and servant-girl who respond to Gregory with horror, the lodgers who pretend to be disgusted by him but really are just taking advantage of the situation, and the charwoman who exhibits a kind of rough friendliness...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" This lecture discusses two of the other important characters in the story, Gregors mother and father, simply referred to Mrs. and Mr. Samsa. Both of them are aged and in bad health, and dependent upon Gregor, at the start of the story. Mrs. Samsa remains prone to fainting spells, but does take thought about her son and takes on work that can be done in the...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" This lecture discusses the character Grete, who is Gregor's younger sister. At the beginning of the story, she is a teenager with minimal responsibilities and some musical talent. As she comes to take care of her brother after his metamorphosis, she takes on more responsibility and agency. By the end of the story, she argues that the creature is no longer her...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" This lecture discusses the circumstances of Gregor's family, the Samsas. Initially, they are all dependent upon Gregor for their income, paying down debts, and even the decision-making around the house. As Gregor discovers after his transformation and losing his job, his father does have some money set aside, and his family members are all capable of taking on...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" This lecture discusses the transformation or metamorphosis (Verwandlung) that Gregor Samsa experiences at the very beginning of the story, but also throughout the narrative. As it turns out it is not simply his physical form that is changed, but also his own capacities and possibilities, his relationships with other people, his senses and desires, and even his...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century theologian, social philosopher, and civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr.'s sermon "Unfulfilled Hopes" It discusses the analysis he provides of three different characteristic responses to the tragic element of life, that dreams remain unrealized, hopes unfulfilled, and that cries for a solution go unanswered. Two of these responses, those of bitterness and withdrawal, are negative and motivated by anger and hate. The...