PvI#125: Mrs. Nussbaum’s Credit Card (Season 6 Premiere)

https://www.patreon.com/philosophyimprov !https://philosophyimprov.com/wp-content/uploads/PvI125-single-cell.jpg Mark, Mary, and now new co-host Jus’ Jenny begin our new endeavor that includes reading Martha Nussbaum’s book *The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics* (1994). We read the introduction of that for this session, but YOU certainly don’t have to read it. (Though we encourage this; if you just search the web for the title and “pdf,” I’m betting you’ll find a version you can follow along with, though I would not be so disregarding of Martha’s intellectual property to provide you with such a link.) The point is to reflect on, over the next several months, the classical traditions of what we would now call the self-help movement but what they considered to be clinical philosophy: Using philosophical truths to live more rationally, happily, and productively. And if that sounds like BS cult sales talk, yes, that’s exactly what we need to guard ourselves against. Bringing in Nussbaum, an undisputedly A-list philosopher, as our virtual guide should help here. We hear about Mary’s AA experience and what her stereotypes about philosophy are. We act out some puddle self-improvement and a dirty poetry slam. How do you teach a *feeling*, like the feeling that enough is enough and this improv scene should end already? Hear more PvI. Follow us at patreon.com/philosophyimprov to get an ad-free experience and post-game chatter for many episodes, now absolutely free, or kick in a dollar or whatever to get the remaining bonus content. You may choose to experience this via unedited video: Here’s the relevant scene explaining the episode title from The Jerk. Here’s that episode of The Partially Examined Life about Sartre on race. And here’s the PEL interview with Nussbaum herself. Image note: My MidJourney subscription has officially gone, so as with the previous couple of episodes, I’m getting our images from Google Gemini, which in this case has delivered upon my request to depict single-celled organisms in a puddle, and as in our scene, they are all apparently happy, though this was not part of my query. WHAT SECRETS DOES GEMINI KNOW ABOUT THE MICRO WORLD THAT IT ATTRIBUTES TO IT SUCH JOY??!!