Sadler's Lectures

Lectures on classic and contemporary philosophical texts and thinkers by Gregory B. Sadler
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Mar 8, 2026 • 15min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - Sacrifice, Usefulness, and Human Beings

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion at the end of the section "The Antinomies Of Action", which looks at the willingness of some people to justify sacrificing others for the sake of some conception of usefulness or utility in achieving some value they view as transcendent. De Beauvoir argues that "useful" is not an absolute term, and that one has to clarify the end that one is claiming justifies the sacrifice. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Mar 7, 2026 • 17min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - Contempt For Humanity And For Individuals

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on the contempt for both humanity as a whole and for individual human beings that is displayed by some people in the use of their own freedom. She notes that this generally involves the reduction of persons to things, taking away their transcendence and viewing them only in their facticity or immanence. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Mar 5, 2026 • 12min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - The Paradox Of Action For Humans - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on what she calls the "paradox of action" which imposes itself upon human beings, which is "no action can be generated for man without it being immediately generated against men". To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Mar 4, 2026 • 14min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - Conservatives' Sophisms About Freedom

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on what she terms "sophisms", that is plausible but ultimately bad arguments, that conservatives make about freedom in order to justify remaining in and even reinforcing situations of oppression from which they benefit. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Mar 3, 2026 • 15min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - The Situation Of Oppression - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on what she terms the "situation of oppression", which divides the human world into camps or clans. The oppressed can make use of their freedom to revolt against a harmony from which they are excluded, while those benefitting from oppression often frame it in terms of a "natural condition". To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Mar 1, 2026 • 17min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - Constructive Human Activities - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion of several main areas of what she calls "constructive human activities", namely philosophy, art, science, and technics (technology and techniques) and how they figure into the uses of human freedom. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Feb 27, 2026 • 13min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - The Aesthetic Attitude - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her analysis of what he terms the "aesthetic attitude" early on in part 3 of the work. This is a use of one's freedom that is inauthentic, because it adopts a detached contemplative stance towards the very history and situations one exists within, refusing to acknowledge that one takes a stance one way or another. She also highlights how this can be an even more acute problem for artists and writers. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Feb 26, 2026 • 15min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - Willing Oneself Free And That There Be Being

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her explanation of what it means for a person to "will themselves free" and to "will that there be being", which concludes her discussions in part 2 of the work. As it happens, both of these willing involve willing the freedom of other people as well. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Feb 25, 2026 • 15min

Simone de Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity - Intellectuals, Critical Thought, and Creative Activity

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on ways in which certain intellectuals can fall into an inauthentic existence that attempts to escape the ambiguity of existence. She discusses two different forms that this takes: critical thought and creative activity. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya
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Feb 23, 2026 • 14min

Thomas Aquinas, Multiple Thomisms, and Christian Philosophy - Feast Of St. Thomas Lecture (part 6)

This is part 1 of the recording of the invited inaugural Feast Day Of Saint Thomas lecture given at Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary. The full recording includes my lecture, Thomas Aquinas, Multiple Thomisms, and Christian Philosophy, a response by associate dean and professor Justin Shaun Coyle, and my answers to his and others' questions. Thomas Aquinas' works, thought, and approach have been viewed at times as an exemplar for Christian philosophy by many. His influence in Catholic circles in some times was massive and practically unavoidable, while in others Thomism was marginalized. In this talk, I focus on one period in which attentive engagement with Thomas Aquinas' thought, taking form as various and often rival Thomisms, was at a peak, an era centered by the 1930s Christian philosophy debates. I outline a narrative that starts with the Thomist revival in the late 19th century, discusses some key positions staked out during the modernist crisis and the 1930s debates, and takes us up to our own times. I bring the lecture to a close by providing a few suggestions for productively engaging, interpreting, and incorporating the insights and spirit of Saint Thomas. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae - amzn.to/2ITcKYQ

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