About Reality Podcast
80 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingHosted by a scholarly fellow studying being and reality (philosophy) in his spare time.
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Episodes
53. Nature Is Not A Problem / Psychologists are Civilization's Ministers
March 19, 2024 22:03 - 22 minutes - 17.5 MBLow energy episode. First one recorded in weeks, and I'm uploading it to see how it feels. Another idea for this episode's title could be: 'Moments of Empty Satisfaction'. Peace and love to you
52. The Empty Freedom in David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest'
November 17, 2023 19:13 - 30 minutes - 25.3 MBA guest episode with Nikole, wherein we discuss David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest' and the societal problems which the individuals in his novel must grapple and cope with, as they realize in this life they have one of two choices to make: succumb to endless pleasure for lack of any other option, or else delay their gratification for the sake of a lifestyle that is healthier for them mentally and physically.
51. Marshall McLuhan's 'The Medium Is The Message'
November 09, 2023 19:45 - 37 minutes - 34.9 MBPicked this book up at a used book store two weeks ago - just getting started on it, and so far it is dynamite! Thank you for tuning in!
50. Consciousness Cannot Be Improved Upon
November 07, 2023 18:27 - 22 minutes - 21.2 MBThis episode is relaunching the series, so in it I spend time stating what is the purpose and intention of continuing with the 'About Reality' Podcast. I am very excited to resume podcasting about philosophy, and this episode (conveniently a round number, at 50) is the beginning of a much more regular series exploring all manner of philosophical ideas, from the past as well as -- maybe -- from the present, so long as we find philosophers in the present stating new things that turn out to be ...
49. The Discoveries of Philosophers
March 15, 2023 04:14 - 32 minutes - 27.8 MBThis episode about how the thoughts we are able to think are limited or bounded by the assumptions we hold about reality, including notions of time, of the freedom of the individual versus determination, etc., and how the discoveries of philosophers are phenomena used to think beyond those limits. The question is whether philosophers have discovered all that there is to uncover about humankind and their presence in the world—and then, if they have, where does that leave us in the present age...
48. A Philosopher's Reaction to the Threat of Nuclear War
October 19, 2022 16:57 - 31 minutes - 25.9 MBWhat does it take for an individual, or a nation, to forget what history has inscribed on their land and their psyche, in order to be able to see the reality of the moment for what it is, and resolve the historical tension and conflict diplomatically in order to envision together a different world for tomorrow? What role does philosophy play in this? Thank you for tuning in! Please subscribe and rate! It's very much appreciated.
47. Has Civilization Sterilized the Human Animal
September 15, 2022 02:56 - 35 minutes - 30.5 MBLet's forget everything we thought we knew, without letting go of all that we've gained. Thank you for tuning in! Please subscribe and rate! It's very much appreciated. 'About Reality' Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/ Also, check out the YouTube channel of this series, where you can find the video recording: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaiMn_zH9BcGGLAlNVYIcLw?app=desktop
46. Questioning the Knowledge to Be Gained From Experience
September 10, 2022 03:16 - 36 minutes - 28.5 MBExploring a classical philosophical question today, owing to the past month where I've undergone a change in perspective in my valuation of knowledge gained through books and theory versus what is gained through accepting that we can't think our way out of our bodily experience and what we're bounded to in these corporeal forms filled with desire and instinct. Thank you for tuning in! Please subscribe and rate! It's very much appreciated. Check out the 'About Reality' Substack: h...
45. Still Reaching Toward Truth Even as We Neglect Our Local Reality
August 03, 2022 17:33 - 28 minutes - 23.6 MBStill searching for the philosopher as heroic figure embodying the spirit of the present age, and the need we may have, insofar as we are seekers of truth, to find someone who practices a wisdom grounded in corporeal reality while simultaneously maintaining a view toward higher, perhaps even eternal, truth. How do we do this in the globalized, modern world, using the instruments provided to us as conscious, embodied beings, even as our local, personal experience is cheapened in the vision of...
44. Kant's Teleology and the Philosopher as Hero
July 26, 2022 03:46 - 40 minutes - 35.5 MBThis weekend I was reading the second part of Kant's 'Critique of Judgment', as well as the fourth book of volume one of Schopenhauer's 'The World as Will and Representation', and in this episode I get to talking about both of them, particularly in their relevance to the protagonist in the novel I am writing, Anatole. This project involving this podcast and my writing is coming together, folks, and you're here for the start of it! Thank you for your support! Thank you for tuning in! Pl...
43. Evaluation of Good and Bad (Action) Is Beyond Us
July 11, 2022 17:13 - 43 minutes - 36.3 MBHere we make an argument that 'good' and 'bad' are stagnant terms for evaluating emergent phenomena in an ever-changing world, and that as terms of judgment they refer back to a static and traditionally conservative worldview, where 'good' and 'evil' are eternal presences in the cosmos and the world is a battleground between them in which humans too take part. There's certainly a case to be made for the coherent order this provides the individual desperate for a way of making sense of what i...
42. Concerning the Metaphysician in Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse'
July 04, 2022 15:53 - 34 minutes - 30.4 MBCan a philosopher of ethics get away without a metaphysics to support or corroborate their ethical theory? Can a metaphysician get away with leaving unexamined the existence of good and evil, as well as free will, which informs good and bad action? In this episode, we use Mr. Ramsey from Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse', as well as Socrates, as exemplary case studies of one version of the philosopher—the ethicist without a metaphysics—and the other—the metaphysician whose own conduct is ...
41. Philosophers Are the Life of the Party!
June 16, 2022 17:14 - 39 minutes - 32.3 MBSo many centuries later, still we philosophers are asking the question as to the right way of being. In this episode we contribute two facts about life which may be essential to the discussion: one, that 'to be' is to have no choice but to act, in order to persist; two, that life is movement, and it resists anything that would cause it to grind to a halt. What does that have to do with the philosopher being the life of the party? Tune in to find out! Thank you for tuning in! Please sub...
41. Philosophers are the Life of the Party!
June 16, 2022 17:14 - 39 minutes - 32.3 MBSo many centuries later, still we philosophers asking the question as to the right way of being. In this episode we contribute two facts about life which may be essential to the discussion: one, that to be is to have no choice as to whether you need to act, in order to persist; two, that life is movement, and it resists anything that would cause it to grind to a halt, which is why the immature philosopher calling into question the purpose behind everyone's action is the proverbial wet blank ...
40. On Cormac McCarthy's Aesthetic
June 08, 2022 16:44 - 46 minutes - 38.8 MBWhenever I read Cormac McCarthy I always want to talk about the visionary nature of his work and aesthetic, and my current reading of 'The Crossing' is no different. We jump right into it, and by the end of the episode we come up with one definition of the value of art (that it prompts an individual to ask questions which their day-to-day life does not require them to ask), and we also contemplate the need for a conflict at the heart of an artist's work, and whether these conflicts are in fa...
39. The Novel Is a Concentrated Dose of the Writer's Aesthetic
June 02, 2022 17:00 - 37 minutes - 32 MBThe episode begins with an announcement that I've started working on a novel, the choice having been made following an inspiring conversation I had this past weekend with my tattoo artist. I take a moment to explain how that might affect the release of new episodes in this podcast series. The rest of the episode explores what a novel written these days achieves, and whether that achievement is enticing for a so-called philosopher, such as myself, who would like to think they're slowly wendin...
39. The Novel as a Concentrated Dose of the Writer's Aesthetic
June 02, 2022 17:00 - 37 minutes - 32 MBThe episode begins with an announcement that I've started working on a novel, the choice having been made following an inspiring conversation I had this past weekend with my tattoo artist. I take a moment to explain how that might affect the release of new episodes in this podcast series. The rest of the episode explores what a novel written these days achieves, and whether that achievement is enticing for a so-called philosopher, such as myself, who would like to think they're slowly wendin...
38. The Project of Consciousness Is to Attain Freedom
May 26, 2022 17:15 - 26 minutes - 21.6 MBSpeaking on consciousness in this episode, which is a question and phenomenon I don't usually dwell on as philosopher; hopefully I bring something new to the discussion with today's podcast. Thank you for tuning in! Please subscribe and rate! It's very much appreciated. Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
37. Social Harmony Requires the Denial of One's Own Self-assertion
May 17, 2022 17:07 - 35 minutes - 30.8 MBThe irony of today's social and political climate is that so many individual voices, in our so-called democracy, are insisting that their voices be heard and their status as self-defining individuals recognized for the sake of social harmony. In other words, we have individuals—call them activists—who feel within themselves that they will not rest until the group which they represent, even if it's a group of one, is acknowledged by the current social order—even if that means upending the cur...
36. Too Comfortable to Have Need for the Individual
May 11, 2022 17:04 - 41 minutes - 34.1 MBAn episode inspired by a reading of the initial chapters of 'My Bondage and My Freedom' by Frederick Douglass, as well as by Frederick Douglass as a historical figure. Thank you for tuning in! Please subscribe and rate! It's very much appreciated. Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
35. The Philosopher's Mode of Being In a World of Such Disorder
May 09, 2022 17:41 - 29 minutes - 24.2 MBIn this episode we're questioning what it means to be a philosopher in this time and place in history, rife with such conflict and turmoil. Do we measure existence according to some high standard of philosophical criteria, and cast judgment and affect change accordingly, or do we just exist, opening ourselves, as philosophers, more and more, to whatever order of existence happens to be, at the time and place of our own accidental history? Thank you for tuning in! Please subscribe and r...
34. The Philosopher's Dilemma
May 02, 2022 16:44 - 39 minutes - 32.7 MBIt's not an easy discussion, and the answer is not simple, but the question of today's episode is the extent to which present ideological forces stand in the way of the philosopher's search for truth, and how have those forces impacted the philosopher's pursuit throughout history. Thank you for listening! Please subscribe and rate! Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
33. Anti-Religion Is the New Religion, and It's Wreaking Havoc on the Human Psyche
April 29, 2022 18:39 - 36 minutes - 29.5 MBOnce again finding ourselves in a world of complexity, the moment of clarity in this episode is that we've got to trust our instincts, if only we knew ourselves, etc. Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
32. For Art to Matter: On One of Karl Ove Knausgaard's Lesser Known Works
April 28, 2022 17:11 - 55 minutes - 44.1 MBAfter reading “So Much Longing in So Little Space' by Karl Ove Knausgaard, in this episode we ask the same question he did in the book: what makes a work of art good, really? My position in this episode is that the 'good' or even great art object cannot be one which you experience but then go back to life as you've known it, as it's settled around you. Arguing from a more radical position, I suppose, I claim the great work of art upsets everything, shakes all that the viewer thinks they know...
31. Reality Won't Allow Us to Dream Our Way Out of It
April 26, 2022 16:10 - 29 minutes - 23 MBIn the capitalist social model the house always wins, and not every individual who plays the game in the hopes of hitting big, of experiencing the windfall of all that capitalism at its height promises, is in fact going to win. The reality is that most don't, and that reality is looming every larger in the sights and mind of the collective—they are protesting this circumstance which capitalism has wrought upon the world, that the house, the system, always wins, and most individuals will end ...
30. 'What Now?', as the Philosophical Question of Our Time
April 25, 2022 17:15 - 24 minutes - 19.3 MBIn this episode we ask if there is any philosophical question that is unique to our time. We ask this because, on the other hand, if, despite superficial differences, the modern individual's experience of the highs and lows of this life, of their existential condition as conscious human being, is not all that different from that of any human alive at any point in the past, then the philosophical, spiritual, and scientific texts that have been passed down to us are all we need to come up with...
29. The Collapse of What May Be Into What Is
April 24, 2022 17:11 - 25 minutes - 20.6 MBCharles Darwin, in his description of nature, revealed a mechanism far beyond what had previously been imagined. In his almost microscopic attention to the world as it is, which so many eyes prior to his work had slid over and taken for granted, his descriptions of life on this planet often sounded otherwordly, revealing a world as if of fantasy, which we'd never noticed before. In this episode, we wonder what is yet to be revealed by the one who would look as closely at what is on this Eart...
28. The Motive of the Alchemists in Carl Jung's 'Mysterium Coniunctionis'
April 21, 2022 17:08 - 38 minutes - 31.6 MBIf we regard the premodern search for truth and explanation for being in the materials of this earth as guided largely by superstition, as medieval alchemists sought to resolve the spiritual substance, contained in the materials of this earth as if they were vessels for it, in one potent object or formula – the lapis philosophorum – we would nonetheless be mistaken, Carl Jung posits, if we believed too that our own motive for modern, scientific investigation has changed all that much from th...
28. An Attempt to Experience the World Truly
March 15, 2022 16:50 - 25 minutes - 21.3 MBAn introduction to the hypothesis guiding a new writing project which will be a companion piece to the philosophy being developed in this podcast series. There is a mode of investigation I've developed as philosopher, which informs this series and this new writing project, and I outline it in this episode as an introduction to how this podcast and my writing is going to develop moving forward into the indefinite future (hopefully for months to come!). Check out the About Reality Substa...
27. Using the Written Word to Recall Us From Ideological Perception
March 07, 2022 18:01 - 35 minutes - 29.1 MBHow should a human creature react to a true statement? Where do we allow the written word to take us today, if anywhere? Where would a true word, written or spoken, say we are, and where does it say we're going? What has been the power of the written word throughout our history, which in our secular age we seem on guard against, providing as it does with a regaining of orientation and direction which the modern world cannot abide, for the fact that it has no patience for any statements whic...
26. As for the Future, What We Don't Want Becomes More Explicit
February 28, 2022 01:05 - 35 minutes - 26.5 MBWhat does a people fight and give their lives for? What order and sense of history does a community seek to maintain—and is it accidental or arbitrary, or is it the only thing a people has to combat the chaos inherent to the universe, which in one form or another is always threatening to consume a people's identity and way of life? Check out the About Reality Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
25. Ideology Serves to Minimize the Radical Evil Inherent in Our Action
February 21, 2022 18:53 - 38 minutes - 31.7 MBThis episode is mostly an elaboration upon one of the arguments in Alenka Zupancic's book 'Ethics of the Real: Kant and Lacan'. Check out the About Reality Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
24. Aligning Ourselves With What Is, Beyond What Is Good or Bad
February 13, 2022 15:20 - 35 minutes - 29.1 MBThe perennial problem, revisited in today's age, of what the philosopher is really aiming to achieve: whether it is to align with what is, in contemplative fashion, or, as seems more favored these days, to take their so-called insight and bring into reality a future and world we want for ourselves. In this episode we are in doubt as to whether that latter option is possible, and conclude it might even be naive. Substack entry I read in this episode: https://aboutreality.substack.com/p/fe...
23. Grounding Our Vision of the World of Tomorrow: In What Reality?
February 01, 2022 17:13 - 38 minutes - 31.5 MBThe world seems to be hanging suspended, in a limbo state, caught in between the reality of the past and that of the future, the latter of which has yet to be determined, yet no one seems to be offering any clear vision of what that future reality might look like. As a result there is a lot of tension in the mind of the average individual, who no longer knows how to plan or invest for their future—they can't count on things remaining so stable as they have been for the last few decades; even...
Episode 023 – Grounding Our Vision of the World of Tomorrow: In What Reality?
February 01, 2022 17:13 - 38 minutes - 31.5 MBThe world seems to be hanging suspended, in a limbo state, caught in between the reality of the past and that of the future, the latter of which has yet to be determined, yet no one seems to be offering any clear vision of what that future reality might look like. As a result there is a lot of tension in the mind of the average individual, who no longer knows how to plan or invest for their future—they can't count on things remaining so stable as they have been for the last few decades; even...
22. The Decline of Civilization Is Guaranteed By Our Apathy
January 12, 2022 16:56 - 32 minutes - 37.1 MBI would just like to add, as far as 'where the knowledge is found', and our relationship to the wisdom accrued through our contact with deep time – it is a wisdom to be gained through our bodies too, which are a product of deep time, of billions of years of evolution of life. This is why I emphasize the body – not that the body has or possesses such wisdom, but that it is the wisdom which we need to meditate upon. Check out the 'About Reality' Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.co...
Episode 022 – The Decline of Civilization Is Guaranteed By Our Apathy
January 12, 2022 16:56 - 32 minutes - 37.1 MBI would just like to add, as far as 'where the knowledge is found', and our relationship to the wisdom accrued through our contact with deep time – it is a wisdom to be gained through our bodies too, which are a product of deep time, of billions of years of evolution of life. This is why I emphasize the body – not that the body has or possesses such wisdom, but that it is the wisdom which we need to meditate upon. Check out the 'About Reality' Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.co...
Episode 021 – Who Would Insist the World Be Any Way Other Than How It Is?
January 02, 2022 19:28 - 32 minutes - 36.9 MBWould the philosopher be wise to do so? Is it the project of the statesman? Has it been the naive project of the west all along? What mode of being, given the state of nature and the world at present, is actually the wisest of all? Such are the questions asked in this episode. Check out the 'About Reality' Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/ Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
21. Who Would Insist the World Be Any Way Other Than How It Is?
January 02, 2022 19:28 - 32 minutes - 36.9 MBWould the philosopher be wise to do so? Is it the project of the statesman? Has it been the naive project of the west all along? What mode of being, given the state of nature and the world at present, is actually the wisest of all? Such are the questions asked in this episode. Check out the 'About Reality' Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/ Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
Episode 020 – Why Pursue Philosophy in 2022?
December 30, 2021 20:52 - 23 minutes - 27.4 MBIn the first half of this episode I reintroduce the 'About Reality' project, to outline the intention of both the podcast as well as the companion Substack as we head into the new year. In the second half I get to talking about the language the philosopher might use to capture and convey philosophical ideas that are worth considering in the world of 2022. Check out the About Reality Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
20. Why Pursue Philosophy in 2022?
December 30, 2021 20:52 - 23 minutes - 27.4 MBIn the first half of this episode I reintroduce the 'About Reality' project, to outline the intention of both the podcast as well as the companion Substack as we head into the new year. In the second half I get to talking about the language the philosopher might use to capture and convey philosophical ideas that are worth considering in the world of 2022. Check out the About Reality Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
19. The Second Stage of Philosophical Development
December 19, 2021 20:36 - 37 minutes - 42.1 MBThe second stage of philosophical development is a self-discipline or even a self-denial—but toward what end? Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
Episode 019 – The Second Stage of Philosophical Development
December 19, 2021 20:36 - 37 minutes - 42.1 MBThe second stage of philosophical development is a self-discipline or even a self-denial—but toward what end? Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire
Episode 018 – Escaping the Language of the Moment, and Its Myopic Concern
December 13, 2021 18:31 - 23 minutes - 26.9 MBAn argument for the return of our attention to areas of linguistic, artistic, and cultural expression outside of the domain of the institutions of our time, which dominate the cultural and social narrative the individual has to attend to, for the fact that they mediate most of our cultural, and cross-cultural, communication. We have to find other spaces (call them platforms, if you'd like) in which to express our concern for other facets of the human experience, which these institutional nar...
18. Escaping the Language of the Moment, and Its Myopic Concern
December 13, 2021 18:31 - 23 minutes - 26.9 MBAn argument for the return of our attention to areas of linguistic, artistic, and cultural expression outside of the domain of the institutions of our time, which dominate the cultural and social narrative the individual has to attend to, for the fact that they mediate most of our cultural, and cross-cultural, communication. We have to find other spaces (call them platforms, if you'd like) in which to express our concern for other facets of the human experience, which these institutional nar...
17. This Episode Is Just About Writing
December 09, 2021 19:18 - 26 minutes - 30.2 MBThe first question in this episode is what is good writing, and we say the answer is that good writing is necessary writing. The second question in this episode is, what exactly is necessary to write about in the context of the modern world, and how can a (literary) writer still manage to capture it organically, given the commercialism of literature in its contemporary form?
Episode 017 – This Episode Is Just About Writing
December 09, 2021 19:18 - 26 minutes - 30.2 MBThe first question in this episode is what is good writing, and we say the answer is that good writing is necessary writing. The second question in this episode is, what exactly is necessary to write about in the context of the modern world, and how can a (literary) writer still manage to capture it organically, given the commercialism of literature in its contemporary form?
Episode 016 – Discovering One's Capacity to Face the Unknown
December 06, 2021 18:05 - 28 minutes - 32.7 MBThis being a philosophical undertaking, and one of the main pursuits of philosophy as well as art: to satisfy the primitive impulse to confront the unknown, so as to overcome it, or else simply to live in its proximity. Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/
16. Discovering One's Capacity to Face the Unknown
December 06, 2021 18:05 - 28 minutes - 32.7 MBThis being a philosophical undertaking, and one of the main pursuits of philosophy as well as art: to satisfy the primitive impulse to confront the unknown, so as to overcome it, or else simply to live in its proximity. Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire Substack: https://aboutreality.substack.com/
15. Waking up From This Stupor
November 23, 2021 17:45 - 39 minutes - 45.4 MBYou're asked, as global citizen, to never stop developing opinions on events occurring, and people speaking, likely hundreds of miles away from wherever you are situated, as individual. The task of the global citizen, on the daily, is to evaluate such information which is so far removed from your locale, where you live and breathe and work, and dream and perspire. In this episode I recommend dropping out of the global 'sense-making' project that is underway, to instead think your own thought...