Basic Info

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Original Air Date

Dec 15, 1978 → Apr 06, 1979

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Series Overview

INTRODUCTION: What is philosophy?
PART ONE: PLATO
PART TWO: DESCARTES
PART THREE: HUME
PART FOUR: HEGEL
PART FIVE: MARX
PART SIX: SARTRE
PART SEVEN: The Contemporary Scene </aside>

Download the Book

FSTS Book Vault

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Past Episodes

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PART ZERO: INTRODUCTION

E01. FSTS EP01 ⟩ INTRODUCTION: THE INDESTRUCTIBLE QUESTIONS </aside>

PART ONE: PLATO

E02. FSTS EP02 ⟩ Plato I – VIRTUE IS KNOWLEDGE
E03. FSTS EP03 ⟩ Plato II – SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE
E04. FSTS EP04 ⟩ Plato III – THE DIVIDED LINE (Opinion vs Knowledge)
E05. FSTS EP05 ⟩ Plato IV – THE TRIPARTITE SOUL (The Three Part Man)
E06. FSTS EP06 ⟩ Plato V – THE IDEAL STATE </aside>

PART TWO: DESCARTES

E07. FSTS EP07 ⟩ Descartes I: Historical Transition to the Modern World (The Modern World Begins)
E08. FSTS EP08 ⟩ Descartes II: Doubting to Believe
E09. FSTS EP09 ⟩ Descartes III: God Exists
E10. FSTS EP10 ⟩ Descartes IV: The Clockwork Universe
E11. FSTS EP11 ⟩ Descartes V: Body and Soul </aside>

PART THREE: HUME

E12. FSTS EP12 ⟩ Hume I: How Do You Know?
E13. FSTS EP13 ⟩ Hume II: “A Well-Meanin’ Critter”
E14. FSTS EP14 ⟩ Hume III: Will the Sun Rise Tomorrow?
E15. FSTS EP15 ⟩ Hume IV: Reason: “Slave of the Passions” </aside>

PART FOUR: HEGEL

E16. FSTS EP16 ⟩ Hegel I: A Revolution in Thought
E17. FSTS EP17 ⟩ Hegel II: The Real Is the Rational
E18. FSTS EP18 ⟩ Hegel III: Master and Slave
E19. FSTS EP19 ⟩ Hegel IV: The Cunning of Reason
E20. FSTS EP20 ⟩ Hegel V: The Owl of Minerva </aside>

PART FIVE: MARX

E21. FSTS EP21 ⟩ Marx I: The Young Hegelian
E22. FSTS EP22 ⟩ Marx II: Alienated Man
E23. FSTS EP23 ⟩ Marx III: The Conflict of Classes
E24. FSTS EP24 ⟩ Marx IV: The World to Come
Choice Quotes </aside>

PART SIX: SARTRE

E25. FSTS EP25 ⟩ Sartre I: My Existence is Absurd
E26. FSTS EP26 ⟩ Sartre II: Nausea
E27. FSTS EP27 ⟩ Sartre III: ‘Condemned To Be Free’
E28. FSTS EP28 ⟩ Sartre IV: No Exit </aside>

PART SEVEN: IN SEARCH – THE CONTEMPORARY SCENE IN PHILOSOPHY

E29. FSTS EP29 ⟩ In Search </aside>

Current Episode

In Search

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In Search: The Contemporary Scene in Philosophy

29 – IN SEARCH

Analysis of Critique of Dialectical Reason: Sartre’s conversion to Marxism to provide “an ethics of deliverance and salvation.” “Marxism is the inescapable philosophy of our time.” Relation of existentialism to Marxism. The passionate longing for a foundation, to be both being-for-itself and also to be being-in-itself: But there can be no such being. Hence, God does not exist and “man is a useless passion.” Aside from Marxism as foundation, Sartre had no exit from absurd, dreadful freedom. Sartre’s relation to the Communist Party of France. Relation to Stalin, labor camps, colonial violence, Cuba, China. Break with Communists May, 1968. At death an ultra-leftist.

Present philosophic scene outside the Marxist world. The philosophical descendants of Hume and Hegel in polar opposition. Principles and themes of phenomenology; Husserl and focus on quest for certainty: Sartre and Heidegger: focus on issues and modes of conscious being in alien world. Linguistic philosophy. Logical positivism. Return to Hume. Theory of meaning. Verifiability principle of Vienna Circle. Attack upon metaphysics. Philosophy as an activity. Ludwig Wittgenstein: from logical positivism to analytic philosophy. First stage: logical positivism. The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and the picture theory of language; the meaninglessness of philosophic “problems” and their “answers.” Second stage: analytic philosophy. Philosophical Investigations and the theory of language games. The appeal of analytic philosophy; philosophy as the activity of analyzing language games to dissolve philosophic problems. Criticism of Phenomenology and of logical positivism and of analytic philosophy. The death of philosophy? The search for a new philosophic vision. The promise of American philosophy, a synthesis of Hume and Hegel; the promise of history of philosophy; and of renewed research relating philosophy to the sciences and the arts—all of these having been buried under the avalanche of analytic philosophy.

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<aside> <img src="/icons/window_purple.svg" alt="/icons/window_purple.svg" width="40px" /> MEETUP DESCRIPTION

From Socrates to Sartre EP29 ⟩ “In Search: The Contemporary Scene in Philosophy”, Thu, Nov 13, 2025, 6:00 PM | Meetup </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/chat_purple.svg" alt="/icons/chat_purple.svg" width="40px" /> LAVINE TRANSCRIPT and CHATLOG

Transcript: EP29 – In Search: The Contemporary Scene in Philosophy
Chatlog </aside>