Gregory B. Sadler's Blog: Gregory B. Sadler on Medium, page 32

Guilty Pleasure Reading - R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing Series

Almost four years back, I started the monthly Worlds of Speculative Fiction monthly talk series, partnering with the Brookfield Public Library.  I have had a number of motivations for engaging in the series, and one of those from the very beginning has been that it would allow me to engage in "guilty pleasure reading".

Since my childhood, I've enjoyed reading works across the range of the multiple genres of speculative fiction - fantasy, science fiction, horror, alternate hist...

The Core Concept Playlist Reaches 600!

Earlier this year, we hit a milestone for one of my video series.  The Core Concept playlist reached the 500 video mark back in March, and we celebrated with an online party, hosted on YouTube Live. We've now reached another milestone - though I don't plan to do another party for a while - with the public post of video #600 in the series! 

I first started creating these shorter, more single-issue focused videos as learning resources for students enrolled i...

Six Podcast Episodes on Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism Is a Humanism

One text I teach frequently is Jean-Paul Sartre's succinct summary of his version of Existentialism, his popular lecture "Existentialism is a Humanism".  Over the summer, I took the six lecture videos I created for my students, and turned them into downloadable podcast episodes.

So anywhere you can listen to mp3s, you can learn about Sartre's classic explanation of what Existentialism is, what it means to live as an Existentialist, and the scope of human freedom.

He...

Session #16 in Philosophers in the Midst of History Tomorrow!

After we moved back here to Milwaukee, we partnered with several area libraries to provide talk series connected with philosophy.  We're now nearing the end of year 4 in two of those series.  One of them is the monthly Worlds of Speculative Fiction, hosted at the Brookfield Library.  The other is the quarterly Philosophers in the Midst of History, hosted at the Frank Weyenberg Library in Mequon.

In that second series, I discuss an ancient philosopher in the Spring, a...

Eight Videos on Rene Descartes' Meditations 3 and 4

Most semesters - since I tend to teach Introduction to Philosophy (sometimes called by a different title) - I cover the entirety of Rene Descartes' work, the Meditations on First Philosophy .  Whether you love him or hate him (and I love Descartes), think he's got things right or wrong (and I think he got a lot wrong), you've got to admit that he's a centrally important figure in Philosophy's living history and traditions.

I was very surprised to learn - through Twitter conversations - that man...

One Post Per Day: A Modest Commitment for National Novel Writing Month

I've never participated in National Novel Writing Month myself, but since I'm one of the hosts for Milwaukee's chapter of Shut Up And Write, I've heard plenty about it from people who have.  I'm not sure I've got a novel in me at all, let along one that I could successfully get out in draft form over the course of a month! 

That goes even more for this November, during which I'm teaching 7 classes at 4 different institut...

Stoicon-X Milwaukee - Videos and Pictures from the Event

On Saturday, October 12 - during International Stoic Week - we held a Stoicon-X event for the Midwest here in Milwaukee.  The day began with a short welcome and an overview about Stoic philosophy and the modern Stoic movement.  Then we had our three featured speakers - Kevin Vost, Dan Hayes, and Daniel Collette - giving a set of talks ranging over a wide variety of topics related to Stoic philosophy and practice.  

Six Videos on Augustine of Hippo's On Free Choice of the Will, book 1

I've been teaching Augustine's On Free Choice of the Will in my Introduction to Philosophy and Foundations of Philosophy classes for a number of years.  In the past, I have had students read the entire work, but given how many other texts I usually pack into a...

From the Event: A Conversation with Veronica Roth

Earlier this month, I was invited to - for me - a new sort of public speaking event, a conversation with a best-selling science-fiction author.  Veronica Roth is the author of the well-known Divergent series of novels and short stories, and the somewhat less well-known Carve The Mark series.  She has a new book of short stories out - The End and Other Beginnings: Stories from the Future - which includes two new stories set in the Carve the Mark narrative universe.

Veronica is o...

Five Videos on Thomas Aquinas on Happiness

I created another set of short lecture videos for my students, enrolled in my Introduction to Philosophy and my Foundations in Philosophy classes, focused on a key discussion by Thomas Aquinas in question 2 of the First Part of the Second Part of his Summa Theologiae.  It is often called the "treatise on happiness", and that is the focus of those discussions.  What is the nature of human happiness?  What - among the things that people think will make them happy - really does ma...