Ahn Interview

On "The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong" (1889). What justifies basic moral facts? Brentano claims that right there in our experience, we can rationally sense with complete certainty that certain kinds of preferences are good ones, and others are not. This take on intuitionism is a response to Kant that (like Kant) cuts between the traditional epistemic categories of rationalism and empiricism, and Brentano's descriptive psychology kicked off the whole project of phenomenology. Get more at . Visit  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at  Learn about African history at .

Ep. 363: Franz Brentano's Moral Epistemology (Part One)

Continuing on The Nature of Sympathy (1913/1922), Part I: "Fellow Feeling," Ch. 1-4. We look more closely at the text, getting further into how fellow feeling relates to ethics, and why the moral sentimentalists (like Hume) were wrong about this. Get more at . Visit  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

Ep. 364: Max Scheler on Sympathy (Part Two)

Mark and Bill are joined by  who directs  and is involved in managing improv spaces such as Denver's . We talk about the notion of community, with a scene about the neighborhood watch and a return to Empty Street to deal seriously in a public-service-announcement/after-school special sort of way with the issue of buying liquor underage. . . .

Philosophy vs. Improv #91: Community Breakdown (or Breakdance?) w/ Nick Armstrong

Mark, Wes, and Dylan reconvened for one more hour on Part I, "Fellow Feeling" (ch. 3-4) in The Nature of Sympathy (1913/1922). We continue to try to figure out the razor's edge of "fellow feeling proper" that does not rely on the sympathizer identifying in any way and look into psychological and metaphysical ways that people can identify with others. Get more at . Visit  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion, including more part 3 discussions like this one, which aren't normally made available on this public feed. Sponsor:&nbsp;Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at

Ep. 364: Max Scheler on Sympathy (Part Three)

On The Nature of Sympathy (1922), Part II: "Love and Hatred." What is love, and how does it relate to ethics and to sympathy? For Scheler, love is a primitive, spontaneous movement from lower to higher values: We see the best in the love one and thereby help enable them to attain that excellence. So is love foundational for value, or is value foundational for love? The two seem to arise together. Get more at . Visit  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at

Ep. 365: Scheler on Love (Part One)

We conclude our treatment of Max Scheler's The Nature of Sympathy (1922), getting further into the Part II of the book about love and hatred and grappling with the puzzles about what exactly it is we love about someone (the "personality"). Get more at . Visit  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. If you enjoy our podcast, check out Working Class History at .

Ep. 365: Scheler on Love (Part Two)

We discuss the HBO dramedy about rich people having existential crises at a luxury resort in light of its third season. What exactly made this latest season less satisfying than the others? Does the show have a sustainable formula? What is the show saying about enlightenment? Travel? Sexuality? For more, visit . Hear this ad-free with bonus content at  or by subscribing via Apple Podcasts to the .

Pretty Much Pop #195: Mike White's Lotus

On The Problem of Empathy (1917). What is empathy, and what is its significance? Stein pictures empathy as a dynamic process that involves what Scheler called sympathy but goes beyond this. Your don't just take the other person's feeling as our object of contemplation, but in doing so, your enter into it (while still not confusing it with YOUR feeling), this relating to it "non-primordially." So how does this work, exactly? Get more at . Visit  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

Ep. 366: Edith Stein in Empathy (Part One)

Continuing on The Problem of Empathy. What does it mean to say that we know other people's mental states "non-primordially"? We talk about Stein's project of explaining how empathy is possible, what it gets us, and how her answers differ from Scheler's. Get more at . Visit  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at

Ep. 366: Edith Stein on Empathy (Part Two)

On David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). What is morality, and how can we know it? Hume claims that we simply find ourselves with sentiments morally approving and disapproving of various things. Characterizing these post hoc, we can say that in general we approve of what brings utility, and this explains the existence of most laws and mores. These may vary by culture because conditions change the utility calculation in different environments. Get more at . Visit  to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at

Ahn Interview

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