The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

On Raphaël Millière and Cameron Buckner's "A Philosophical Introduction to Language Models, Part I: Continuity With Classic Debates" (2023).

Is the Large Language Model type of architecture currently in use by AIs a legitimate basis for intelligence? M&B explain the technology and run through arguments for and against, with the conclusion that while current LLMs are not properly intelligent, there's no in principle reason why they could become so.

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Mark, Mary, and Jenny are joined by improviser Anthony to restore us to a 2 X 2 Team Play balance, again reading part of Martha Nussbaum's The Therapy of Desire as a way of exploring ancient traditions by which one might use philosophy for self-improvement.

We act out and/or discuss vacation portal polyamory, voluntarily living in dangerous places, life return bureaucracy, risk bricks, connecting the classroom to the real world, and the first weekly check-in of the robots' revolution scheduling society.

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Finishing up on Hippias Minor and moving on to the Ion, where Socrates convinces a rhapsode (someone who does public, dramatic readings of Homer and is a Homer scholar) that his talent is a matter of inspiration and not knowledge. So how does this relate to Plato's dismissal of poets in the Republic?

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Bruce has released 34 solo albums between 1970 and the present. He's a very accomplished finger-picker and often plays entirely solo but has also written rock, jazz, Christian, and 80s syntho songs.

We discuss "Louis Collins" from The Blood of Others (2026), "Look How Far" from Breakfast in New Orleans Dinner in Timbuktu (1999), and Let's Go Laughing" from High Winds White Sky (1971). End song: "Café Society" from Bone on Bone (2017). Intro: "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" from Stealing Fire (1984).

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On the 2024 low-budget horror blockbuster film by Curry Barker. Mark, Lawrence, and Sarahlyn are joined by feminist philosopher Jenny Hansen to talk about this peculiar film. Is it a feminist tract exposing "nice guys" for their underlying narcissism, or just a lengthy Twilight Zone episode getting creative about the mechanics of the old magic wish trope?

Like Get Out, this film is a surreal take on exploitation, but it also places itself in the tradition of Fatal Attraction as playing on our fear of and disdain for "clingy women." Did Barker even know what his message is? Is this film actually scary?

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