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Noëlle McAfee, Research Professor at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, joins me for episode 18 of the Digital Dialogue which is another special SPEP edition. 

Noëlle has numerous publications in the area of democratic political theory, social/political philosophy, feminist theory and American pragmatism including three books, Habermas, Kristeva, and Citizenship by Cornell University Press, 2000, Julia Kristeva, publish by Routledge in 2003, and a text that Shannon Sullivan and I discussed in episode 8 of the Digital Dialogue entitled Democracy and the Political Unconsious. She is here today to talk further about her book and to explore the transformative possibilities digital media opens for politics.

This year at SPEP, there was an excellent book panel on Noëlle's book in which Shannon Sullivan, of Penn State University and Robyn Marasco, of Hunter College, commented and Noëlle responded. A number of issues that grow out of that conversation frame some of our discussion on this episode of the Digital Dialogue.


Digital Dialogue 18 with Noëlle McAfee: Political Unconscious

Rose Cherubin, Associate Professor of Philosophy at George Mason University, joins me and a special panel of colleagues from the Ancient Philosophy Society for a special SPEP edition of the Digital Dialogue. We gathered together in Arlington, VA to discuss the paper Rose Cherubin gave at the APS panel at SPEP entitled "Parmenides: Another Way."

Rose specializes in Ancient Greek Philosophy, particularly the thinking of Parmenides, and metaphysics. She has published numerous articles in Ancient Greek Philosophy and she is currently working on a book related to the thinking of Parmenides with the working title: Justice, Knowledge and Inquiry. My other two panelists are previous interlocutors on the Digital Dialogue, Sara Brill, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University, who joined me for Digital Dialogue episode 13 on Psychology and Politics, and Jill Gordan, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Philosophy at Colby College, who joined me for Digital Dialogue episode 9 on Erotic Politics.

Digital Dialogue 17 with Rose Cherubin, Jill Gordon and Sara Brill: Parmenides

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Resources

• Austin, Scott. Parmenides and the History of Dialectic. Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing, 2007.
  
• Cassin, Barbara. "Who's Afraid of the Sophists? Against Ethical Correctness." Trans. Charles T. Wolfe. Hypatia 15.4 (2000): 102-120. (Available online via JSTOR.)
• Cherubin, Rose. "Legein, Noein, and To Eon in Parmenides."  Ancient Philosophy 21_ (2001): 277-303.
• ________, "Alētheia from Poetry into Philosophy: Homer to Parmenides." In Logos and Muthos, edited by William Wians. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009.
  
• Hermann, Arnold. To Think Like God. Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing, 2004.
  
• Miller, Mitchell. "Ambiguity and Transport: Reflections on the Proem to Parmenides' Poem." Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 30 (2006): 1-47.
  
• Robbiano, Chiara. Becoming Being. International Pre-Platonic Studies 5. Sankt Augustin: Academia, 2006.
  
• Tarán, Leonardo. Parmenides. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965.
  

John Lysaker, Professor of Philosophy at Emory University, joins me for the first of three special SPEP 2009 editions of the Digital Dialogue recorded in Arlington, VA at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existentialist Philosophy.

John's research focuses on philosophical psychology, aesthetics, social and political philosophy, and 19th and 20 century continental and American philosophy.

He has numerous publications in these areas, including two monographs, his first, You Must Change Your Life: Poetry and the Birth of Sense, was published in 2002 by Penn State University Press, and his second, Emerson and Self-Culture, was published in 2008 by Indiana University Press.

He is also the co-author of Schizophrenia and the Fate of the Self, published in 2008 by Oxford University Press, and the co-editor of  Emerson and Thoreau: Figures of Friendship forthcoming in January 2010 from the University of Indiana Press.

It is John's work on Emerson that brings him to the Digital Dialogue today.  In it, John enters into dialogue with the thinking of Ralph Waldo Emerson in order to perform self-culture, which he understands as an ongoing activity of self-realization in which one articulates and affirms the commitments and values that animate one's life.

Digital Dialogue 16 with John Lysaker: Emerson and Self-Culture

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Holly Moore, who defended her dissertation, entitled "Plato's Analogical Thought" at DePaul University on October 12th, 2009, joins me for episode 15 of the Digital Dialogue. Dr. Moore is a graduate of Penn State's Undergraduate Program in Philosophy. She did her honors thesis with Professor Mark Munn, who joined me for episode 12 of the Digital Dialogue in which we discussed his project on the relationship between eros and democracy.

Holly is currently a faculty fellow at Colby College. Her dissertation argues for the intimate connection between Plato's use of images and his ultimate philosophical teaching. More specifically, she insists that the images Plato articulates and the story his philosophy has to tell about images are inextricably connected. For Holly, Plato is an analogical thinker because the self-reflection and relational structure of analogies expresses something decisive about Platonic thinking.

Digital Dialogue 15 with Holly Moore: Plato's Analogical Thinking

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Related Resources

• The Sun-Good analogy and divided line: Republic, Book VI, 505a-511e
  
• The Third Kind and "Chorology": Timaeus, 48e-53c
  
• Division and Definition of Weaving: Statesman, 279c-283a
  
• Application of weaving as a mode for statescraft: Statesman, 305e-311c
  

John Christman, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Political Science and Women's Studies here at Penn State joins me for episode 14 of the Digital Dialogue.

John's research focuses on contemporary social and political philosophy, moral philosophy and feminist theory. He has published widely in these areas including, most recently, articles entitled "Autonomy, History, and the Subject of Justice" in Social Theory and Practice 2007, and "Saving Positive Freedom" published in Political Theory in 2005.

He has edited and co-edited a number of volumes, including Social and Political Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction, published by Routledge in 2002, Autonomy and the Challenges of Liberalism, co-edited with Joel Anderson for Cambridge University Press in 2005, and Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy, co-edited with Thomas Chistiano for Blackwell in 2009. His first book, The Myth of Property: Toward an Egalitarian Theory of Ownership was published by Oxford University Press in 1994.

But it is his latest book, which focuses on the social-historical self and the role autonomy plays in legitimating principles of justice, that brings him to the Digital Dialogue today. That book, entitled The Politics of Persons: Individual Autonomy and Socio-historical Selves, was recently published by Cambridge University Press. In it, John argues compellingly that autonomy, when properly conceived, can continue to play a central role in legitimating principles of justice in democratic societies even when the self is recognized as socially and historically conditioned in a rich and nuanced way.

Digital Dialogue14 with John Christman: The Politics of Persons

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In this episode of the Digital Dialogue, we discuss the social-historical conception of the self, John's view of autonomy as it relates to deliberative democracy and the account of public reason and deliberation at the root of John's project.

Related Resources

• We touched upon the use of the word "autonomos" in Sophocles's Antigone, at line 821.
• Some of Judith Butler's work was mentioned, including: Antigone's Claim and Giving an Account of Oneself.
  

Sara Brill, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University, joins me for episode 13 of the Digital Dialogue. Sara graduated from the Philosophy Department here at Penn State in 2004, where she wrote her dissertation with John Sallis entitled, Hygieia: Health and Medicine in Plato's Republic. Since graduating, she has published numerous articles on Plato and Ancient Greek tragedy, including "Medical Moderation in Plato's Symposium", published in Studies in the History of Ethics, 2006; "Violence and Vulnerability in Aeschylus' Suppliants" in a 2009 volume edited by William Wians entitled Logos and Mythos: Philosophical Essays in Greek Literature; and "Politics and Exoribitant Platonism", published in Epoché, 2009.

In this episode of the Digital Dialogue, we discuss the relationship between the Platonic conception of the soul and the political dimensions of the Phaedo, in particular. We also discuss the question of how Plato uses myths to capture something of the violence and vulnerability endemic to the human condition.

Digital Dialogue 13 with Sara Brill: Psyche and Politics

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Related Resources

• People interested in the Phaedo myth should take a look at 107c-115a; in the Republic, the myth of Er (of course) from 614b-621d; and for the Laws, the series of preludes against impiety that take up most of Book 10, from 888a-907d.
• Sara Brill's current CV (pdf).
  

In episode 12 of the Digital Dialogue, I am joined by Mark Munn who is Professor of Ancient Greek History, Greek Archaeology, and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies here at Penn State. His central research interest is in Classical Athens and its political and intellectual history.

His book, The School of Athens: Athens in the Age of Socrates is a stunning achievement and an important resource for all of us intent on understanding Greek thinking in the context of the cultural and social history in which it was articulated.

He is also the author of two other books, The Defense of Attica: The Dema Wall and Boiotian War of 378-375 BC, University of California Press, 1993 and The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion, University of California Press, 2006.

Our discussion ranges from the agonistic or competitive nature of political discourse in classical Athens, to the political function of eros in the classical period. This later is the focus of Mark Munn's latest book project, which we discuss in the episode as well.

Digital Dialogue 12 with Mark Munn: Eros and Democracy  

In episode 11 of the Digital Dialogue, I am joined by Christopher Johnstone who is Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences here at Penn State. 

His research and teaching focuses on the history of rhetorical theory, rhetorical criticism and the philosophy of rhetoric.  He specializes in the early development of Greek rhetoric.

His recently completed book will appear in November 2009 from the University of South Carolina Press entitled Listening to the Logos: Speech and the Coming of Wisdom in Ancient Greece. He has also written numerous articles on ancient Greek rhetoric and communication, including the essay on which we will focus our attention today entitled "Sophistical Wisdom: Politikê Aretê and 'Logosophia'" which appeared in Philosophy and Rhetoric, 39, no. 4 (2006): 265-89.

In episode 11, we discuss the history of how the Sophists and Plato have been interpreted and we talk about the differences between philosophy and rhetoric.  We differ strikingly about how to read Plato and this difference opens an interesting new possibility for understanding the way the Sophists have historically been juxtaposed to Philosophers.

Digital Dialogue 11 with Christopher Johnstone: Sophists and Philosophers

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Related Links

• Pam Dorian's blog post reconsidering the Sophists for my PHIL200 (Ancient Greek Philosophy) course based on her work in Chris's CAS201 (Rhetorical Theory) course.

Related Texts Mentioned

• Jarratt, Susan C. Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991. 
• Schiappa, Edward. Protagoras and Logos: A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric. 2nd ed, Studies in Rhetoric/Communication. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. 

Of Note

In episode 10 of the Digital Dialogue, I am joined by Allan Gyorke, Ryan Wetzel, and Matt Meyer, the team that has been working with me during my summer faculty fellowship at Penn State's Teaching and Learning with Technology.

In this episode we discuss the video we have been working on this summer, an outline of which you can watch here, the future of the Digital Dialogue podcast and the Socratic Politics blog as we move into the semester and some of the things we learned this summer.

Digital Dialogue 10 with Allan, Matt and Ryan: Summer Wrap-up