The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Ep. 318: Friedrich Schiller on the Civilizing Potential of Art (Part One)

Can art make us better people? Musician <a href="https://www.markusreuter.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Markus Reuter</a> joins Mark, Wes, and Seth to discussion the first half of On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795). Given the failure of the French Revolution, this famous German poet wondered what could make the masses capable of governing themselves? His answer: Beauty! Aesthetic appreciation puts us at a distance from our savage desires, enables the abstract thought necessary for Kantian rationalist morality, and yet keeps us in touch with our feelings so that we don't just become cogs in the industrial machine. Get more at <a href="https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/">partiallyexaminedlife.com</a>. Visit <a href="https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/support" rel="noopener" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/support</a> to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

The Partially Examined Life is a podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a short text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion. For links to the texts we discuss and other info, check out www.partiallyexaminedlife.com.

We also feature episodes from other podcasts by our hosts to round out your partially examined life, including Pretty Much Pop (prettymuchpop.com, covering all media), Nakedly Examined Music (nakedlyexaminedmusic.com, deconstructing songs), Philosophy vs. Improv (philosophyimprov.com, fun with performance skills and philosophical ideas), and (sub)Text (subtextpodcast.com, looking deeply at lit and film). Learn about more network podcasts at partiallyexaminedlife.com.