Philosophiraga: Episode Eight – Dark Souls and Rationalism

“I shall not wholly die, and a great part of me will escape the grave.”

– Horace

Hullo!

It’s that time again: another episode of Philosophiraga bursts out of the Undead Asylum, smacks the Asylum Demon on the butt a few times, gets carried by a crow to Firelink Shrine, and then spends many, many hours dying repeatedly until it achieves something! Hurray!

That’s right, we’re talking about Dark Souls. In fact, we’re talking about Dark Souls and rationalism, which means we’re investigating the claim that it’s possible to know things without experiencing them. Of course, anyone who’s played a Souls game has had to spend a lot of time experiencing fighting and failing in order to learn how to make progress, but I also reckon that anyone who’s delved into the lore of the game’s universe has undertaken an exercise in building up knowledge independently of experience.

Listen to the episode RIGHT HERE in this very post using this very handy Buzzsprout embedded player:

For those who like listening to podcasts via other… podcast… things, Philosophiraga is also available almost anywhere podcasts are available. Check the logos a bit further down the page for places where you can find the show; let me know if your preferred method of podcastery doesn’t appear there.

You can keep the show going – because it really, truly, honestly couldn’t exist without you – by getting more ears on it: tell one friend about the show, let me know, and I’ll give you a shout-out. Leave ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or anywhere else ratings and reviews can be left.

Or, to properly be directly responsible for the continuing Philosophiragarising, become a patron and I’ll love you forever.

Oh – and I mention this in the episode, but I’ll say it here too because I’m shameless. My debut novel, Each Little Universe, hits the Amazon store on the 30th (which is this very Thursday, for those keeping track of days)! It’s an extremely nerdy story in which all sorts of ideas are explored primarily through talking about pop culture with a dash of philosophy, so if Philosophiraga is up your street then ELU might well be too.

Plus, our very own White Out Mage (aka Blythe Norton, aka Mrs The Well-Red Mage) made an absolutely spectacular cover for the book. You might remember she also did the cover for Red‘s novella The Last Stitch Goes Through The Nose, and she’s outdone herself again here. I went to her with a super-vague idea and she made magic happen, so I highly recommend Blythe for all your arty needs.

If you fancy checking out Each Little Universe, you can get it as a Kindle ebook or a paperback. I’m also giving away some free signed physical copies – check out www.chrisdurston.com/home/blog on the 30th to find out how you can win one of those.

Self-promotion over! Take care of yourself, OK?

LISTEN TO MAGE CAST

Though he’s been known by many names across the vast and peculiar landscape of the Internet, every iteration of The Sometimes Vaguely Philosophical Mage has shared an urge to look far too closely at tiny details and extrapolate huge, important-seeming conclusions. He now hosts Philosophiraga, the video games and philosophy podcast, for The Well-Red Mage, and can be found rambling about it and his other creative endeavours on Twitter.

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