WEBVTT 1 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:14.839 Low and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom in the past between 2 00:00:14.839 --> 00:00:18.879 primary secondary worlds. I'm your host, Andrew Snyder, and I am sincerely 3 00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:35.799 glad for your company. Okay, so I'm obviously off schedule again, and 4 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:39.479 that just is what it is. I'm currently teaching more classes with more students 5 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:42.479 than I ever had before, and I'm also just about to add a third 6 00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:45.640 university to the mix. And so with that being said, I'm going to 7 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:50.039 get things out as I'm able to, with no clear scheduling promises. If 8 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:52.960 you would like for me to get to a place where I can consistently produce 9 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:57.759 content, I welcome your support on Patreon at patreon dot com slash Mythic Mind. 10 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:02.200 As public support hits higher level, I'll be able to decrease my institutional 11 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:06.239 teaching load accordingly. And if you already support me, I'm really appreciative and 12 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:08.359 I hope that you'll see value in sticking with me for a long time to 13 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:11.840 come. One more thing before I hit the main point of this episode. 14 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:15.200 As many of you know by now, I'm leading a summer study starting in 15 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:19.120 May on the fiction and philosophy of C. S. Lewis as a community. 16 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:23.719 We're going to be working through the Ransom trilogy, screw Tape Letters till 17 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:26.840 we have Faces, the Great Divorce, and Narnia. Each week we'll have 18 00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:33.480 one or two asynchronous videos related to the reading recommended secondary reading, suggested prompts 19 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:38.120 for producing content that can be published through the Mythic Mind channels, live meetings 20 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:42.200 which will be recorded and available if you can't attend, and a discord channel 21 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:46.239 for ongoing conversation. We already have forty two people signed up, so this 22 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.359 is going to be a really dynamic community dealing with some really dynamic material. 23 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:53.120 And you can find a link to the class in the show notes. Oh 24 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:56.719 and because this is February, the month of Venus, I'm currently running a 25 00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:00.400 special promo. If you sign up this month, which is nearly over this 26 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:04.959 point, you can use the code Parlandra at checkout to receive twenty five percent 27 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:08.199 off tuition. Additionally, if you send me a message after you enroll this 28 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:12.719 month in February, I will send you one course text that you did not 29 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:15.360 already have, and if you already have them already, I will send you 30 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:19.759 something else. You can find the link to the course and that promo code 31 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:22.520 in the show notes and for the book. You can reach out to me 32 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:27.599 on Twitter or email me at Mythicmindpodcast at gmail dot com. I was recently 33 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:32.000 invited onto the Classical Life podcast to discuss Tolkien, Lewis and related topics. 34 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:36.520 I'm including a snippet of that conversation, but encourage you to head over to 35 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:39.960 the Classical Life podcast to listen to the entire thing. And so here is 36 00:02:40.000 --> 00:03:00.719 that snippet. But there's been no author like Georgia Lwell the Brave New World. 37 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:05.240 None of them have been as prescient as Tokien and Lewis with their belief 38 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:08.120 in the technocracy. And I think that's true in the aspect of the Ransom 39 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:12.439 trilogy, but I think it's also true in a different you know, the 40 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:15.479 men without Chest that he talks about in the Abolition of Man, he kind 41 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:20.520 of puts in his vision of the last days of Narnia, especially with the 42 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:24.280 Dwarves and these people that would get so wrapped up in a reality that's also 43 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:30.159 simultaneously in unreality at the same time. It's like these half truths and the 44 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.240 dwarves that get stuck in their own imaginations. And I just see that everywhere 45 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:36.919 all the time with these people who are just like the Dwarves are. For 46 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:39.439 the Dwarves, we won't get taken in. But you got so worried about 47 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:44.199 not getting taken in that now you can't be taken out when the actual Because 48 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:47.800 the hardest thing to grapple with is the Dwarves were right when it came to 49 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:52.759 the stable. What was said is in the stable isn't what was in the 50 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:57.800 stable. But the problem is at some point the stable got removed, and 51 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:00.120 like the stable's not even there anymore. You're you're on the other side. 52 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:03.879 But you were so enraptured that you were right about this one thing that you 53 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:08.080 couldn't see all of the other things that are happening at the same time. 54 00:04:08.759 --> 00:04:13.159 And I just see that everywhere with people who are just enraptured and enthralled with 55 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:15.839 these conspiracy theories that are half truths. You know, parts of them are 56 00:04:15.839 --> 00:04:19.079 real, parts of them aren't real. But if you get so obsessed with 57 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:25.560 these certain things that you can't see anything, then you you will you'll be 58 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:30.319 so taken into yourself, you'll get so reclused into or you'll get so enraptured 59 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:33.439 in trying not to be deceived, that you'll end up deceiving yourself essentially, 60 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:36.279 and you won't be able to see the truth when it comes. Yeah, 61 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:40.759 I think that's true. I mean the dwarves are for the dwarfs, they 62 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:43.680 were not going to get taken in. They have this idea that you know, 63 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:46.879 unlike everybody else, they could just see the world for what it was. 64 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:49.680 Yeah, and that really gets to that. But Tolkien andlew Has had 65 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:55.319 that the modern myth is that they don't live according to a myth, right 66 00:04:55.480 --> 00:05:01.199 that the Yeah exactly, you know, I, like I said, I 67 00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:10.240 teach intro to philosophy at a public university and one thing that I'm one thing 68 00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:15.639 that I'm doing on a regular basis is just helping them understand that they have 69 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:19.000 an understanding of the world already. Meaning nobody is the you know, totally 70 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:24.759 neutral or even that the you know, total relativist that they claim to be. 71 00:05:25.079 --> 00:05:29.160 That everybody has a worldview that they're imposing upon the world. And so 72 00:05:29.639 --> 00:05:33.720 even if we go the naturalistic scientific approach, which is still pretty popular into 73 00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:40.360 post postmodernity despite some contradictions there, but you know, they say that we 74 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:46.000 just see the world as it is through science. The problem is the presuppositions 75 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:50.199 it takes to get to that point are not themselves scientific. Right, There's 76 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:56.040 no scientific experiment you can run that's going to demonstrate that knowledge is only to 77 00:05:56.040 --> 00:06:00.000 be found in science. And so, you know, what that shows us 78 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:05.199 is that there are other non scientific, even metaphysical forces that are driving the 79 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:10.839 modern worldview despite its claims. And so what that means is that you know, 80 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:15.160 even the naturalists, the scientist is not seeing the world as it is. 81 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:18.079 They're being led by metaphysical reality. The only problem is they're not willing 82 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:23.120 to look at what they are and so they're essentially being led by the voices 83 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:27.199 of race that are not going to lead them where they want to go at 84 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:31.959 the very least not where everybody else wants them to go. Yeah. Yeah, 85 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:34.319 there's two things that are really interesting. I. C. S. 86 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:39.319 Lewis has a lot to say about science and what science can and can't do. 87 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.120 One of the examples I really enjoyed when he was talking about the concept 88 00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:46.480 of miracles is you know, if you're hitting a pool ball and you're trying 89 00:06:46.519 --> 00:06:49.240 and you can figure all the geometry to get it there, but you can't 90 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:53.600 figure out if somebody else is going to come and grab the cue before it 91 00:06:53.639 --> 00:06:58.680 even hits the ball. So that's one thing. The other thing is, 92 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:00.639 yeah, I mean, I know, I go to a public university, 93 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:06.879 and it's just astounding the levels of relativism that that you see there that people 94 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:14.079 and people think they're they're trapped by this materialism, that they think that there 95 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:17.079 is nothing out there. But at the same time they're the materialist magicians that 96 00:07:17.160 --> 00:07:20.480 Lewis once again talks about in screwtape letters, who believe in You know, 97 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:25.000 I can't tell you how many times I've been called foolish for believing in God. 98 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:26.839 And then they tell me like, oh, what, you were born 99 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:30.439 in April, you're a this star or that star, all this astrology stuff. 100 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:32.680 It's like you don't see any kind of similarities there at all. You 101 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:38.240 don't see anything like the stars determined that like my attitude, like really, 102 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:45.160 and I think that it's crazy that people, well, it's actually not crazy. 103 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:46.160 And I think one of the reasons it's not crazy. And this is 104 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:50.920 something that I was hoping we would get to because you teach medieval philosophy and 105 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:56.279 one of the things that we're all taught as younger individuals. Is that everybody 106 00:07:56.439 --> 00:08:01.199 like before nineteen sixty seven when we invented air conditioning, that everybody before then 107 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:07.000 was just foolish and silly and they were idiots. Can you speak to that 108 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:11.839 a little bit, about that misconception that people before the modern age were just 109 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:16.959 foolish. Yeah. In Lewis's book The Discarded Image, he makes the point 110 00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:22.879 that the difference between the modern man and the medieval man is not that one 111 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.480 was ignorant and the other was it, but it was that the medieval man 112 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:46.000 knew that he was ignorant. Again. For the full conversation, check out 113 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:48.480 the Classical Life podcast. I'm a little late posting this, but it looks 114 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.159 like the main episode is published about a month ago on January twenty seventh, 115 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:56.039 and so go take a look for that. And that's it for now. 116 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.399 If you'd like to support me on Patreon, you can go to patreon dot 117 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:03.120 com sch Mythic Mind, and don't forget to sign up for the Lewis Study. 118 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:05.960 And until next time, I wish you many meaningful roads ahead.