WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:08.080 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