Philosophy and Literature
Oct 27, 2007What can we learn from studying philosophy? What can we learn from reading great (or not-so-great) literature?
What Makes a Monster?
Sun Lee
22 February 2018
It's been 200 years since we've been captivated by Mary Shelley's tale of a man creating a living being. From the moment the creature is "born," its creator, Victor Frankenstein, calls it a monster.
But why call it a monster? Because of its ugliness? Better yet, why did the outcome of Frankenstein's prized experiment have to turn out so repulsive?
This podcast explores among other things the possibility that Frankenstein's education was monstruous to begin with, and hence, anything produced from such monstrous foundation was equally monstrous.
Frankenstein was fascinated with the natural sciences, and especially influenced by chemistry and alchemy. In turn, he distanced himself from more humanistic subjects. Is education devoid of the humanities monstrous?
Listen here: https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2018/01/30/combat-classics-15-mary-she...
And come to the LIVE taping of "Monstrous Technologies" on the Stanford campus this Tuesday at 7:30pm, where Josh and Ken talk with Provost Persis Drell about the role education plays in preventing new "monsters." It's part of Stanford's Frankenstein@200 celebration.
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Related Shows
Philosophy and Literature
Oct 27, 2007What can we learn from studying philosophy? What can we learn from reading great (or not-so-great) literature?
Philosophy in Fiction
Feb 07, 2010Philosophers think a lot about fiction. But do novelists think about philosophy? Do philosophers make good fictional characters?
Monstrous Technologies?
Apr 08, 2018Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein raises powerful questions about the responsibilities of scientists to consider the impact of their inventions on the world.
Blog Archive
Why do some people have a strange desire to do weird things for no (good) reason? There's something fascinating about kids who eat laundry soap as part of a “challenge,” or people who deliberately... Read more
Making a better world would be a great thing—but do we need philosophers to help us do that? Famously (or infamously), not all philosophers have been such great people. So are they the folks we... Read more
In her time—the 4th century CE—Hypatia was one of the most famous philosophers in Alexandria, and indeed in the ancient world. She studied and taught mathematics,... Read more
Mexican philosophy is full of fascinating ideas, from Mexica ("Aztec") and Mayan thought to Sor Juana’s feminism and Emilio Uranga’s existentialism... Read more
Your friendly neighborhood Senior Prodcuer here, once again stepping out from behind the mixing board to bring you some bonus content from this week's 17th (!) annual Summer Reading special.... Read more
Gender is a controversial topic these days. To some, gender is an oppressive system designed to keep women down: people go around saying "girls are made of sugar and spice and boys are made of... Read more
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Some say the world is full of contradictions, like “parting is such sweet sorrow.” Parting is sweet, but parting is also sad; and sweetness and sadness are opposites. But logicians would say that... Read more
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Derek Parfit was a really interesting thinker when it came to identity and the self. He had a particularly cool thought experiment involving tele-transportation.
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This week we’re thinking about cultural appropriation and asking who owns culture—which may be a weird way of thinking about it. It's easy to see how somebody can own the rights to a song they... Read more
This week we’re questioning Effective Altruism. That’s Peter Singer’s idea that you should do the most good you can, and you should figure out what that is by doing your homework and choosing the... Read more
This week we're asking what Political Inequality is. Sounds easy to define, right? That’s when some people don’t get an equal voice in society, because they’re not represented in government, or... Read more
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... Read more
Comments (2)
Harold G. Neuman
Thursday, February 22, 2018 -- 11:36 AM
It was a morality tale: don'tIt was a morality tale: don't mess with Mother Nature. She will come back to bite you in the butt. Several times.
Josh Landy
Thursday, February 22, 2018 -- 6:49 PM
It's well worth rereadingIt's well worth rereading this fantastic novel, which, as I see it, turns out to be much more sophisticated than just a simple morality tale. Even leaving aside the brilliant experimentation with form (letters inside a story inside a story inside a story inside a diary), it's wonderfully ambiguous on the question of "messing with nature." There's a lot of messing with nature in the novel that comes across as harmless or indeed beneficial. The Creature famously refers to language as a "godlike science"; he loves reading printed books; he appreciates the heat of a human-made fire (so much for Prometheus being all bad!); and at one point he even refers to Victor Frankenstein as "the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration." It's this richness and complexity that make Frankenstein one of the great novels of the nineteenth century.