Albert Camus - Letters To A German Friend

Philip Jose Farmer - The Lovers

Cicero - On The Nature Of The Gods book 2

Heloise and Abelard - Letters

Invited Talks, Presentations, and Guest Sermons

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's novel, Tehanu, the fourth of six Earthsea books

It focuses specifically on the character Therru, a terribly abused child who was beaten, starved, and raped by her parents and their gang. She is thrown into a fire and left for dead, but survives and is adopted by Tenar, who raises her and tries to help her heal.


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Ursula K  Leguin, Tehanu - Therru's Abuse, Fear, And Healing - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' four Letters To A German Friend (anthologized in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays)

Specifically it examines the first letter, which elaborates the theme of love for one's country. He makes a distinction between two different conceptions of love for one's country, one which subordinates all other values and realities to one's country (as the Nazis do), and one that holds one's country to higher standards (as the French do), which seems to put them at a disadvantage.

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Albert Camus, Letter To A German Friend - Letter 1: Loving One's Country - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' four Letters To A German Friend (anthologized in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays)

Specifically it examines the second letter, which builds upon and expands themes from the first letter, specifically holding one's country to standards. This is connected with a refusal to subordinate or suppress intelligence in favor of a misguided patriotism.

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Albert Camus, Letter To A German Friend - Letter 2: The Price Of Intelligence - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' four Letters To A German Friend (anthologized in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays)

Specifically it examines the third letter, which elaborates the theme of the meaning of Europe, a matter where fascists and nationalists like the Nazis view matters one way and other Europeans view matters differently. The Nazis view Europe as something to possess and dominate, a system of resources to exploit. Camus advocates viewing Europe much as he views France, as something valuable, to which one can belong, and which has to be held to standards of justice and truth.

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Albert Camus, Letter To A German Friend - Letter 3: Europe's Meaning - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' four Letters To A German Friend (anthologized in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays)

Specifically it examines the fourth and final letter, which looks at the importance of attending to the demands of justice but also human happiness when considering what one owes to one's country, and whether it is worth fighting or not

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Albert Camus, Letter To A German Friend - Letter 4: Justice and Happiness - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations 

It discusses whether and how that work "broke the taboo" on sex in science fiction when it was published in 1952.

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Philip Jose Farmer, The Lovers - Breaking The Taboo On Sex in SciFi? - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations 

It discusses the narrative setting for the novella, specifically the aftermath of the "Apocalyptic War", in which a virus killed most of humanity globally. After the pandemic, communities of survivors repopulated the Earth, coming from Hawaii, Iceland, the Caucasus, Israel, Central Africa, and Malaysia.  At the time of the story, the globe is divided between four super-states. 

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Philip Jose Farmer, The Lovers - Earth After the Apocalyptic War - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations 

It discusses the overall metaphysical and religious perspective developed by Isaac Sigman, which is the official doctrine of the "Sturch" or state-church of the Haijac Union, one of the main world powers in the story, and the one that Hal Yarrow belongs to. The sturch's interpretation of Sigmen holds that a person's thought can be unreal (which is bad), that people are responsible not only for everything they do but everything that happens to them, and that they can fall into the mistake of desiring a  "pseudofuture".

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Philip Jose Farmer, The Lovers - Religion and Metaphysics of Isaac Sigmen - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations 

It discusses the planet of Ozagen, which provides the setting for the majority of the chapters of the novella. Evolution has occurred differently on this planet by comparison to earth, and the dominant species of the planet is the Wogglebug, a type of pseudo-arthopoda.

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Philip Jose Farmer, The Lovers - The Planet of Ozagen - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century fantasy and science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer's novella The Lovers (which can be found anthologized in his Strange Relations 

It discusses the two characters, Hal Yarrow and Jeanette Rastignac, who are the lovers referenced in the title, focusing on their developing relationship as it is depicted in the novella

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Philip Jose Farmer, The Lovers - The Lovers Hal and Jeanette - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology

Specifically it focuses upon on the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the existence of the gods presented by Balbus, which we can call the argument from divination. The argument essentially consists in claiming that divination, that is consulting the knowledge or will of divine beings, could not work if there were no divine beings. Since divination does work, there must be divine beings.

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Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Argument From Divination - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology

Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the existence of the gods presented by Balbus, which we can call the argument from intelligence. It might be viewed as a variant on a cosmological argument, working from an effect to the necessary existence of a cause. In this case, the existence of human intelligence, and claimed impossibility of that resulting from a cause that is not itself intelligent, leads to the conclusion of the existence of a divine intelligence.

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Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Argument From Intelligence - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology

Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the existence of the gods presented by Balbus, which we can call the argument from cosmic arrangement, which might be classed as a design or teleological argument. The general idea is that we observe order and arrangement to the universe, which presumably would need to come from very powerful and intelligent being, i.e. the gods.

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Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Argument From Cosmic Arrangement - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology

Specifically it focuses upon  the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, in particular one of the arguments for the existence of the gods presented by Balbus, which we can call the argument from degrees of being. This type of argument doesn't fit neatly into the modern conventional classification of ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments for the existence of the divine. It works by noting that there are different degrees (gradus) of being, going from bare being through plants, animals, humans, and other higher rational beings (gods), arguing that the top grade of being cannot be empty or non-existent.

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Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Argument From Degress Of Being - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero's work, On The Nature Of The Gods, which critically examines Epicurean, Stoic, and Skeptic perspectives on matters of theology and cosmology

Specifically it focuses upon the presentation of Stoic cosmology and theology by Quintus Lucilius Balbus in book 2, and in particular on the sequence of arguments that he provides, drawing from the works of earlier Stoic authors, intended to make the case for the world itself being God.

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Cicero On The Nature Of The Gods book 2 - Arguments That The World Is God - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th century philosopher, essayist, and theologian, Søren Kierkegaard's review essay "The Present Age" contained in his review of Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age

It focuses specifically on what Kierkegaard calls the "nullification of the passionate disjunction between being silent and speaking', which is "chattering".

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Soren Kierkegaard The Present Age - Silence, Speaking, and Chatter - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern philosopher Thomas Hobbes' work Leviathan

It focuses specifically on chapter 5, where he examines in detail what reason or reasoning is, and what science is. Hobbes views reasoning as something analogous to "reckoning" by adding and subtracting sums, not just of numbers, but of many other things as well, in particular names, conjunctions of them into "consequences", and ultimately entire arguments or syllogisms.

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Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan - Reason and Science - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern philosopher Thomas Hobbes' work Leviathan

It focuses specifically on chapter 6, in which Hobbes develops his basic philosophy of human and animal action, which stems from the senses and movements of the body, and then flows into endeavor of appetite and aversion. These then give rise to other affects such as love, contempt, and hatred, joy and grief, and to differing judgements about various forms of good and evil.

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Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan - Motion, Endeavor, and Passions - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern philosopher Thomas Hobbes' work Leviathan

It focuses specifically on on the second part of chapter 6, where Hobbes tells us that the basic passions are diversified into a number of other passions in four main manners.
1. called from the opinion men have of the likelihood of attaining what they desire
2. from the object loved or hated
3. from the consideration of many of them together
4. from the alteration or succession itself

He also discusses how passions figure into what he calls "deliberation" and makes the claim that a person's "will" is simply the last passion in the succession that determines their action.  H finishes by discusses different modes of language by which people signify what their passions are.

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Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan - Simple Passions Diversified - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern philosopher Thomas Hobbes' work Leviathan

It focuses specifically on first part of chapter 8 where he discusses what he calls "intellectual virtues", meaning the abilities of the mind that people praise, which he frames in terms of "wit", and distinguishes into natural and artificial. Natural wit in turn is divided into fancy which focuses upon similarities and judgement which focuses on differences. Judgement is more important that fancy for wit.

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Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan - Wit, Judgement, And Fancy - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the modern philosopher Thomas Hobbes' work Leviathan

It focuses specifically on chapter 7, where he identifies and discusses what he calls the ends of mental and verbal discourse, and clarifies when the discourse people engage in results in mere opinion or produces something more reliable that that, i.e. knowledge or science.

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Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan - The Ends Of Discourse - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 3

It focuses specifically on Seneca discussing a paradox of calling someone a friend but not trusting them with information.  This leads Seneca to say that his correspondent, Lucilius doesn't seem to know what genuine friendship really is or involves, and to make a distinction between the common but mistaken use of the term "friend" and the proper sense of the term. He also suggests that many make mistakes by first loving someone and trusting them as a friend and only later on forming a correct judgement of them as a person, when the order of this ought to be reversed.

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Seneca, Letter 3 - True and False Friendship - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 6

It focuses specifically on  how we make moral progress, and that we ought to want to share that progress with our friends. He also clarifies that when we learn something we ought to want to share that as well with our friends. A better way to do this than simply learning precepts is to spend time with those who we think have made progress and developed understanding, so we can see how they actually live their lives

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Seneca, Letter 6 - Friendship, Progress, and Sharing Knowledge - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the sequence of letters between two great Medieval intellectuals, lovers, and religious Heloise D'Argenteuil and Peter Abelard

It focuses specifically on the first letter, which is by Abelard. It discusses the consolation Abelard attempts to provide his fried by recounting the story of his life, which includes his romantic, intellectual, and sexual involvement with Heloise, their marriage, his castration, and their taking religious vows and entering monastic life.

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Heloise and Abelard - Letter 1 - A History Of Abelard's Calamities - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the sequence of letters between two great Medieval intellectuals, lovers, and religious Heloise D'Argenteuil and Peter Abelard

It focuses specifically on the second letter, which is by Heloise. It discusses the arguments that she advances in the letter, which center on her view that they can continue to enjoy their married relationship through writing letters to each other, even though after Abelard's castration both of them took religious vows and began monastic life.

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Heloise and Abelard - Letter 2 - Married Love and Religious Life - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the sequence of letters between two great Medieval intellectuals, lovers, and religious Heloise D'Argenteuil and Peter Abelard

It focuses specifically on the third letter, which is by Abelard. It discusses Heloise's proposal that although they have taken monastic vows, they can rightly enjoy some married life together through writing letters to each other, and Abelard's rejection of that suggestion. He tell her that they both must turn to God and make Christian perfection their goal, even if that means leaving their amorous relationship behind, and he tells her that by his own confessions, he intends to change her love into contempt or hatred for him.

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Heloise and Abelard - Letter 3 - Love, Virtue, Duty, and God - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the sequence of letters between two great Medieval intellectuals, lovers, and religious Heloise D'Argenteuil and Peter Abelard

It focuses specifically on the fourth letter, which is by Heloise. In this letter Heloise reaffirms her love for her husband Abelard, and asserts that life will have little value or attraction for her after he dies. She explains what emotions she experiences, and the despair she feels about their situation, and then discusses the conflicts within her heart and mind that stand in the way of genuine and consistent repentance on her part 

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Heloise and Abelard - Letter 4 - Love, Despair, and Repentance - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the sequence of letters between two great Medieval intellectuals, lovers, and religious Heloise D'Argenteuil and Peter Abelard

It focuses specifically on the fifth and sixth letters, which are by Heloise and Abelard respectfully. In these letters both of the married lovers have opted for leaving their previous amorous and conjugal love behind and shifting their attention to God. They also both admit their ongoing struggles to see this commitment through consistently.

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Heloise and Abelard - Letters 5-6 - Struggling Against Passion - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the medieval Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, 1st part, question 20 "God's Love", and examines  on his discussion in article 1, which addresses the issue whether love is in God. Aquinas considers several arguments against love being in God and addresses each of them. He also explains how it is that love is in God by looking at how the will tends towards the universal or common good through love.

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Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae - Whether Love Is In God - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand's book The Virtue of Selfishness, in particular the chapter "The Objectivist Ethics"

This focuses specifically on her discussion of what she terms "non-rational" ethics, by way of contrast to her own rational egoist or "objectivist ethics".  She examines what she calls the "mystic", "social", and "subjectivist" ethics, and criticizes what she views as the "false dichotomy of altruism".

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Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness - Criticisms of Non-Rational Ethics - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century rational egoist philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand's book, The Virtue Of Selfishness. It focuses specifically upon her discussion of the difference between other animals and human beings, which has to do with the range and types of consciousness we have. 

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Purchase Rand's The Virtue Of Selfishness - https://amzn.to/4oUuym3

Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness - Consciousness, Animals, and Humans - Sadler's Lectures

This is a podcast of a guest sermon, given by invitation to the Unitarian Universalist Community of the Catskills.

A guest sermon invited by the Unitarian Universalist Community of the Catskills, Aug 9, 2015.  In it, I discuss Rainer Maria Rilke's conception of "solitude" (Einsamkeit), and its relevance to our contemporary lives.  Explaining how the two dimensions of slowing down temporally and making space spatially figure into the development of solitude as Rilke describes it, I suggest that in our own era, time has become the more scarce resource.

You can read a transcript of the sermon here: https://www.academia.edu/14942470/Solitude_Slowing_Down_and_Clearing_Space

Rainer Maria Rilke on Solitude, Slowing Down, and Making Space - Sadler's Lectures

This is the recording of my short presentation and the Q&A at the second Conversations With Modern Stoicism event, hosted in July 2023 by Phil Yanov. Asked to give a short and provocative presentation about an issue that arises in the everyday applications of Stoicism, I chose to focus on a common mistake and distortion of Stoic philosophy and practice.

Quite a few people think that Stoicism means that a person shouldn't exhibit or feel care, concern, or compassion for others who experience something that they view and react to as "bad". There are indeed some passages from Stoic authors that one can take out of context to justify such a stance. But when Stoicism is rightly understood, and when we look at other, equally authoritative passages, we see that the authentic Stoic position is to be compassionate and concerned with others.

How Should Stoics Respond When Bad Things Happen To Other People - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century rational egoist philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand's book, The Virtue Of Selfishness. It focuses specifically upon her views about how a rational egoist ought to behave and structure their life, choices, and relationships.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Purchase Rand's The Virtue Of Selfishness - https://amzn.to/4oUuym3

Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness - How Should A Rational Egoist Behave - Sadler's Lectures

This is a talk I was invited to provide to the inaugural 2021 Stoicon-X Military conference, held online.  I chose as my topic the scope of genuine courage, a topic of considerable importance but also frequent misunderstandings within professions like that of the military.  

In this talk I discuss what courage is and what it is for, the scope of courage, including its constituent virtues, and finally the relationship between courage and the other virtues.

The Scope of Genuine Courage In Stoicism - Sadler's Lectures

This is the recording of my invited talk at the first Stoicon-X Brasil online conference.  Due to technical issues, I provided a live presentation (translation provided by participants) to the conference.  In this presentation, I briefly present the Stoic doctrine of the indifferents (adiaphoria), namely that Stoics view many things as neither good nor bad, but are indifferent.  Some indifferents may be "preferred" or "rejected", which means that they have some positive or negative value, but not the sort of that makes us virtuous or vicious, happy or miserable.

The Stoics teach that we should not be entirely indifferent to the indifferents, for several important reasons.  The use (khresis or usus) of indifferents is not something indifferent, and as Epictetus tells us, is something we ought to be careful about.  The virtues, as Seneca and Cicero clarify, bear upon indifferents.

Texts mentioned in this talk:
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations - https://amzn.to/3osPFNF
Epictetus' Discourses and Enchiridion - https://amzn.to/37G6bE0
Seneca's Letters - https://amzn.to/3dZQrNk
Cicero's On The Ends - https://amzn.to/3mmgJMB

Why Stoics Should Not Be Indifferent to the Indifferents - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture is a talk given at the 5th Saint Anselm conference, sponsored by the Institute for Saint Anselm Studies at Saint Anselm College in April 2014.

I discuss Anselm's views on marriage, conjugal love, sexual desire, activity, and pleasure.  Anselm lives and writes just before a flowering of monastic writing upon marriage and conjugal love, and has only fragmentary discussions of these topics, but his broader moral theory -- as we can find it not only in his treatises, but also in his Letters, Prayers, the De Similitudinibus, and the Dicta Anselmi -- actually has much to tell us about these subjects

Get Anselm's Works - https://amzn.to/2ZnZRcu

St. Anselm on Marriage, Conjugal Love, and Sexual Desire - Sadler's Lectures

This is my portion of a panel discussion, reading my paper a panel presentation, "Is God's Justice Unmerciful in St. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo?," delivered at the 2014 American Catholic Philosophical Association, hosted by the Institute for Saint Anselm Studies

Can God be entirely and supremely just and also entirely merciful, without these two
characteristics ending up in contradiction with each other? Anselm of Canterbury considers this question in several places in his works and provides rational resolutions demonstrating the compatibility of divine justice and mercy. This paper considers Anselm's treatment of the problem in the Cur Deus Homo, noting distinctive features of his account, highlighting the seeming incompatibilities between mercy and justice, and setting out his resolution of the problem.

Get Anselm's Works - https://amzn.to/2ZnZRcu

Is God's Justice Unmerciful in Anselm's Cur Deus Homo?  - Sadler's Lectures

This is the invited presentation I provided for the attendees of the Stoicon-X Brisbane conference in Australia held in October 2019.  It discusses Epictetus' advice to remind ourselves that we want to maintain or keep our "prohairesis" - our faculty of choice - in accordance with nature.

For those who would like more information about Epictetus' conception of prohairesis, or about the Stoic notion of "in accordance with nature", I have two longer talks:

Stoicism and "In Accordance With Nature" | A Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship Lecture - https://youtu.be/NyHUMD2_ghQ?si=Ge0aYdjR-jFXFoi6

Prohairesis in Epictetus' Stoic Moral Theory - Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy - https://youtu.be/EWS4QR1PM58?si=Gx_HNZfsuar8wsbf

Epictetus on Keeping Prohairesis in Accordance With Nature - Sadler's Lectures

This is the recording of my short presentation and the Q&A at the second Conversations With Modern Stoicism event, hosted in June 2025 by Phil Yanov. Asked to give a short and provocative presentation about an issue that arises in the everyday applications of Stoicism, we decided on the topic of grief and grieving

I first discuss what we can call a "standard Stoic take" on grief, which they understand as belonging to the broader emotional category of pain or distress, and therefore being something bad for us. We then look briefly at some of the treatments of grief and grieving in Epictetus and Seneca.

Texts mentioned in this talk:
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations - https://amzn.to/3osPFNF
Epictetus' Discourses and Enchiridion - https://amzn.to/37G6bE0
Seneca's Letters - https://amzn.to/3dZQrNk
Cicero's Tusculan Disputations - https://amzn.to/3L1WoxY

How Does A Stoic Deal With Grief? A Modern Stoicism Conversation - Sadler's Lectures

This is the talk I was invited to provide for Stoicon-X New England 2020.  I take the recent case of a fired Lidl communications worker who claimed that he was unjustly fired on account of his Stoicism.  I use this case as a starting point to discuss what sorts of conduct would actually be characteristic of a follower of Stoicism in the workplace, and what resources and advice Stoic philosophy can provide us.

Texts mentioned in this talk:
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations - https://amzn.to/3osPFNF
Epictetus' Discourses and Enchiridion - https://amzn.to/37G6bE0
Seneca's Letters - https://amzn.to/3dZQrNk
Cicero's On The Ends - https://amzn.to/3mmgJMB

Real Workplace Stoicism - Virtues, Duties, Fitting In, & Fixing Things - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th century philosophers and social theorists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, articulated in their work The Communist Manifesto.

This episode examines what Marx and Engels envision the role of the Communist Party to be in relation to leadership of, and the development of class consciousness in, the Proletariat.  They also address some of the objections made against the Communist program, and set out what their particular goals are.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find the Communist Manifesto free online here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto - Class Conflict & The Rise Of The Bourgeoisie

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th century philosophers and social theorists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, articulated in their work The Communist Manifesto.

This episode examines Marx and Engel's description of the formation and emergence of the revolutionary class in industrial capitalism, the Proletariat

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find the Communist Manifesto free online here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto -  The Emergence Of The Proletariat

Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto - Party, Proletariat, & Communist Project

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th century philosophers and social theorists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, articulated in their work The Communist Manifesto.

This episode examines the Marxist critique of other forms of Socialism articulated in the third part of the Communist manifesto, as well as the Marxist argument that only their program can adequately address the condition of the Proletariat

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find the Communist Manifesto free online here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto - Communist Criticism Of Other Socialisms

This lecture, discussing the nature of "moral choice" or "deliberate choice" in Aristotle's moral theory, was delivered during the 7th Felician Ethics Conference at Felician College (Rutherford, NJ).  In it, I discuss what I label the "Standard Interpretation" of prohairesis, which ties it explicitly to deliberation about means towards ends -- an interpretation stemming from focusing on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics book 3 discussion of prohairesis.  

I then discuss a number of passages from across Aristotle's body of work which provide a broader context for understanding what prohairesis could be.  I conclude by arguing that the Standard Interpretation, while correct in what it asserts, is far too restrictive to account for these other passages, so that prohairesis must be understood as a complex and more fundamental concept in Aristotelian moral theory.

What Is Aristotelian Prohairesis? - Sadler's Lectures

This is my relatively short talk given during the 2025 Plato's Academy multidisciplinary conference: The Philosophy of Love And Relationships. I was invited to approach the topic of the difficulties involved in the highest, fullest, and most paradigmatic form of friendship that Aristotle 

In the course of my presentation, I discuss the importance and influence of the distinction between three different kinds of friendship based on utility, pleasure, and the good or noble. I note that this distinction does not capture every sort of relationship or friendship Aristotle discusses. Then we briefly look at each of these three sorts of friendship, and discuss some of the difficulties involved in developing and sustaining the highest form of friendship.

We then discuss the question of how virtuous Aristotle would require us to be in order to be a partner in the highest type of friendship, the answer to which is that we don't need to have all of the virtues, and we could be on our way to developing them. After that, we turn briefly to three later thinkers who engage with Aristotle's ideas and take them a bit further on the matter of friendship, looking for useful resources for understanding how we can best approach this matter of a true or genuine friendship

The thinkers and works I reference and discuss in this presentation include:
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics
Cicero, On Friendship
Seneca, Letters 3, 9, 109
Plutarch, On Having Many Friends, How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend

How Difficult Is It To Find An Aristotelian Friend? - Sadler's Lectures

This is the recording from my invited talk on philosophical resources for understanding and managing anger, which was part of my alma mater Lakeland University's Thinkhaus talk series, given up at the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, WI. The original recording from 2017 was made by a local high school AV club, which unfortunately didn't do a great job with sound, lighting, video, or editing, so I didn't release it at the time, but I've subsequently remastered it to improve all of those.

In the talk, I discuss how ideas drawn from Plato, Aristotle, and Epictetus can help us to deal productively with the anger that we inevitably encounter or experience. Specifically, from Plato we learn how to identify the sorts of conflicts that are likely to lead to anger, from Aristotle how to assess our own anger responses, and from Epictetus how to shift our feeling of anger into a different feeling by reminding ourselves of why people do things that we take as wrong or offensive.

3 Philosophers Walk Into A Bar Fight: Understanding & Managing Anger Using Ideas From Philosophy

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century African-American philosopher, theologian, and civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr.'s work "Letter From A Birmingham Jail"

This episode examines King's discussion of how non-violent direct action is supposed to work, and what effects it is intended to have on aggressors, the larger public, and the oppressed community

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find the Letter From A Birmingham Jail here - https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

Martin Luther King, Letter From A Birmingham Jail - Non-Violent Action As A Means

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century African-American philosopher, theologian, and civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr.'s work "Letter From A Birmingham Jail"

This episode examines  King's conception of "racial justice" as a goal or end for non-violent action.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find the Letter From A Birmingham Jail here - https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

Martin Luther King, Letter From A Birmingham Jail - Racial Justice As An End

This is part 1 of the the recording of my invited Saint Anselm Lecture, given in 2008 at Saint Anselm College. Here is the abstract of the paper:

One important divine attribute Saint Anselm examines and treats is that of simplicity. His treatment brings out some surprising features of simplicity itself which escape the frameworks of the logic of created being, providing us a fuller, albeit still very partial, understanding of the true nature of that attribute. A deep problem can then arise for the created human being in the course of such speculations and investigations: How can a complex, complicated, composite created being more closely approach a perfectly simple divine being? In both our thought and in our practice, it seems that our attempts to approach God simply introduce even more complexity into things. My paper addresses that problem. The first section of the paper presents five short Anselmian lessons about the divine attribute of simplicity. The second section then frames and explores the problem. The third and final section provides an Anselmian resolution to the problem.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3,500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get Anselm's Complete Treatises: with Selected Letters and Prayers here - https://amzn.to/3YqF74L

A Perfectly Simple God and Our Complicated Lives - The 2008 St. Anselm Lecture, part 1

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's work After Virtue

It focuses upon chapter 2, specifically on his discussion of the distinction between the meaning and the use of moral language, using several examples. This will become particularly important in his analysis of Emotivism as a moral theory in the following chapter.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3,500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get MacIntyre's After Virtue here - amzn.to/2RiplGT

Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue - Meaning and Use of Language - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's work After Virtue

It focuses upon chapter 3, specifically on his discussion of MacIntyre's analysis of the key and distinctive aspects of Emotivism as a moral theory. Emotivism was presented originally as a meta-ethical theory, but as MacIntyre notes, it develops into its own ethical stance that rules out the possibility of rational inquiry into and agreement upon moral matters.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3,500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get MacIntyre's After Virtue here - amzn.to/2RiplGT

Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue - Emotivism as a Moral Theory - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's work After Virtue

It focuses upon chapter 3, specifically on his discussion of on the types of "characters" - social roles emblematic of a culture -- typical of late modern Emotivist culture. These are the rich aesthete, the manager, and the therapist.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3,500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get MacIntyre's After Virtue here - amzn.to/2RiplGT

Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue - Emotivist Culture & Characters - Sadler's Lectures

I'm that YouTube Philosophy Guy! Find more than 3,000 videos in my main channel.  Support my video and podcast work!  https://www.patreon.com/sadler or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

Learn more about this podcast channel - https://youtu.be/qRvL0gqlyrw and https://gregorybsadler.substack.com/p/the-sadlers-lectures-podcast

Due to popular demand - and with the work underwritten by my Patreon supporters - I have been converting my videos into MP3 files listeners can listen to anywhere they want!

I have a second podcast, Mind & Desire, publishing original episodes on a variety of topics in philosophy, which you can find here - https://gregorybsadler.substack.com/podcast

Sadler's Lectures

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