Notations

Part I: 00:00:00 – (Music: “Stillwell Ave.” by El Diablo Robotico)

00:00:25 – Introductions

00:01:30 – On our first class

Aristotle. Politics

00:02:15 – On Self Examination, Self-Criticism, New Classes 

Or lack thereof.
Also, now they’re current classes.
Walter Benjamin. The Arcades Project
Sade. Philosophy in the Bedroom

00:06:10 – On the Analytic / Continental Divide, Definitions, Style, Clarity, History

Gary Gutting. “Bridging the Analytic / Continental Divide”
Gary Gutting. Thinking the Impossible
Tokenism
Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy
On “Ontic Science”: 
Colin McGinn. “Philosophy by Another Name”
Colin McGinn. “Name Calling: Philosophy as Ontical Science”

Alex Rosenberg. The Atheist’s Guide to Reality
J.L. Austin. How to do Things with Words
New York Marriage Laws

Husserl, Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Merleau-Ponty

Lotringer and Cohen, ed. French Theory in America

Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze

Plato, Aristotle, Kant, || Hegel

George Orwell. “Why I Write”
Ordinary Language Philosophy

00:29:45 – On Omissions, History of Philosophy, Critical Theory, Other Philosophies

Hannah Arendt
The Frankfurt School
Vedanta
Islamic Philosophy
Quine
Freud
Kierkegaard
Friedrich Nietzsche.Genealogy of Morals
Plato. Republic

00:40:00 – On Possible Resolutions, Silence, Grammar, Expression, Counting, Phenomenology, Perception

Ludwig Wittgenstein. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
[The line in question is: “Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.” It is from the end of the Tractatus and has been translated as “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent,” or “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”– Ed. Note]

00:47:15 – On Neuroscience, Perception, Reducibility, Dialogue

Daniel Dennett. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea

00:52:38 – Break! (Music: “Downtown Abbey – the Suite” composed by John Lunn)

00:53:24 – Part II: On Downton Abbey

Maggie Smith

[SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT]

00:56:26 –  A Set of Propositions, Aesthetic Judgment, Television

The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
John Carter (2012)
Friday Night Lights
Walter Benjamin. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
Susan Buck-Morss. “Aesthetics and Anaesthetics” 
Jullian Fellowes
James Fenton. “The Abbey that Jumped the Shark”
Simon Schama. “No Downers in Downton” 

01:02:57 – On Season 2, Disappointment, Disagreement, Why We Like Things, Nostalgia, Mourning

Aristotle. Politics
Jane Austen. Mansfield Park
Edward Said. Culture and Imperialism

01:14:30 – On the Conscious Level, False Consciousness, Christianity and/or/is/not Religion

False Consciousness
Thomas Frank. What’s the Matter with Kansas?
[I wish I had actually referred to the most pertinent case of false consciousness to our own work, that of academics – Ed. Note.] Talal Asad.  Genealogies of Religion
Gil Anidjar. “Secularism”
The chauffeur’s name is Branson.
[It’s quite telling that we can’t remember – Ed. Note]

01:23:59 – Again, On Why We Like the Show, Identification

Dr. Who
Mad Men
[The show actually begins with the train and telegraph, then the servants, then the family. It’s quite a nice, little montage. – Ed. Note]

Technical Details: Recorded on a Samson CO1U into an msi PC running the beta version of the freeware program Audacity 1.3.13 while consuming enjoyable, yet moderate, amounts of Woodford Reserve bourbon, Ballantines Ale, Coke Zero, and good old-fashioned New York City tap water.