Sep 23, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 16 segments
!https://philosophyimprov.com/wp-content/uploads/PhilosophyVsTheater_600px.jpg In between seasons here, we’ve got some business, which is that not too long after our…
David EpsteinGuestMark LinsenmayerHostSo I think more of the sort of theater relevant philosophy that I've read, right? These aesthetics episodes that I've done, maybe back to Aristotle's rhetoric.
One of the relevant things I think you just brought up, which is, is it the artist's job to express or are they using a system of symbols that themselves express, right? Does the violinist who's playing the keening melody, right? Like, well, the melody is written in such a way and the way that they're stretching the notes is portraying sadness.
Being really embroiled in this thing, which is not quite the same as saying, I just want to fool the audience into being sad.
But that doesn't mean that we ourselves at that moment, hopefully somebody when they were writing the thing in the first place.
What do you think? So, again, the difference between the expression of the performer at the time and the writer.
You know, there's a huge dismissal of actors throughout a bunch of history.
I think that the violinist you're talking about, I know this girl at Juilliard, she's a cellist and she's just incredible.
And I asked her, I'm like, how do you learn all that? And she's like, it's not what the finished product looks like.
When you're learning it, it's just blistered fingers and stopping and starting and redoing and stopping and starting.
So I think more of the sort of theater relevant philosophy that I've read, right? These aesthetics episodes that I've done, maybe back to Aristotle's rhetoric.
One of the relevant things I think you just brought up, which is, is it the artist's job to express or are they using a system of symbols that themselves express, right? Does the violinist who's playing the keening melody, right? Like, well, the melody is written in such a way and the way that they're stretching the notes is portraying sadness.
Being really embroiled in this thing, which is not quite the same as saying, I just want to fool the audience into being sad.
But that doesn't mean that we ourselves at that moment, hopefully somebody when they were writing the thing in the first place.
What do you think? So, again, the difference between the expression of the performer at the time and the writer.
You know, there's a huge dismissal of actors throughout a bunch of history.
I think that the violinist you're talking about, I know this girl at Juilliard, she's a cellist and she's just incredible.
And I asked her, I'm like, how do you learn all that? And she's like, it's not what the finished product looks like.
When you're learning it, it's just blistered fingers and stopping and starting and redoing and stopping and starting.
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