
Anaxagoras on the Gunkiness of Reality
The Presocratic philosophers are famously strange and difficult; but of all of them, Anaxagoras, who saw the universe as essentially gunky, is one of the strangest.
Philosophy for the insatiably curious
The Presocratic philosophers are famously strange and difficult; but of all of them, Anaxagoras, who saw the universe as essentially gunky, is one of the strangest.
In this week's class, we're exploring the limits of wisdom, and we're looking at two very different philosophers, one from the European tradition, and one from the Chinese tradition: Socrates and Zhuangzi.
Philosopher Anna Ezekiel talks about Karoline von Günderrode, and about the German philosopher's distinctive philosophy of free will, identity and death.
In this class, we're exploring Aristotle's ideas of theoretical and practical wisdom, heading on perilous Atlantic sea voyages, and asking about what it means not just to know stuff, but also to act wisely.
Xenophanes was a wandering philosopher and poet, who was fiercely critical of his contemporaries' views on the nature of the gods.
In the first lesson of season one, we're asking about wisdom, what it is, how it matters, and how to cultivate it.