1 00:00:05,799 --> 00:00:08,080 Speaker 1: Welcome everybody, Thank you for having me. Rich Really cool 2 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:11,480 to be here. You know, I did when I was 3 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:14,199 doing undergrad and grad work, I did teach quite a 4 00:00:14,279 --> 00:00:20,000 few student class situations, but I never taught an entire semester. 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:24,719 I left the university setting because I really felt like 6 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:27,719 I could do better doing it autonomously, and here we 7 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:30,120 are at autonomy. So I think Richard has the right 8 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:34,119 idea about where to go with education. But I've been 9 00:00:34,119 --> 00:00:37,520 into and studying philosophy at various levels and in various 10 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:41,840 ways for about twenty years. So I'm happy to be here, 11 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:44,799 honored to be here. I do have some unique takes 12 00:00:44,799 --> 00:00:48,520 that I think will be different than what you would 13 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:52,759 get in a traditional legacy university setting. So hopefully we 14 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,679 can get into some of that tonight kicking it off, 15 00:00:56,799 --> 00:01:00,159 and we're going to get pretty deep, so you know, 16 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,840 jot down your questions. I'm a big fan of open 17 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:05,680 Q and A at the end. You know, we've done 18 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:07,439 in my discord. I think we have about eight or 19 00:01:07,519 --> 00:01:10,560 nine thousand in the discord, and we've been doing these 20 00:01:10,599 --> 00:01:13,640 open q and as that go sometimes six ten hours, 21 00:01:14,079 --> 00:01:16,879 so I'm totally used to that. Very happy to have 22 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:22,319 people ask you know lengthy end of lecture Q and as, so, 23 00:01:22,439 --> 00:01:24,359 be sure and jot down your questions and I will 24 00:01:24,359 --> 00:01:26,640 answer them to the best of my abilities. You're not 25 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:29,159 gonna offend me, You're not gonna it's not gonna bother 26 00:01:29,239 --> 00:01:31,239 me if you disagree, if you think I'm wrong about 27 00:01:31,239 --> 00:01:33,920 something you know you don't like. UH. We're not gonna 28 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:35,439 be talking a whole lot about theism or any of 29 00:01:35,439 --> 00:01:38,840 that tonight. That doesn't really play into tonight's topic. So 30 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:42,319 if you're an anti theist, if you're agnostic, none of 31 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:46,000 that bothers me. It's fine for you to have your positions. 32 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:47,920 I'm not gonna be coming at you or critiquing your 33 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:51,799 positions unless you want that right, So you can request that, Sir, 34 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:53,400 I would like you to request I would like to 35 00:01:53,439 --> 00:01:56,000 request a demolished to goet my paradion. I'm happy to 36 00:01:56,079 --> 00:01:58,000 offer that if you want that. Most people don't really 37 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,359 want that. But it's gonna just gonna be an introduction. 38 00:02:01,439 --> 00:02:04,239 So we're gonna look at what is a philosophy all about. 39 00:02:06,079 --> 00:02:08,719 The object of this course will be to take us 40 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:15,800 from this introductory UH situation to a pretty good knowledge 41 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,199 of deep knowledge. Hopefully that's what we're gonna shoot for 42 00:02:18,879 --> 00:02:21,240 of the history of Western philosophy. Obviously, we have to 43 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:23,159 pick some starting points. We can't go back and do 44 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,199 all of Indo European philosophy, we can't do all the Babylonian, 45 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,479 a Syrian philosophy and whatnot. But what's most relevant, I 46 00:02:30,479 --> 00:02:32,960 think for us in the West is the history of 47 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:36,039 Western philosophy. And like I said, I've you know, I've 48 00:02:36,159 --> 00:02:40,800 had this course at the legacy institutional setting many times 49 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,360 over and in many in many in many different ways. 50 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,159 So I'm gonna give you a better version of that. 51 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:51,400 And I think again, this is really the way to 52 00:02:51,439 --> 00:02:54,280 do it. Really, Richard is really pioneering when it comes 53 00:02:54,319 --> 00:02:58,919 to where education is going. So let's get into philosophy. 54 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:02,199 What is philosophy? Well, hm, you say, I have there 55 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,120 a couple of figures that's from actually from a monastery, 56 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,560 an Orthodox monastery, where you have five philosophy guys, and 57 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:12,360 you know they don't have halos. So in the Orthodox view, 58 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:15,199 there's not going to be a perception of the philosophers 59 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:18,000 as equivalent to what you would get in divine revelation. 60 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:21,159 But regardless, some of the things that are going to 61 00:03:21,199 --> 00:03:23,159 be present in my lecture is that we're not going 62 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:27,039 to see a strict divide between the various theisms, because 63 00:03:27,039 --> 00:03:28,879 we're gonna notice that as we go through the history 64 00:03:28,879 --> 00:03:31,439 of philosophy, there's a ton of theisms. So again, no 65 00:03:31,479 --> 00:03:34,240 matter what you think about theism, we're going to need 66 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:39,719 to understand these people's positions from their vantage point, all right. 67 00:03:39,719 --> 00:03:42,639 Ariosol has a famous quote attributed to Aristotl that it's 68 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:46,120 a mark of an educated man to understand the opponent's 69 00:03:46,159 --> 00:03:49,199 position without adopting it. And we want to keep that 70 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:51,719 in mind as we work, as we work through these 71 00:03:51,759 --> 00:03:56,759 various philosophers, because this is crucial to having the upper 72 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,120 hand right. And when I say the upper hand, I 73 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:01,240 mean in anything, if you're if you're in business, if 74 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:05,360 you're in debate, if you're in law, right, whatever you're into. 75 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:07,879 If you want to have the upper hand, if you 76 00:04:07,919 --> 00:04:10,800 want a personal advantage, it's always better to know your 77 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,120 opponent's position at least as good as they do. Right. 78 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:18,000 Sometimes we can't achieve that, but to have that edge, 79 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:21,399 that's what you want to shoot for. So keep in mind, 80 00:04:21,439 --> 00:04:23,920 no matter what your view, what we want to strive for. 81 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:25,800 And I think this is a virtue. We're going to 82 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:27,519 get to what virtue and vice and all that is 83 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,120 later on. We'll get to ethics. I think it's actually 84 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:35,160 a virtue to know the position that you're against, even 85 00:04:35,199 --> 00:04:37,319 if you completely hate it and reject it, know it 86 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:39,639 is best you can. That's what we're going to shoot for. 87 00:04:40,439 --> 00:04:42,680 And so those are some of the preliminary considerations as 88 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:44,480 we get into this. I want to remind you too 89 00:04:44,519 --> 00:04:48,160 that I find it most helpful to break philosophy down 90 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:53,199 into three main branches. Those branches are epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. 91 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:57,240 Sometimes the phrase or the word esthetics is added to ethics. 92 00:04:57,480 --> 00:04:59,720 We will get to that as well. Let's get into it. 93 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:02,920 So I will I did choose source materials. You don't 94 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:05,839 have to get these source materials unless you choose to. 95 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:08,680 I would recommend them because they're going to be what 96 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:11,680 I'm working from. In terms of the text, I will 97 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:15,959 at times refer to these texts for various source material 98 00:05:16,079 --> 00:05:18,639 for pages that I think are really, you know, insightful. 99 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:23,199 That will be the famous text from Copplestone, which is 100 00:05:23,319 --> 00:05:25,639 History of Western Philosophy or History Philosophy. I think it's 101 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:27,959 like four or five volumes. We're only going to be 102 00:05:28,399 --> 00:05:32,399 early on concern with volume one. In volume two because 103 00:05:32,399 --> 00:05:35,800 that covers the ancient and medieval periods, I will be 104 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:40,639 using and sourcing at times the well known text on epistemology. 105 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:42,680 It's very common in a lot of grad courses or 106 00:05:42,759 --> 00:05:47,519 undergrad courses by Lawrence Bonjour epistemology. And there's a three 107 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:51,680 part series that matches up to the classification system that 108 00:05:51,759 --> 00:05:56,439 I gave by these guys, and I think they're very 109 00:05:56,439 --> 00:06:00,279 good because again they focus on virtue in these in 110 00:06:00,319 --> 00:06:03,160 these domains, especially in terms of epistemology and ethics, and 111 00:06:03,199 --> 00:06:05,720 that's going to be very crucial for where we go 112 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,600 in this course. You know, I know Richard makes a 113 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:11,199 lot of a great point throughout his talks to talk 114 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:16,279 about ethics and why, you know, having an edge in business, iss, 115 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:18,839 it's necessary to be ethical. We want to be ethical. 116 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,720 We want to display not in a showy way, but 117 00:06:21,759 --> 00:06:23,839 we want to have a good reputation. Right, How you're 118 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:26,240 going to have a good business or good business at 119 00:06:26,279 --> 00:06:28,680 repertoire if you have a bad rep right, if you're 120 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:32,079 known as the dude that scams everybody in lies and cheets, right, 121 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:34,639 So ethics will definitely play into this, and you're going 122 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:38,279 to see I think that ethics is very important and 123 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:41,000 crucial to philosophy, and that a lot of this is practical, 124 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,160 although it may seem early on that a lot of 125 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:46,480 what we're going to talk about is abstract. You know, 126 00:06:46,519 --> 00:06:48,399 how does this relate to my business? We're talking about 127 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:52,720 freaking monads, We're talking about you know, crazy four elements 128 00:06:52,759 --> 00:06:55,600 and all this mystical crap that doesn't relate to the practical. 129 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:58,399 I assure you that it will. But if you stick 130 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:01,319 if you stick it out right, you're going to see that. 131 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:03,800 You might not see that early on, but if you 132 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:07,399 stick it out you will. And so I recommend the W. J. 133 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:12,040 Woodbook on Epistemology, the William Hasker text on Metaphysics, and 134 00:07:12,079 --> 00:07:15,240 the Arthur Holmes text on ethics. Now, the three on 135 00:07:15,319 --> 00:07:19,879 the right are very easily accessible to people that may 136 00:07:19,879 --> 00:07:21,560 not know a lot about philosophy. So if you're new 137 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,279 to philosophy, I'm gonna recommend the three on the right 138 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:28,759 there to start with, because the Bonjour Epistemology text is 139 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:34,879 a little advanced and the the Coppleston text is maybe 140 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,360 in between. Right, So you might you might see that one. 141 00:07:37,399 --> 00:07:40,720 It's kind of in between the other two. And then, 142 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:42,120 as I said, I didn't put it on screen. But 143 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,480 there's also Coppleston's Volume two, which deals with medieval philosophy. 144 00:07:46,519 --> 00:07:48,879 So those are our sources. Obviously, there are some other 145 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:51,079 sources that are gonna matter or be referenced here and 146 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:54,800 there for students of philosophy. Everybody should know about the 147 00:07:54,839 --> 00:07:58,480 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It's very well known in academia. 148 00:07:58,519 --> 00:08:01,480 It's commonly referenced as well as I forget which university 149 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:04,480 puts this one out, but it's the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 150 00:08:04,519 --> 00:08:07,360 Those will also be sourced at times, uh, you know, 151 00:08:07,439 --> 00:08:12,160 just for very various reference references to words, terms, definitions, 152 00:08:12,199 --> 00:08:15,879 and so forth. When I refer to Plato. I'll put 153 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:18,120 some of these up later when we do other slides, 154 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:21,480 but we'll be we'll be using various texts from Plato's Republic. 155 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:26,079 I use the Groove translation, and then also the bol 156 00:08:26,079 --> 00:08:28,600 Engine series of Plato, which is a collected works of 157 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:32,320 Plato for some of the dialogues. That'll be the next lecture, 158 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:34,120 though we're not going to be getting into Plato tonight, 159 00:08:34,159 --> 00:08:36,279 because one of the things that we want to we 160 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:40,399 want to understand is that philosophy is a centuries long discourse. 161 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:43,080 And just as if you were to walk into a 162 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:45,600 bar right and you were right in the middle of 163 00:08:45,919 --> 00:08:49,320 some dirty story right to you know, drunk dudes in 164 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:51,399 the bar, or some wine mom in the bar whining 165 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:55,080 about her ex husband, you wouldn't know the whole story, 166 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:57,039 would you. You would only know you know what wine 167 00:08:57,080 --> 00:09:00,360 mom is saying at this moment. Right. You want to 168 00:09:00,399 --> 00:09:03,559 know who's let with who. You want to know where 169 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:07,360 they're from. You want to who's shooting on who? Right, Well, 170 00:09:07,399 --> 00:09:10,559 maybe you guys don't. But that's what I'm getting at 171 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:13,080 with knowing the whole story here, is that the way 172 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:16,919 philosophy works is that it's a centuries long conversation. Basically, 173 00:09:17,039 --> 00:09:20,279 the dude that's selling his stuff today is going to 174 00:09:20,279 --> 00:09:23,360 be destroyed and demolished by the dude critiquing him tomorrow, 175 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:27,200 and this will go on for basically the last twenty 176 00:09:27,279 --> 00:09:28,960 five hundred years. And that's what we're going to be 177 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:32,960 focusing on in terms of this course. So we need 178 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:37,399 to know, for example, who was saying what before Plato 179 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:40,480 that put Plato into the setting that he was in, right, 180 00:09:40,519 --> 00:09:43,480 because there's a bunch of discourse and debate prior to 181 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:47,279 Plato that really you can't really understand Plato without that. 182 00:09:47,639 --> 00:09:49,000 So in other words, we're going to have to step 183 00:09:49,039 --> 00:09:54,200 back and understand some of the pre athens philosophy, the 184 00:09:54,279 --> 00:09:57,879 pre Socratics or they're sometimes called the Milesians or the 185 00:09:57,919 --> 00:10:00,440 Ionian philosophers, and what they were to be, what they 186 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:04,320 were asking, because they really initiate philosophy. In fact, Aerosol 187 00:10:04,399 --> 00:10:08,519 himself says that it's the pre Socratics that, and we'll 188 00:10:08,519 --> 00:10:11,440 look at this specifically in a moment, that initiate or 189 00:10:11,879 --> 00:10:16,320 begin the process of what is properly philosophy. Now, yeah, 190 00:10:16,399 --> 00:10:20,679 you could widen that definition such that any ancient religion 191 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:23,320 or empire had a philosophy, and we're gonna look at 192 00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:26,519 a little bit of that too, But for Western philosophy 193 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:32,519 in particular, again, thinking about our threefold division of epistemology, metaphysics, 194 00:10:32,519 --> 00:10:34,799 and ethics, it's going to be the pre Socratics that 195 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:38,559 first initiate this question. And they do it because they 196 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:42,799 begin to move out of the domain of myth and storytelling. 197 00:10:43,799 --> 00:10:47,919 So prior to them. We'll look at in a minute, Homer, Hesiod, 198 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:54,240 these playwrights, these oral tradition storytellers. For them, virtue and 199 00:10:54,360 --> 00:11:00,120 vice is essentially known via mythic or mythopoetic storytelling, not 200 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:03,679 primarily known through abstraction. This is gonna be a huge 201 00:11:03,919 --> 00:11:07,000 step that a lot of these prestocratics are going to 202 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:14,879 take away from myth towards reason, rationality, abstraction, and stepping 203 00:11:14,919 --> 00:11:18,120 away from myth and storytelling. Now this is not to 204 00:11:18,159 --> 00:11:22,440 cast aspersions on myth and storytelling. We're not making judgments 205 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:26,759 either way. We're simply understanding the course of philosophy as 206 00:11:26,799 --> 00:11:30,480 it progresses historically. Because again this I have to stress 207 00:11:30,519 --> 00:11:32,080 this because a lot of people don't know how to 208 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:34,679 approach philosophy. Right. They just pick up David Hume and 209 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:37,519 start reading him. And you can't understand David Hume if 210 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:40,159 you don't understand the metaphysics of the Middle Ages, right. 211 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:43,240 Because Hume comes on the scene in the Enlightenment. It says, 212 00:11:43,279 --> 00:11:45,639 as a skeptic, right, we need to throw out all 213 00:11:45,639 --> 00:11:47,879 the metaphysics that came before. Well, if I don't know 214 00:11:47,879 --> 00:11:49,679 what the metaphysics came before, or I don't know what 215 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:54,440 he's talking about. Likewise, I can't understand Kant without understanding 216 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:57,720 David Hume, because Kant's whole philosophy is a reaction to 217 00:11:57,799 --> 00:12:00,879 human and we're going to see that throughout the history 218 00:12:00,879 --> 00:12:07,240 of Western philosophy. It's a constant position, reaction, interchange. And 219 00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:10,679 sometimes this is referred to as dialectics. Now, dialectics, I'm 220 00:12:10,679 --> 00:12:13,879 going to I'll have more definitions later on screen for 221 00:12:13,919 --> 00:12:16,240 you guys, but as we get into more of the 222 00:12:16,279 --> 00:12:19,000 precise terminology, we don't have to really worry about dialectics tonight, 223 00:12:19,039 --> 00:12:20,679 but I do want to bring it up because it's 224 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:22,440 going to be recurring themes. I want you guys to 225 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:28,240 pay attention to themes that will recur throughout this lecture series. 226 00:12:28,639 --> 00:12:31,320 Dialectics will be one of them, because we're going to see, 227 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:33,120 especially in the Greeks and throughout the whole history of 228 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:38,320 Western philosophy, dialectical tension. And remember, dialectics means different things 229 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:43,120 in different contexts. Sometimes dialectics means just the methodology of teaching, 230 00:12:43,159 --> 00:12:48,960 to back and forth question asking dialogue right. Sometimes dialectics 231 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:52,519 means something more metaphysical, which in the sense of like 232 00:12:53,039 --> 00:12:55,799 actual principles in the world that are intention with one another. 233 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:02,840 Is there a stark war between determinism and free will? Right? 234 00:13:02,919 --> 00:13:07,200 That's a dialectical characterized question. Right. The setting for that 235 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:09,519 is already kind of set up as dialectical. Are you 236 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:12,120 a determinist or do you believe in free will? Well, 237 00:13:12,159 --> 00:13:15,159 that assumes that there's not some form of compatilist compatibilism 238 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:17,399 right now. I'm not saying which of those is correct 239 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:19,159 the wrong. I'm just saying that you can see that 240 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:22,120 a lot of times questions can be framed in a 241 00:13:22,200 --> 00:13:24,639 dialectical way, and I want you to pay attention to that, 242 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:26,440 because as we go through a lot of these especially 243 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:30,120 these pre socratics, you're going to notice that they really 244 00:13:30,159 --> 00:13:32,519 are operating in a lot of these kinds of assumptions. 245 00:13:33,159 --> 00:13:35,519 So we want to pay attention to that. We want 246 00:13:35,519 --> 00:13:37,799 to have some of those things in mind. But before 247 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:39,879 we get to that, after we've looked at some of 248 00:13:39,919 --> 00:13:43,960 these course materials rough course syllabus, this is what we're 249 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,440 looking at doing here, We're going to do this introductory class. Uh. 250 00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:49,320 This is then we're going to move to playto. I'm 251 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,519 going to try to squeeze playto into one talk these 252 00:13:52,519 --> 00:13:54,919 could ease each of these people, as we know, could 253 00:13:54,919 --> 00:13:59,159 easily be an entire course. They're very difficult, especially the 254 00:13:59,159 --> 00:14:02,919 pre Socratics play aristotol, but we're gonna tackle it. I 255 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:05,120 have a lot of friends that are in academia that 256 00:14:05,159 --> 00:14:07,840 are also solid people that I think you guys would 257 00:14:07,879 --> 00:14:09,960 really like, you guys really benefit from. So I'm gonna 258 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,399 have a couple of guests, uh expert lectures come in 259 00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:16,399 to also co teach and to do a little Q 260 00:14:16,519 --> 00:14:18,919 and A with me on the epistemology class. I'm gonna 261 00:14:18,919 --> 00:14:22,840 do the metaphysics class. We're gonna lump aesthetics with ethics. 262 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:25,559 I'll bring a guest expert in as well for that, 263 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:30,480 probably somebody who's a Renaissance expert. Then we're gonna look 264 00:14:30,519 --> 00:14:33,039 at the Stoics and the new Platonists together for the 265 00:14:33,559 --> 00:14:38,080 early non Christian philosophy of the meditations of for example, 266 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:41,360 Marcus Aurelius, and we'll look at some of the Roman philosophers. 267 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:44,519 Then we're gonna move to the what's called the Patristic period, 268 00:14:44,519 --> 00:14:47,559 which means the Church Fathers. Again, regardless of what you 269 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:50,840 think of Christianity, you know it doesn't I'm not really 270 00:14:50,879 --> 00:14:53,320 here to get into that with you tonight. Unless you 271 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:55,159 guys want to talk about those things, I'm happy to, 272 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:57,159 but that's not really prominently. The focus of this course 273 00:14:57,240 --> 00:14:59,440 is not gonna essentially be Christianity. It's just gonna be 274 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:02,799 the history of West and philosophy. However, whatever one thinks 275 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:06,480 of Christianity or religion, we do have to treat this 276 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,879 very crucial, very influential period in the history of the West. 277 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,440 And we're not going to restrict it to Latin or 278 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,879 Western Church fathers as many college courses do. We're going 279 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,759 to look at figures who were crucial and very influential 280 00:15:21,799 --> 00:15:25,879 in other civilizations like Byzante, particularly the Cappadocians John Emascus, 281 00:15:26,879 --> 00:15:30,559 very famous Patristic church fathers as they're called, who were 282 00:15:30,559 --> 00:15:35,879 heavily philosophical. So Augustine, a towering figure obviously in the 283 00:15:35,879 --> 00:15:39,399 early Church, had many, many, many thousands of pages of 284 00:15:39,519 --> 00:15:42,559 philosophical writings, and we're going to look at those. And 285 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:45,279 he's crucial as well because he's very influenced by the 286 00:15:45,279 --> 00:15:49,360 Neoplatons right, as are the Cappadocian Church fathers Basil Gregory 287 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,080 and Gregory. Basil and to Gregory's Basically, we're going to 288 00:15:52,159 --> 00:15:54,799 look at them in terms of their metaphysics. Their approach 289 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:58,360 to help the world is structured, and as you can see, 290 00:15:58,399 --> 00:16:01,639 I mean this encompasses you know, at least this isn't 291 00:16:01,639 --> 00:16:03,600 even all of them, weir. I've got thirty eight volumes 292 00:16:03,679 --> 00:16:07,320 up here, and probably half of these volumes deal with 293 00:16:07,639 --> 00:16:10,919 Augustin Cappadocian of John Damasca. So I'm going to compact 294 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:14,080 all of that into one long course. Then we're going 295 00:16:14,159 --> 00:16:17,480 to get into medieval philosophy in general, which those guys 296 00:16:17,519 --> 00:16:20,159 prepare the way for. And then we have to know 297 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,279 this because we're not gonna be able to understand the 298 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:25,480 Enlightenment what it's reacting against unless we understand some of 299 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:29,799 the medieval scholastic philosophy. So again that'll be compacted. We 300 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:32,480 won't go super deep into all that because that could 301 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:34,799 be its own course, right, people get their PhD in 302 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:39,080 even just one of the thinkers in any of these domains. 303 00:16:39,399 --> 00:16:42,919 So we want to shoot for an overview. We like 304 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:44,919 I said, when we get to Descartes and the Enlightenment, 305 00:16:44,919 --> 00:16:47,639 we're going to look at that as its reaction to 306 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:52,240 the medieval period. Again, this is not to demolish or 307 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:54,840 destroy all the Enlightenment philosophers. In fact, they're going to 308 00:16:54,919 --> 00:16:57,480 have a lot of good arguments against medieval philosophers. So 309 00:16:57,519 --> 00:17:00,600 we want to try to look for good art arguments 310 00:17:00,799 --> 00:17:03,320 is another thing to try to train yourself to do 311 00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:05,759 in terms of philosophy. We want to look for good 312 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:11,119 arguments irrespective of the man, irrespective of the person making 313 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:14,119 the argument, do they have a good argument? Because guess what, 314 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,440 even the worst philosopher, I don't care who you think 315 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,359 is the worst, he's probably got one good argument here there. 316 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,079 And it's kind of on a spectrum. Right, I'm not 317 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:26,240 a big fan of Hegel, but I think Hegel has 318 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,880 some really interesting insights here and there. Same with Emmanuel Kant. Right, 319 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:32,039 I'm not a contient. I'm not super into KNT, but 320 00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:35,480 I think Kant has some really fascinating insights that we're 321 00:17:35,519 --> 00:17:37,960 going to talk to when we get to number eleven there, 322 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:43,200 which is the Enlightenment empiricists and Kant's transcendent idealism that 323 00:17:43,319 --> 00:17:47,960 is the human Kant Berkeley Locke period, and then modern 324 00:17:48,279 --> 00:17:50,839 collapse of philosophy, And yes, I will argue that it 325 00:17:50,839 --> 00:17:53,640 has pretty much collapsed, and by that I mean, what 326 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:58,559 we classically thought of the doing of philosophy as doesn't 327 00:17:58,599 --> 00:18:02,599 really exist anymore. Then. That's not to say that in 328 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:05,240 the academic world or in the academic setting there aren't 329 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:09,599 people doing philosophy. There are, there are, But this is 330 00:18:10,039 --> 00:18:12,200 but what we thought of as philosophy in terms of 331 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:15,799 the ancient and medievals has collapsed in the sense that 332 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:22,319 we don't do that anymore. Now. Philosophy has turned into postmodernism, 333 00:18:22,519 --> 00:18:26,079 which is essentially an anti philosophical movement. It's actually ironically 334 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:31,200 reverted back to storytelling. That's the irony here is that 335 00:18:31,279 --> 00:18:33,480 what the pre Socratics there in Part one are going 336 00:18:33,559 --> 00:18:36,960 to be reacting to in Homer and Hesiod. Ironically, we're 337 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:41,759 going to notice that the modern collapse of philosophy has 338 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:45,599 basically returned in terms of postmodernism, has returned to myth 339 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,400 and storytelling, because of course they will say that really 340 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:52,680 every philosopher and everything is just myth, storytelling or power 341 00:18:52,759 --> 00:18:56,759 relations right, power oppressor narratives and so forth, And certainly, 342 00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,160 you know, we could include marks and so forth in 343 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:02,880 all of these modern figures or this modern era, but 344 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,680 it's just really difficult to put everything into one course, 345 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,359 and so, like Richard said, you know, if everything works out, 346 00:19:09,359 --> 00:19:14,519 we'll probably just do a second season of covering modern stuff, 347 00:19:14,559 --> 00:19:16,559 you know, and then we can do a class on 348 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:18,480 dar when we can do a class on Mark. So 349 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:21,119 we can do a class and you might think, well, Darwin, No, yeah, 350 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:24,119 you're gonna notice tonight. Just like with what I just 351 00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:29,920 said about postmodernism being a return of an ancient view, 352 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:35,400 you're gonna notice quite a few things that are normative 353 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:39,240 popular views today. We're already in the presocratics and in 354 00:19:39,279 --> 00:19:42,400 the ancient philosophers. Again, I'm not here to try to 355 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:44,599 convince you either way on these things. I have my views. 356 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:47,279 I'm happy to give my takes. But again, what we 357 00:19:47,319 --> 00:19:49,759 want to stress and what we want to really really 358 00:19:49,799 --> 00:19:52,240 strive for because this is very difficult for a lot 359 00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:55,079 of people. I don't think this audience will be too difficult. 360 00:19:55,079 --> 00:19:57,920 I'm sure you guys are a sharp crowd. I'm sure 361 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:01,240 you're striving to achieve objectivity. That's what we want to do. 362 00:20:01,279 --> 00:20:04,400 We want to understand these people no matter what we think, 363 00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:07,079 even if we think it's the stupidest thing, right, that is, 364 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:09,279 even I think if that dude is retarded, right, I 365 00:20:09,319 --> 00:20:12,119 think if we think, you know, oh, Aristotle is the 366 00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:15,039 most rhetorded of all the philosophers. Right, he was riding 367 00:20:15,079 --> 00:20:18,039 the short bust to the Athens Academy, right, right, whatever 368 00:20:18,079 --> 00:20:22,599 you think, I at least want you to understand Aristotle 369 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,079 and be able to give the basics of what he 370 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:31,599 thought to the to the appeasement of me or anyone 371 00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:34,880 else who knows a decent amount about aerosolt Right. If 372 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,680 you can do that, then you have achieved what I'm 373 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:41,759 after in this course, which is to give you the 374 00:20:41,799 --> 00:20:45,240 ability to speak to these topics fluently, and you're gonna 375 00:20:45,319 --> 00:20:48,559 understand again how it relates to your life. A lot 376 00:20:48,559 --> 00:20:51,200 of this, again will seem obscure and weird, but again 377 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:56,759 you're gonna notice some of the most prominent views that 378 00:20:56,799 --> 00:20:59,759 people have in the world today that are thought of 379 00:20:59,799 --> 00:21:05,319 as new, aren't really new. They're just repackaged, resurfacing, and 380 00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:09,960 they kind of represent similar debates, copy and pasted actually 381 00:21:10,079 --> 00:21:24,200 almost from twenty five hundred years ago. So what is philosophy? Yeah, obviously, 382 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:26,599 probably many of you already know this. I won't spend 383 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:28,599 too much time on the basics, but we do need 384 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:30,880 to have just a little bit of an overview of 385 00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:34,640 what the basic terms are what they're referring to, because 386 00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:36,440 we're going to have some people that are brand new 387 00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:43,839 love of wisdom, fly low Sophia, Love of wisdom. Socrates 388 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,759 famously said the examined life is the only life worth living. 389 00:21:47,759 --> 00:21:50,119 Now technically said the unexamined life is not worth living. 390 00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:53,880 But I'm paraphrasing to say, Look, basically, he's just telling 391 00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:56,440 you that if you're just going through through your your 392 00:21:56,519 --> 00:21:59,279 emotions day to day, if you've never sat down to 393 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:03,759 contemplay what is life? Who am I? What's the meaning 394 00:22:03,799 --> 00:22:07,599 of all this? Is there a point to life? Does 395 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,200 the universe have a beginning? Right? If you've never thought 396 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,240 about those things, then you're kind of like a boring 397 00:22:12,279 --> 00:22:15,119 ass rock. And literally that's how I think, you know, 398 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:17,960 some of the Greek philosophers would sort of especially the 399 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:19,960 ones who kind of had disdaining for the masses, right, 400 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:21,559 some of these guys would just be like, these people 401 00:22:21,559 --> 00:22:24,200 are really no different than rocks. And they're even gonna 402 00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:28,039 liken some of the people to rocks because they're weighed 403 00:22:28,079 --> 00:22:31,839 down by the cares of this world and the material 404 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:36,839 possessions and pleasures. Right the base passions or whatnot. They 405 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:40,960 keep people focused not on the here and the now 406 00:22:41,279 --> 00:22:43,519 or me, not on the transcendent or on the ideal, 407 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:45,400 or on the true or whatever, but on the here 408 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,559 in the now, And so they're kind of like determined 409 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,240 in PCs. This is the ancient Greek idea of the NPC. 410 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:55,160 And I think if we were to think of somebody 411 00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,279 like Socrates who will be the teacher of Plato, he 412 00:22:58,279 --> 00:23:02,279 would definitely resident with the NPC meme, right, He would 413 00:23:02,319 --> 00:23:05,279 probably be etching it out on tablets, right and showing 414 00:23:05,319 --> 00:23:11,359 it to his fellow philosophy students in his class. And 415 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:15,319 so the idea here is that we want to not 416 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:17,759 just go through the motions, but want to understand the 417 00:23:17,799 --> 00:23:22,039 world and not just have knowledge. This is an important 418 00:23:22,039 --> 00:23:24,400 distinction that will come up in the early Greek philosophers, 419 00:23:24,559 --> 00:23:28,319 not just having a bunch of data. Right. There's clearly 420 00:23:28,319 --> 00:23:31,359 there's a difference between you know, some guy who's just 421 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:36,079 a Spurg and like memorize his sports statistics. Right, what's 422 00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:39,000 the dust at Hoffman character rain Man? Right? Would you 423 00:23:39,039 --> 00:23:41,400 call rain Man wise? No, he's just this sort of 424 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:46,480 weird savant, you know, Spurg, Right, But what about a 425 00:23:46,519 --> 00:23:50,319 situation where you know, take the again, what dover you 426 00:23:50,319 --> 00:23:53,720 think of the Bible the character of Solomon. Solomon in 427 00:23:53,759 --> 00:23:56,839 the Bible and Ecclesiastices, Proverbs, he's touted for his wisdom, 428 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,480 and certainly he, according to the Bible, well knew a 429 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:04,640 lot of things. But he wasn't just a key figure 430 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,799 in history because he knew facts and could list them 431 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:13,000 on a spreadsheet or whatever, right ancient Hebrew spreadsheet, but 432 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:16,920 because he had the application of that knowledge in the 433 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,599 right way at the right time. And that's kind of 434 00:24:20,599 --> 00:24:23,599 what we're shooting for for wisdom. So again, not just 435 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:28,079 love of bear knowledge, but love of wisdom, the appropriate 436 00:24:28,559 --> 00:24:32,759 virtuous application of that knowledge at the right time and 437 00:24:32,799 --> 00:24:35,000 in the right way. Those are going to be some 438 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,279 of the key questions that come up for philosophy and 439 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,319 what a philosopher is? What so, what are we after here? 440 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:43,559 What do we do? What is a philosopher? What do 441 00:24:43,599 --> 00:24:47,319 they do? Some of the basic questions they're going to 442 00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:51,559 be looking at philosophers do things like cross examine. We 443 00:24:51,599 --> 00:24:55,519 want to know, is what's being said to me coming 444 00:24:55,599 --> 00:24:59,759 from a rational, reasonable place? Is somebody lying to me? 445 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,799 Are they trying to scam me? Are they duping me. Am, 446 00:25:02,839 --> 00:25:06,599 I watching movies that are full of propaganda, Right, maybe 447 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:08,240 I want to analyze this movie and say, hey, wait 448 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:10,640 a minute, this is a raytheon Boeing trying to sell 449 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:13,599 me on some new Pentagon War that has you know, 450 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,440 the face of Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon on it 451 00:25:16,519 --> 00:25:19,960 or whatever. Right, so I'm cross examining a piece of 452 00:25:20,079 --> 00:25:23,160 art or piece of propaganda in that case. Right, you're 453 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:24,920 going into law, you're going into business. You want to 454 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,000 you want to cross examined to see if this is 455 00:25:27,039 --> 00:25:29,920 a good deal. I don't know, is it? So what 456 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,319 you might have thought isn't really the domain of philosophy 457 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:38,000 for philosophers, it is philosophy. Right, we're engaged in cross examination. 458 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:41,240 Obviously you could apply the law court. I mean, I 459 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:45,880 think hopefully the law court example is obvious. There don't 460 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,240 have to go into that really, but you know, cross 461 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:52,240 examination could come into anything. It could come into a 462 00:25:52,279 --> 00:25:54,759 conversation that you're having at Thanksgiving dinner. Right, you're trying 463 00:25:54,799 --> 00:25:58,519 to convince your family members of their their their terrible politics, right, 464 00:25:58,559 --> 00:26:02,039 and how they're you know, idiots for believing the normy 465 00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,640 story of nine to eleven who knows right. So let's 466 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:06,720 say you're having that company and you want to cross exams, 467 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:10,720 you want to analyze their bad arguments. So something philosophers 468 00:26:11,039 --> 00:26:16,599 are interested in. Philosophers are analytical. That means they do analysis. Now, 469 00:26:16,799 --> 00:26:20,079 not every philosopher is always engaged in this, but it's 470 00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:24,559 certainly part of what philosophers do, and that's obviously very valuable. 471 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:26,920 It's valuable in today's world. Obviously a lot of what 472 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:30,519 we do, whether it's economics, whether it's the arts, whether 473 00:26:30,559 --> 00:26:33,519 it's computer program whatever you're into, you're going to need 474 00:26:33,559 --> 00:26:37,079 the skills and tools that allow you to be highly analytical. 475 00:26:38,039 --> 00:26:40,160 As we get into modern philosophy, this actually becomes its 476 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:43,839 own branch of philosophy, analytical philosophy, which sometimes contrasted with 477 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:47,759 continental philosophy in the modern period. It's not exactly what 478 00:26:47,759 --> 00:26:49,640 we're talking about here, we're just speaking in a more 479 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:51,759 general sense, but it will actually become its own kind 480 00:26:51,759 --> 00:26:55,799 of school, so to speak, of philosophy. So philosophers are 481 00:26:56,039 --> 00:26:59,559 definitely engaged in analysis, and primarily we're engaged in analysis 482 00:26:59,559 --> 00:27:02,000 of what those three things that we talked about at 483 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:08,000 the beginning, that subdivision epistemology, metaphysics and ethics. That's in philosophy. 484 00:27:08,039 --> 00:27:10,759 But again, this is one of the unique things about 485 00:27:10,799 --> 00:27:13,640 philosophy is that philosophy can be a philosophy of anything. 486 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:17,000 That might sound weird at first, but if you think 487 00:27:17,039 --> 00:27:19,559 about it, if you think about some of the famous 488 00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:27,519 modern philosophers, there is, of course character he does philosophy 489 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:32,039 of Now that seems ridiculous, but that's exactly what z 490 00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:34,559 Zek does. He's one of the most famous living philosophers 491 00:27:34,559 --> 00:27:39,160 out there today, one of the few existing still explicitly 492 00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:43,359 sort of Marxist philosophers. And z Zek, who you know, 493 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:48,599 recently debated Jordan Peterson for example. No, no, no, z 494 00:27:48,759 --> 00:27:52,960 Zech does analysis from a Marxist fantash point of things 495 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,440 like toilets. And on the one hand, that's kind of ridiculous, 496 00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,640 But at the same time, you think, well, toilets are 497 00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:02,119 part of our lives, aren't they. We spend quite a 498 00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:07,000 bit of our time on the toilet, right, So is 499 00:28:07,039 --> 00:28:11,079 it theoretically possible that you could do a analysis of toilet? Sure? 500 00:28:11,799 --> 00:28:14,759 Because didn't they say at one point that I don't 501 00:28:14,759 --> 00:28:17,000 know Trump has a golden toilet. I didn't know if 502 00:28:17,039 --> 00:28:18,880 that's true. But does Trump have a gold and tool. 503 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:21,839 What does that signify in terms of the figure of 504 00:28:21,839 --> 00:28:26,039 Trump Saudi princes with golden, golden toilets. Right, So this 505 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:28,400 is the sort of beautification of a ritual that is 506 00:28:28,519 --> 00:28:33,200 very mundane but also sort of you know, base and gross, right, shitting, right, 507 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:37,160 So a philosophy of shitting. Now, I'm being kind of 508 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:38,960 you know, silly here, but I'm also kind of making 509 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,480 a point that it really is the case that you 510 00:28:41,519 --> 00:28:44,759 can do a philosophy of anything. For example, in some 511 00:28:44,839 --> 00:28:46,519 of my grad classes, we were getting into some of 512 00:28:46,559 --> 00:28:49,880 the guys who had done I forget the guy's name, 513 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:54,960 but he's a Semiititian guy who had done a analysis 514 00:28:55,000 --> 00:29:00,759 of comedy philosophy of comedy. What is it that makes 515 00:29:00,839 --> 00:29:03,359 us laugh? What is it that makes this thing funny 516 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:06,400 versus absurd and not funny? What is it that makes 517 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,559 you know, faces funny? You could do a philosophy of anything, 518 00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,119 is my point. So it will it's broad in its scope, 519 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:16,119 and that it will range from a philosophy of things 520 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:22,839 in the domain of philosophy, knowledge, metaphysics, ethics, two weird 521 00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:26,200 and sort of fanciful figures and characters, and philosophy who 522 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:31,759 do philosophies of anything. We can do the philosophy of 523 00:29:31,839 --> 00:29:34,839 literary there, we can do the philosophy of music, do 524 00:29:34,839 --> 00:29:37,839 the philosophy of comedy. As I said, so again there's 525 00:29:37,839 --> 00:29:41,440 a potentially a philosophy of anything and an analysis of anything. 526 00:29:41,559 --> 00:29:47,200 From this kind of perspective, philosophers are not just analytical, however, 527 00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:50,359 they are also intuitive. There's a lot of creativity actually 528 00:29:50,359 --> 00:29:54,960 that goes into the process of philosophy. Some mathematicians, for example, 529 00:29:55,039 --> 00:29:57,720 I think Roger Penrose, and if you read Paul Davies's 530 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,279 book Mind of God, he will talk about how there's 531 00:30:00,279 --> 00:30:03,359 actually a creative element that goes into even things like 532 00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,279 mathematics and geometry. Right, I mean, some of the great 533 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,319 philosophers and thinkers and mathematicians, they have the flashes of 534 00:30:10,319 --> 00:30:15,039 insight that don't come from some obvious source. We don't 535 00:30:15,079 --> 00:30:18,200 really know where they get these flashes of insight, right, 536 00:30:18,279 --> 00:30:21,279 I mean, for example, you know, the story about Nikola 537 00:30:21,359 --> 00:30:23,200 Tesla is that he would get a lot of his 538 00:30:23,279 --> 00:30:25,720 insights into these you know, elaborate engines that he would 539 00:30:25,759 --> 00:30:28,400 build through these just visions that he would sort of 540 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:30,319 pass out or whatever. That's the story at least, right, 541 00:30:30,359 --> 00:30:33,599 So philosophers are intuitive in that we are not just 542 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:37,559 analytical robots. We also have a will and intention of 543 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:42,559 creativity that we bring to the analysis. Again, we can 544 00:30:42,559 --> 00:30:47,119 be analyzing anything, it doesn't matter. Philosophers are constructive. In 545 00:30:47,119 --> 00:30:50,119 other words, they don't just focus on the particulars. Now, 546 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:53,319 they may in certain cases if they're doing their dissertation 547 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:56,119 on the particular and that will actually be something very 548 00:30:56,119 --> 00:30:59,400 important in philosophy, But generally speaking, the philosopher is not 549 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,559 just concerned with that. He also wants to get a 550 00:31:01,599 --> 00:31:06,160 big picture. He wants to construct a total picture about 551 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,640 what's going on, what's our situation in the world, what 552 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,480 does life mean, et cetera? Is their meaning in order 553 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:14,559 in the world? Does there meaning order to be found? Right? 554 00:31:14,559 --> 00:31:15,880 These are the kinds of questions that we're going to 555 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,119 be asking. And so philosophers are constructive and that they 556 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,880 seek to build a total picture. Now there's limits to that. Obviously, 557 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:24,880 we don't mean it in a literal sense of like 558 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:26,920 I'm going to build a total picture of everything in 559 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,359 reality and everything that exists. Now, some of the technocrats 560 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,440 might think that with total information awareness and you know, 561 00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,599 this kind of internet of things, they might think that. 562 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:39,200 But typically, speaking outside of these sort of maniacal mad 563 00:31:39,319 --> 00:31:44,799 scientist positions, like the technocrats, typically philosophers, the people that 564 00:31:44,839 --> 00:31:48,640 we're going to be analyzing and looking at are seeking 565 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,680 a total picture within some fixed domain or within some 566 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,880 general framework. Okay, they're not looking for or attempting to 567 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,640 create omniscience. However, we're going to see in some cases 568 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:01,640 where they actually do try to reach that. Right, We're 569 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:04,039 going to see what for example, deve cart, the cart's 570 00:32:04,079 --> 00:32:08,200 going to try to find this indubital and infallible reference point. 571 00:32:08,559 --> 00:32:11,079 Hegel will try to find this sort of omniscience or 572 00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:17,000 pseudo omniscience within his process philosophy, for example. But typically 573 00:32:17,039 --> 00:32:20,079 that's not what we're doing. However, many of them will 574 00:32:20,119 --> 00:32:26,440 try to build world systems right from scratch, and that's 575 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,039 something that we want to pay attention to. So you 576 00:32:30,039 --> 00:32:32,119 guys want to jot down your questions and just save 577 00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:34,000 those for the end, and you can feel free when 578 00:32:34,039 --> 00:32:37,400 we get to the end to come back to questions 579 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:39,759 at any point. So just just jot down if you 580 00:32:39,799 --> 00:32:41,359 want to that you want to ask a question about 581 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,839 sort of stuff early on, but it might be better 582 00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,359 to wait until we get through some of this preliminary 583 00:32:47,359 --> 00:32:52,160 stuff before we start taking any questions philosophers. Thus, in 584 00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:53,880 my and this is sort of this is more so 585 00:32:54,039 --> 00:32:56,400 my my approach because some people would disagree with this, 586 00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:58,640 But I think that the philosophy and what philosopher's really 587 00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:03,039 about is worldview thinking. This is the attempt to characterize 588 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:07,720 and systematize man's knowledge and experience and show how these 589 00:33:07,759 --> 00:33:12,720 things are interrelated. That man's knowledge is not totally fragmentary, 590 00:33:12,759 --> 00:33:17,000 it's not totally disconnected discreet from other pieces of knowledge, 591 00:33:17,039 --> 00:33:20,759 other facts, and other humans and their experience, but that 592 00:33:20,839 --> 00:33:24,160 there is a commonly experienced world, and our experiences and 593 00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:27,039 the facts that we experience and the knowledge that we 594 00:33:27,079 --> 00:33:33,000 obtain from the world is interrelated. There is a world 595 00:33:33,119 --> 00:33:36,200 historical we might say, there is a worldview from which 596 00:33:36,359 --> 00:33:40,599 man can build a system and pause it right. Facts 597 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:45,640 about the world predicate things about the world. And lastly, 598 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,400 philosophers are concerned in my view, with presuppositions. Now, this 599 00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,839 is specifically what the philosopher will be doing as he 600 00:33:52,839 --> 00:33:54,920 does philosopher right, as we go through the history philosophy, 601 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,680 you're going to notice that each philosopher kind of does 602 00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:01,599 this thing where he reads the guy before him, and 603 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,720 especially maybe the generation right before him, and he critiques. 604 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,000 Philosophy doesn't have to be relegated to only critique, but 605 00:34:09,079 --> 00:34:11,800 critique is going to be crucial to the entire process 606 00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:14,920 of philosophy. In the history of the West, each guy 607 00:34:15,079 --> 00:34:19,400 will be critiquing the guy before him. Pretty much across 608 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:22,239 the board. There might be a few outliers here and 609 00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:24,800 there who try to do different things, and maybe they 610 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:27,559 pop up and you know, they just focus on maybe 611 00:34:27,599 --> 00:34:31,360 a literary theory, philosophy of aesthetics or something like that. 612 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:33,400 But most of the big people that we're going to 613 00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:35,000 be focusing on are the ones that are known as 614 00:34:35,039 --> 00:34:38,960 the big philosophers. They're typically concerned with critiquing the presuppositions, 615 00:34:39,039 --> 00:34:44,000 the basic commitments and assumptions of the guys that came before. 616 00:34:45,079 --> 00:34:47,039 So that's what we're going to be doing as well. 617 00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:49,400 And keep in mind that a lot of what you 618 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,320 see there on that page is also what you, as 619 00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:55,360 a philosopher, will begin to do. Now you might think, well, 620 00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,159 I'm not a philosopher. I didn't take all these classes. Well, 621 00:34:58,159 --> 00:35:01,800 guess what, you have a philosop and you are a philosopher. 622 00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:04,119 Even if you don't know it. Even if you know 623 00:35:04,159 --> 00:35:08,079 nothing about philosophy, if I ask you simple questions in 624 00:35:08,119 --> 00:35:13,039 the domains of epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, you might have 625 00:35:13,039 --> 00:35:14,559 any know where those words are. But if I ask 626 00:35:14,559 --> 00:35:16,440 you basic questions, you're going to have a view on 627 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,840 some boys. You're going to have some idea about knowledge. 628 00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:22,599 Even if you think that we can have knowledge. That's 629 00:35:22,599 --> 00:35:25,679 still a position, right, that's an agnostic position, but it's 630 00:35:25,679 --> 00:35:28,480 still a position in a pistemology, right that you don't 631 00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:30,400 believe anybody has knowledge, or you don't have knowledge, or no, 632 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,760 we can have knowledge. If I asked you a question 633 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:39,199 about ethics, right, well, I think it's wrong to kill people. Okay, Well, 634 00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:43,000 then so now you have a philosophy of ethics, right 635 00:35:43,079 --> 00:35:45,599 of virtue and vice right away, whether you know it 636 00:35:45,679 --> 00:35:48,480 or not. So everybody is a philosopher, even if they 637 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,960 don't know it. Everybody has a philosophy because they have 638 00:35:52,039 --> 00:35:56,320 a worldview, even if it's a commitment to agnosticism, because 639 00:35:56,360 --> 00:36:01,199 everybody has basic commitments or believes or presuppositions. When it 640 00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:08,400 comes to what are the three branches epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, 641 00:36:09,199 --> 00:36:15,239 all right, why one more point here. I'll try to 642 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:17,039 go through this kind of quick because I don't want 643 00:36:17,079 --> 00:36:19,320 to spend too much time on This is kind of 644 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:20,920 a restatement kind of what we talked about. Be for 645 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:22,800 a lot of times people hear about philosophy and they'll 646 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,719 say philosophy is useless and impractical word sol And I 647 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:28,559 can't tell you how many times last twenty years, I've 648 00:36:28,559 --> 00:36:32,960 heard this and my most off repeated boomer phrase when 649 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:38,320 I chose to study philosophy, Every boomer, Oh, the philosophy 650 00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:43,239 corporations hiring around you. They thought that was the greatest show, right. 651 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:45,480 I never thought it was funny that was done the 652 00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,079 first time, and I still hear it's still done. But 653 00:36:48,119 --> 00:36:51,079 these are common objections that most people have to this 654 00:36:51,159 --> 00:36:55,000 whole domain. And that's why, for example, people like Neilagrass Tyson, 655 00:36:55,559 --> 00:36:57,400 you know, a couple few years ago, if you guys, remember, 656 00:36:58,159 --> 00:37:01,639 basically said don't waste your timehilosophy is a useless enterprise. 657 00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:05,599 I wonder why he was so emphatically opposed to philosophy. Well, 658 00:37:05,639 --> 00:37:08,559 that might be because he doesn't fare very well when 659 00:37:08,639 --> 00:37:11,519 asked philosophical questions, So that might have something to do 660 00:37:11,559 --> 00:37:14,719 with maybe more of a personal motivation. But what are 661 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,679 the some of the pros? Then again that what does 662 00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:19,800 philosophy help us do? Right? So maybe you're not so 663 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,920 interested in what philosophers do. How does it help you? 664 00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:26,920 What do I get out of this? Philosophy helps us 665 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,920 to think creatively because it makes us better at analysis. 666 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,440 As I said, of anything, you're not going to fall 667 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:36,039 for bad arguments. You're not going to fall for fallacy. 668 00:37:36,039 --> 00:37:40,280 You're not going to fall for dumb, stupid arguments, for example, 669 00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:45,719 emotional appeals. Now, I know that one of Richard's buds 670 00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:52,199 has taught a really excellent logical fallacies course, right, And 671 00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:54,519 one of those logical fallacies that comes up all the time, 672 00:37:54,559 --> 00:38:00,280 for example, is something like emotional appeal. Right, Oh, you 673 00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:04,119 don't want to support the war effort in XYZ country. 674 00:38:04,519 --> 00:38:07,000 I guess you hate the kids in those countries, don't you. 675 00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:10,880 I guess you want the kids to die? Right? You 676 00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,280 want Saddam to kill the kids? Right? These are all 677 00:38:13,679 --> 00:38:17,199 ridiculous emotional appeals. Right. In other words, only a person 678 00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:21,559 who anols their position cares about kids. Well, that's a fallacy. Right. 679 00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:25,519 So understanding philosophy helps us to think critically makes us 680 00:38:25,559 --> 00:38:28,440 better at analysis of anything. Doesn't have to be politics. 681 00:38:28,519 --> 00:38:32,440 It's going to help you analyze again, business situations, right, 682 00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:35,920 business deals. It's going to help you analyze the crypto 683 00:38:36,039 --> 00:38:40,320 market right. For example, crypto deals a lot with human 684 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:44,000 emotions in human psychology. Right. If whales are dumping, you 685 00:38:44,039 --> 00:38:46,000 know that people are going to follow the whales and dump. 686 00:38:46,840 --> 00:38:48,599 So it's going to make you better at analysis if 687 00:38:48,639 --> 00:38:52,719 you know the modus operandi of human operation in markets, 688 00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:56,920 for example, and that's involved with that involves philosophical critical thinking, 689 00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:00,239 even if we don't know these terms. Philosophy help just 690 00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:02,880 think creatively. As we said, we have new approaches and 691 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:10,480 angles to things. I remember one of my philosophy professors 692 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:13,280 met a good point when I was first coming into 693 00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:16,039 to philosophy, and I met with him and I said, 694 00:39:16,119 --> 00:39:17,559 you know, I don't know if I should choose this 695 00:39:17,639 --> 00:39:21,519 as a profession. I said, because you know, I just 696 00:39:21,559 --> 00:39:23,280 don't know if I'll be able to get a job 697 00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:26,039 and make money and do this for it. And he said, well, 698 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,320 I know a really famous guy who studied a lot 699 00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:30,119 of philosophy that you might have heard of. And I said, 700 00:39:30,159 --> 00:39:33,320 who's that? He said, Steve Martin. So Steve Martin used 701 00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:36,199 a lot of his philosophy to go on into the 702 00:39:36,199 --> 00:39:40,280 world of comedy. So I'm not guaranteeing you you know 703 00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:41,960 that I'm going to teach you to be some great 704 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,920 comedian if you study philosophy. But he's an example of 705 00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:47,639 a person who you studied philosophy, and I don't know 706 00:39:47,679 --> 00:39:49,519 if you just did undergrad or if he went further 707 00:39:49,519 --> 00:39:52,280 than that, but he utilized that to kind of give 708 00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:54,719 him a unique approach to comedy. And although we look 709 00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:57,559 back on Steve Martin as kind of a typical, you know, boomer, 710 00:39:58,039 --> 00:40:00,639 a seventies eighties comedian, when Steve and came out in 711 00:40:00,679 --> 00:40:03,119 the seventies, he was very unique and very weird and 712 00:40:03,159 --> 00:40:06,239 odd in his approach. And I think that, as my 713 00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:09,480 professor was arguing, that had to do with his taking 714 00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:11,320 of a lot of philosophy classes when he was a 715 00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:14,599 younger guy. So philosophy does help us to think creative 716 00:40:14,599 --> 00:40:17,239 because it gives us new angles and new ways to 717 00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:21,760 approach questions and things in the world. Philosophy helps us 718 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:27,280 systematize and particularize knowledge. Again, a classic example this is 719 00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:32,079 that the taxonomy that we still use today for animals, kingdom, phylum, species, etc. 720 00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:37,320 Genera that's from Aristotle. Aristotle, the great philosopher of Greece, 721 00:40:37,639 --> 00:40:40,920 the student of Plato, gives us that taxonomy that we 722 00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:51,280 still use today.