History of Philosophy Audio Archive

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#148 - The Grail Quest: Joseph Campbell on the Arthurian Legends, the Seduction of Gawain, Parsifal's Quest for the Holy Grail, and the Elementary Truths of Mythology

2025-01-1304:58:06

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon “The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realization. As he crosses threshold after threshold, conquering dragon after dragon, the stature of the divinity that he summons to his highest wish increases, until it subsumes the cosmos. Finally, the mind breaks the bounding sphere of the cosmos to a realization transcending all experiences of form - all symbolizations, all divinities: a realization of the ineluctable void.” -Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, 1949 -//- 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:16 - The Origins of Western Mythology 00:52:42- The Mythology of Love 01:40:07 - The Arthurian Tradition 02:33:025 - The Grail Legend 03:45:46 - The Forest Adventure of Parsifal -//- These talks, entitled "The Western Quest" were delivered in November 1978 at Washington University by Joseph Campbell in front of a live audience. In the complete works of Joseph Campbell, they are delineated in the catalogue as the Lecture II, 6.1-6.5.

#147 - Dzogchen: James Low on Tibetan Buddhism, the Uncontaminated Mind, Developing Clarity and Insight, Overcoming Ego, and Riding the Wave that Never Breaks

2024-12-2036:27

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon -//- James Low's YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/@jameslow Video Source: https://youtu.be/gf51n8V8vII

#146 - Moby Dick: Bert Dreyfus on the White Whale, the Origins of American Literature, Ahab's Madness, and Existentialist Themes in the 19th Century

2024-12-1908:23:40

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon This is an eight lecture series, delivered in 2010 at UC Berkeley by the philosophy professor and overall great human being Hubert "Bert" Dreyfus as part of a Great Books course. Enjoy.

Letter to the Shareholders 2025

2024-12-1308:36

Reach out and share your thoughts! williamengels@substack.com Congratulations on a great 2024 - a couple of channel-exclusive messages and announcements as we take the podcast into 2025. Cheers to a great year. References: The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, Jonathan Rose.

#145 - Wittgenstein: Norman Malcom on Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Language, Analytic Philosophy, the Vienna Circle, Bertrand Russell, and Language Games

2024-12-1101:14:41

Come join my Patreon! ⁠https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon⁠ “Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent” -Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico Philosophicus Original Video: https://youtu.be/371LobXpUlo

#144 - The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche: Rick Roderick on Postmodernism, the Eternal Recurrence, Ressentiment, Master & Slave Morality, the Übermensch, and the Last Man

2024-12-1005:25:41

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon "The philosopher as we understand him, we free spirits - as the man of the most comprehensive responsibility who has the conscience for the collective evolution of mankind: this philosopher will make use of the religions for his work of education and breeding, just as he will make use of existing political and economic conditions….the will to self-mastery is always increasing - religion presents them with sufficient instigations and temptations to take the road to higher spirituality, to test the feelings of great self-overcoming, of silence and solitude.-Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886 -//- (00:00:00) - Intro (00:00:41) - Nietzsche as Myth and Mythmaker (00:44:34) - Nietzsche on Truth and Lies (01:23:54) - Master of Suspicion, the Immoralist (02:04:23) - The Death of God (02:46:06) - The Eternal Return (Time is a Flat Circle) (03:25:04) - The Will to Power (04:08:08) - Nietzsche as Artist (04:49:20) - Nietzsche's Bastard Children

Hemlock #8 - Rituals of Fire: Astika Royal Mason on Symbols of Spiritual Transformation, the Internalization of Religious Ceremonies, Developing Spiritual Maturity, and Buddhism's Reaction to Hinduism

2024-12-0801:52:18

Buy Astika's book while you still can! https://a.co/d/bggZEtW Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon “He no longer cared to live in a house, and he rose once more into the air, this time on the breath of a breeze so sheer and transparent not even the gods felt it. This is the wind that further frees even the free. As his soul rose on that wind, it seemed to expand and flow out in all directions at once. Rising steadily upward, he passed through the arched windows of that celestial mansion and began a journey that would penetrate even the most distant, the most veiled mysteries of heaven. He slipped stealthfully across secret skies, across worlds and all their skies, growing deeper and wider as he did so, traveling beyond the starry reach of any sky, of any universe, to a place where no one could follow. There, lost in the divine and infinite distances of nothingness itself, he too disappeared, his last breath released, like a luminous song, into the void of a transcendent eternity.”-Astika Royal Mason, A Dream Immortal, 2023 References: “From Here to Enlightenment” - HH the Dalai Lama https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12505636-from-here-to-enlightenment Ardor - Roberto Calasso https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/134839029-ardor-by-roberto-calasso The Mirror of Simple Souls - Marguerite Porete https://youtu.be/HvivvGZydFA Agni in Hinduism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni Rig Veda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda

#143 - The End of Empire: Chris Hedges on Gaza Genocide, US Complicity, and the Fate of Conquerors

2024-12-0449:01

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon Original YouTube: https://youtu.be/fO0OkdUuvDk

#142 - Aristotle: Thomas Brickhouse on the Golden Mean, Virtue Ethics, the Prime Mover, the Athenian Constitution, and Why Aristotle was Dante's "Master of Those Who Know"

2024-12-0302:39:47

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon -//- Professor Thomas C. Brickhouse:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_C._Brickhouse

#141 - Out of Your Mind: Alan Watts on Exploring Consciousness, The Illusion of Self, Practical Meditation Advice, the Difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, and the Wisdom of Insecurity

2024-12-0302:07:10

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon “Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.” -Alan Watts

#140 - Albert Camus: Robert C. Solomon on the Absurd Hero, The Stranger, The Plague, Existentialism in Literature, and the Benign Indifference of the Universe

2024-11-2302:26:51

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon “And he knew, also, what the old man was thinking as his tears flowed, and he, Rieux, thought it too: that a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one's work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.” -Albert Camus, The Plague, 1947 (00:00:00) - Intro & Host Promo (00:00:40) - The Stranger, Part 1 (00:30:36) - The Stranger, Part 2 (01:00:33) - The Myth of Sisyphus (01:29:22) - The Plague & The Fall (01:58:45) - The Fall, Part 2 -//- Robert C. Solomon (1942-2007)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Solomon

#139 - Machiavelli Double Episode: Michael Sugrue & Quentin Skinner on Renaissance Politics, the Philosophy of Ruthlessness, Nihilsm, and Why It Is a Double Pleasure to Deceive the Deceiver

2024-11-2301:15:25

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon -//- Original Sugrue Video: https://youtu.be/mU7hdGKOGyk Original Skinner Video: https://youtu.be/CKGuzJ6GwHM Enjoy.

#138 - The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Michael Sugrue on the Stoic Ideal, Absolute Power, Resistance to Temptation, and Who Writes a Book to Themself?

2024-11-2343:28

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon Original Video: https://youtu.be/Auuk1y4DRgk Enjoy.

#137 - Censorship: Ada Palmer on the Spanish Inquisition, Galileo and Descartes, the Renaissance Book Economy, Government Surveillance, and Self-Censorship

2024-11-1501:11:57

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon -//- Original Video: https://youtu.be/uMMJb3AxA0s Original Channel (UChicago Divinity School) https://www.youtube.com/@uchicagodivinityschool2166

#135b - The Work of John Milton (Part II): John Rogers on Miltonic Power, Satan's Rebellion, Areopagitica, the Blind Prophet, and Justifying the Ways of God to Man

2024-11-1408:45:59

Continuation of 135a

#136 - Carl Jung's Approach to Therapy: Lionel Corbett on Depth Psychology, Mythic Imagery, The Treatment of Psychosis, and the Roots of Magical and Archetypal Thinking

2024-11-1401:14:29

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon “The sad truth is that man's real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites—day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.” -C. G. Jung, Man and His Symbols, 1964 -//- Original YouTube https://youtu.be/8Ojpm6G3PYw Original Channel (The International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis): https://www.youtube.com/@isps_us Lionel Corbett https://www.pacifica.edu/faculty/lionel-corbett/

#135a - The Work of John Milton: Yale's John Rogers on Miltonic Power, Satan's Rebellion, Areopagitica, the Blind Prophet, and Justifying the Ways of God to Man

2024-11-1410:40:50

(00:00:00): Intro (00:00:52): Milton and Power (00:45:31): The Infant Cry of God (01:33:38): Credible Employment (02:24:03): Poetry and Virginity (03:15:35): Poetry and Marriage (04:02:57): Lycidas (04:55:10): Lycidas Part II (05:48:09): Areopagitica (06:35:08): Paradise Lost Book I (07:26:50): God and Mammon (08:17:49): Miltonic Smile (09:03:49): The Blind Prophet (09:51:35): Paradise Lost Book III -//- A study of Milton's poetry, with some attention to his literary sources, his contemporaries, his controversial prose, and his decisive influence on the course of English poetry. Description courtesy of Yale University, presented Fall 2007, uploaded November 2008. I opted to split this otherwise 19 hour episode into two parts so Spotify can handle it. See 135b. -//- Original YouTube Playlist (Milton with John Rogers): ⁠https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2103FD9F9D0615B7 Original Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@YaleCourses⁠ John Rogers, Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, retired. https://english.yale.edu/people/professors-emeritus/john-rogers⁠

#134 - The Forgotten People of History: Roy Casagranda on Racism and Sexism in Western Historiography

2024-11-1101:53:42

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon Talk Originally Titled “Deconstructing Racism and Sexism in the Envisagement of Western Civilization” The use of the phrase “all men are created equal” was probably not a deliberate attempt to make a statement about women. It was just that women were beyond consideration as worthy of inclusion. They were politically invisible. Though practical needs gave women a certain authority in the home, on the farm, or in occupations like midwifery, they were simply overlooked in any consideration of political rights, any notions of civic equality.-Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 1980⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_United_State-//- Original YouTube: https://youtu.be/lk4ncpkstAw Original Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAustinSchool

#133 - The Philosophy of John Dewey: Progressive Education, Occupational Psychosis, American Pragmatism, and Process Philosophy

2024-11-0902:48:36

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon “On the other hand, if an experience arouses curiosity, strengthens initiative, and sets up desires and purposes that are sufficiently intense to carry a person over dead places in the future, continuity works in a very different way. Every experience is a moving force.” -John Dewey, Experience and Education, 1938 -//- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_psychosis

#132 - American "Patriots": Michael Parenti on American Exceptionalism, The Jingoist Desire to be Best and First, Opposing Fascism, and What Real Love of Country Looks Like

2024-11-0848:16

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon “All conservative ideologies justify existing inequities as the natural order of things, inevitable outcomes of human nature. If the very rich are naturally so much more capable than the rest of us, why must they be provided with so many artificial privileges under the law, so many bailouts, subsidies and other special considerations - at our expense? Their "naturally superior talents" include unprincipled and illegal subterfuge such as price-fixing, stock manipulation, insider training, fraud, tax evasion, the legal enforcement of unfair competition, ecological spoliation, harmful products and unsafe work conditions. One might expect naturally superior people not to act in such rapacious and venal ways. Differences in talent and capacity as might exist between individuals do not excuse the crimes and injustices that are endemic to the corporate business system.” ― Michael Parenti, Blackshirts and Reds, 1997 -//- Original YouTube (1988) https://youtu.be/4vKfejeruhk Original Channel (AfroMarxist) https://www.youtube.com/@AfroMarxist

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