A philosophy podcast by @MarkLinsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, @DylanPEL who were set on doing philosophy for a living, but then thought better of it.
Madison, WI
Joined February 2010
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Someone asked Claude if it was going to kill us. Its answer was not reassuring.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 403: Are LLMs Actually Intelligent? (Part One)
A philosopher on what it's actually like to read Wittgenstein's Tractatus: beautiful, intricate, and gone by spring.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 309: Wittgenstein On Certainty (Part Two)
"It's just predicting the next word." So are you.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 403: Are LLMs Actually Intelligent? (Part One)
New on The PEL Blog: Forget the walking dead. Philosophical zombies are much harder to kill off. This Halloween, prepare yourself for one of philosophy's strangest intuition pumps. partiallyexaminedlife.com/20…
Cormac McCarthy's killer keeps a promise he made to a dead man — and explains why. "Even a nonbeliever might find it useful to model himself after God. Very useful, in fact." On No Country for Old Men.
The Partially Examined Life · PREVIEW-Episode 63: Existentialist Heroes in…
Wes worried it might be unethical to keep using Claude. So he asked it.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 403: Are LLMs Actually Intelligent? (Part One)
Mark Twain thought you were a machine. Here's the test: where exactly do the words you're about to say come from? "There's a sense in which I'm learning at the same time you are what I'm going to say. I'm here for the ride."
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 284: Mark Twain’s…
Are LLMs actually intelligent? Could they become so, given current architecture?
We read Raphaël Millière (@raphaelmilliere) and Cameron Buckner's(@cameronjbuckner) "A Philosophical Introduction to Language Models, Part I: Continuity With Classic Debates" (2023).
partiallyexaminedlife.com/20…
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New episode — Ep. 403: Are LLMs Actually Intelligent? (Part One)
Are large language models just autocomplete? New episode: what LLMs mean for old debates about thought.
Nietzsche asks you to say yes to living your life over and over, forever. Dylan has a list of things he would rather not repeat — and the examples get grim fast.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 214: More Nietzsche’s Zarathustra
Why does Plato argue for something absurd? To prove its opposite.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part Two)
Hopefully clearer: 1) Suppose it were possible to knowingly do injustice. 2) This requires knowledge of what is just and unjust. 3) If I accidentally do something wrong, it suggests I don't know as much about right and wrong as the person who can unerringly and intentionally do what is wrong; the wrongdoer would, if they chose, do a much better job at being just; in a sense, they are better at justice than the person who does something wrong unintentionally, in the way that an expert tennis player who throws a game to a beginner is still better at tennis than the beginner 4) the person who intentionally does injustice is therefore better in this domain (more just) than the person who accidentally does it. And murder is less blameworthy than manslaughter. 5) since (4) is a result we cannot accept, then we must reject (1). This reductio involves some logical fallacies, but we really do have to reject the notion that virtue is merely a capacity or form of technical expertise, in tavor of supposing that it is also a disposition (the just person is disposed to do what is right). - Wes
Plato argues the better man is the one who does wrong on purpose. The steps get sillier as they go.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part Two)
Wonder Woman 1984 as a thought experiment in personal identity: her dead lover returns in another man's body, and all she sees is 'the you that I love.' Which raises a question the movie does not ask.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 261: Derek Parfit on Personal Identity…
Better to teach people to choose their own culture than to control it from above. But isn't teaching itself top down?
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part Two)
"There's no reason a busboy should make less money than me." Say that to your leftist friends and watch what happens. Wes on what people who climb the hierarchy think they're really being compensated for — reading Simone Weil on force and power.
The Partially Examined Life ·…
Should a great performer feel every emotion they convey? Plato's Ion says yes. Mark and Wes disagree.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 402: Plato Talks Homer: Hippias Minor and Ion (Part Two)
Squirrels only have to be faster than other squirrels. Humans have to get inside each other's heads. Michael Tomasello on the problem of cooperation — and the one-line summary a French seminar gave him.
The Partially Examined Life · Ep. 326: Guest Michael Tomasello on the…
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…
Listen to the episode: partiallyexaminedlife.com/20…
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…
Listen to our discussion: partiallyexaminedlife.com/20…
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
Listen to the episode: partiallyexaminedlife.com/20…