E. S. Dallaire's 'Metaphor & Reality'

This one was called 'Let's Take a Break From This Poker Game'. Ordinarily this episode would be exclusive to Patreon, but after recording I decided to distribute it to other podcast platforms just to get the word out that there's a second 'Metaphor & Reality' episode recorded every week, but that it's only available to my Patreon subscribers. This 'peek' is a bit impromptu, and when I recorded the episode I didn't think I would release it here, but I hope you enjoy it, and, of course –...

Just making sure I'm not taking for granted that I even know what it is to 'do' philosophy, in this episode. We touch upon, or maybe even take our cue from, Plato's 'Symposium' [correction: from 'Phaedrus'], and then also mention the work of a modern day philosopher named Eva Brann, and specifically her book on Heraclitus, as we briefly mention too Aristotle's Analytics, and his difficulties when accounting for the derivation of first principles. As ever, E. S. Dallaire shares a few of his...

The question is inspired by the contemporary philosophical landscape as found on social media and also in the academy, which seems to have split into two opposing camps, each with their own idea of what relationship exists between motivated (ie. politically or socially motivated) philosophical or general inquiry, and philosophical truth with a capital 'T'. For the one side, traditionally where Marx is found and propounded, the two are one and the same; for the other, philosophical motivation...

Beginning with a bit of a discussion as to whether a philosopher should bring the advances of modern scientific practice into his/her philosophy, or else leave them be, as they are a product of a global industrial complex, and what once were their (the scientists') pure motivations and aspiration for knowledge and truth have been reduced to data analysis for the sake of business advances, so are not in keeping with the philosophical spirit searching after knowledge with a capital 'T'...

What's the Platonic dialogue where Socrates gives reasons for why he doesn't trust writing, or more precisely the product of writers working so carefully to 'beautify' their phrases, as if that would make them more true? Was it 'Phaedrus'? I know he mentions the faults or limits or common motivations for writing in that one. . . Anyways, it's no matter: the point is, going with what he was saying, what I mean to convey in this episode is that the extemporaneous nature of the podcast medium...

A so-called 'sense-making' apparatus is rapidly emerging online, these days, and for the most part it seems to be an organic process. But what may be the next step these independent intellectuals, who could be said to comprise the various nodes of this emerging network, as representatives of their respective domains of inquiry and discipline, take, in order to begin to apply their common theoretical points of agreement in the physical, non-digital world, in an effort to effect real change?...

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', E. S. Dallaire wonders whether psychoanalytic theory really has so much to say that would be of benefit to philosophers. The Politics of Sexual Difference - Slavoj Žižek, Mladen Dolar, and Alenka Zupančič: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R7SCY5zVLg

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire begins with a few reasons for why the novel may just be an obsolete form for literary expression, and then he introduces the philosophy book by Alenka Zupančič he is currently reading, entitled 'What Is Sex?', which he plans to explore in the next episode. He tries to provide perspective on the coronavirus and its vaccine by locating them in their respective timelines of development or maturation, in 2020, and going into 2021. He...

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', E. S. Dallaire describes how Honoré de Balzac's 'Lost Illusions', and particularly one of its characters, Étienne Lousteau, calls into question a young artist's ambitions and dreams of celebrity and glory and wealth.

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', E. S. Dallaire talks about Honoré de Balzac's novel 'Lost Illusions', and draws a comparison between Balzac's work, in this novel and in general, and James Cameron's 'Titanic'. E. S. Dallaire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', E. S. Dallaire debates whether he wants to invest the time required to understand 'Aion', part two of volume nine of Carl Jung's collected works.

A reading of E. S. Dallaire's essay 'Coyote Madness', published November 3, 2020, on the 'Metaphor & Reality' Substack. The written version can be found by following this link: https://esdallaire.substack.com/p/coyote-madness Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!

A reading of E. S. Dallaire's narrative essay 'A Visit From Homer', originally written in June 2017. The written version can be found by following this link: https://esdallaire.substack.com/p/a-visit-from-homer Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!

A reading of E. S. Dallaire's literary review 'On Rachel Cusk's 'Outline' Trilogy', originally published on his own website on December 13, 2019. The written version can be found by following this link: https://esdallaire.substack.com/p/on-rachel-cusks-outline-trilogy Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!

A reading of E. S. Dallaire's essay 'Oil World', published September 19, 2020, on Substack. The written version can be found by following this link: https://esdallaire.substack.com/p/oil-world Be sure to Subscribe so that you never miss the audio readings of E. S. Dallaire's latest essays! Sharing these readings with your friends, as well as on social media, is also much appreciated! E. S. Dallaire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire E. S. Dallaire's Substack:...

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire expands on what the propositions 'The body has a philosophy all its own,' and 'To figure out how not to regard [the body] as a riddle is no doubt one of the perennial tasks for philosophers,' mean to him, presently. He talks about his current reading of St. Thomas Aquinas' 'Summa Theologica', and how that 13 century philosopher applied himself to the same question – E. S. Dallaire has not read enough of this text to really give a...

**ORIGINALLY RECORDED BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER 2019 (but never uploaded to Libsyn, my podcast distributor - for those who noticed that the episode count for this podcast series starts at '003'. Unfortunately, the sound quality on the inaugural episode I recorded is too poor, with an incessant buzzing in the background, so that one will remain 'lost')** In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', E. S. Dallaire uses Plato's descriptions of the five natural constitutions of the city state...

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', and by popular demand(!), writer E. S. Dallaire is once again joined by Nikole, an English teacher and poet, to discuss what it really means to 'Know Thyself', especially with respect to the demands placed upon them by the social world, given that they are both now, more or less, occupying solid positions within that world, both professionally and as individuals. In this episode the distinction is made between one's social 'identity', and the part of...

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', E. S. Dallaire is once again joined by Nikole, an English teacher and poet who was a guest in 'Episode 020 – Does the Soul Exist, and If So, Where Is It?', to discuss art and the artist's place and role in the modern world. Nikole draws upon her current reading of Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy', and the discussion soon becomes a very lively compare/contrast between Nietzsche's ideal spectator and the typical or common relationships which...

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire further examines the function of the thinker, as a person or type who seeks to distill their experience of all reality into a formal system which can then be shared with others and perhaps enacted 'in real life', or in other words in physical space, with the results of such physical enactment of some abstracted comprehension of all reality being uncertain, and certainly open to debate. Not to give too much away here, but the main...