David Arndt, author of Philosophy of Writing and a literature and philosophy professor at St. Mary's College of California, joins Tammy and Tim for a conversation that moves from the origins of a 25-year book project to what writing does to the person doing it.

Arndt teaches in the Integral Program of Liberal Arts, a Great Books program at St. Mary's, where he has been on faculty for thirteen years. Before that, he taught at Deep Springs College in Eastern California, at a university in Ankara, Turkey, and at a state university in Pennsylvania. His first book, Arendt on the Political, was published by Cambridge University Press; his second, Philosophy of Writing, is out now from Bloomsbury.

They talk about why it took Arndt 25 years to finish Philosophy of Writing, what Heidegger's concept of truth has to do with the experience of reading, why contemporary philosophy rarely mentions wisdom, how discussion-based teaching differs from filling buckets, and the four types of thought — demonstrative, interpretive, dialogical, and narrative — that structure the book's argument. Arndt also reads passages from Epictetus, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault that shaped his thinking, talks about studying with Jacques Derrida at UC Irvine, discusses his twin brother Michael Arndt's screenwriting work (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3), and makes both books available for free as open access.

Mentioned in this episode:

• David Arndt on Facebook (author page)
• Philosophy of Writing (Bloomsbury, open access)
• Philosophy of Writing on Amazon
• Arendt on the Political (Cambridge University Press, open access)
• Michael Arndt — Endings: The Good, the Bad and the Insanely Great (YouTube)
• Deep Springs College

Follow David Arndt:

• Facebook

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