WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:10.759 Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pridsue wisdom 2 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:13.439 in the past between Primary second eight worlds. I'm Andrew 3 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:28.160 Snyder and I'm glad that you're here. Hey, everyone, Andrew 4 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:30.920 here Today we'll provide you with the introductory video for 5 00:00:31.079 --> 00:00:34.320 my upcoming course called a Brief History of Ideas, which 6 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:37.840 begins the week of May eighteenth, twenty twenty five. If 7 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:40.399 you enjoy this video and this seems like something that 8 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:42.039 you want to continue on with, then you have a 9 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.159 couple options. And first of all, you can go to 10 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:46.960 the Mythic Mind Patreon shop and you can enroll in 11 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:50.359 just this course. However, if you're interested in more than 12 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:52.560 one course that I have to offer in the next 13 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:55.320 year or so, then you'll be better off purchasing a 14 00:00:55.479 --> 00:00:59.240 Tier three annual membership to Mythic Mind, and that is 15 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:03.280 the apprentice level, and getting that Tier three annual patronage 16 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.159 will give you access to all courses that begin within 17 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:08.879 that term. And so this currently includes a Brief History 18 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:12.840 of Ideas, plato Stoicism until we have Faces, the Elder 19 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:16.959 Scrolls and Philosophy, and the Soulmarillion, which begins the beginning 20 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:18.879 of twenty twenty six. So again, if two or more 21 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:21.040 of there's interest to you, then your best deal is 22 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:23.640 going to be to get that annual patronage and also 23 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:26.840 give you ad free and usually early episodes of Mythic 24 00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:31.560 Mind and the various things that patronage includes. And so 25 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:35.439 you have a limited time here because again that deal 26 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:38.560 with the Tier three patronage applies to any courses that 27 00:01:38.599 --> 00:01:40.599 begin within that term, and so if you want to 28 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:42.920 take full advantage of that, then go ahead and do 29 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:46.359 that right now. But all right, for now, let's go 30 00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:49.000 ahead and get into the introductory video for a Brief 31 00:01:49.079 --> 00:02:13.680 History of Ideas. Hello, and welcome to a Brief History 32 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:16.240 of Ideas. I'm doctor Andrew Snyder, and I'm really glad 33 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:18.520 to be leading you on this study over these next 34 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:21.560 six weeks, whether you're joining one of my independent courses 35 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:23.400 for the first time or even with me since we 36 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:26.479 began with the fiction and Philosophy of C. S. Lewis. 37 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.919 I'm really excited about sort of where things are going 38 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.840 as I'm really focusing right now on the broader model 39 00:02:33.879 --> 00:02:37.360 of my course offerings. I'm focusing on building a community 40 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:43.000 of people that will indoor together across multiple courses. This 41 00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:46.800 is why now, Well, people can still enroll in a 42 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:48.960 singular course if they want to. I've moved to this 43 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:53.159 model of really encouraging people to take a more comprehensive 44 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:56.800 approach of purchasing an annual Tier three patronage, and then 45 00:02:57.159 --> 00:03:00.759 with that I give them any course that begins within 46 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:03.759 that term. And so my hope here is that we 47 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:06.759 get this ongoing community and that we all continue going 48 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:10.199 further up and further in together, rather than simply in 49 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:13.360 isolated pockets here and there. And so that being said, 50 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:16.919 I appreciate you being part of this community. Today, I 51 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:19.439 want to just tell you a little bit about what 52 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:23.120 this course is and what you can expect. You probably 53 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:25.039 already know from the title and just from the outline 54 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:27.800 of the course that this is essentially an intro to 55 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:31.159 philosophy kind of course. In fact, this is something of 56 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:36.080 a concentrated form of what I might offer on a 57 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:39.919 fifteen week basis on campus when I teach intro to philosophy, 58 00:03:40.759 --> 00:03:43.159 although it is a very different dynamic here and that 59 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:45.599 obviously I'm not giving you assignments you have to do, 60 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:48.680 and also they're just a different dynamic when you know 61 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:52.719 I'm teaching, I don't know, thirty sixty ninety students who 62 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:56.439 have to be there versus you who chose to be here. 63 00:03:56.479 --> 00:03:58.960 That adds a new dynamic. And so even though it's 64 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.479 a shorter time period, we can probably go perhaps a 65 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:04.879 little bit further with the material and with the conversations. 66 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:10.159 And so we'll be taking a look at major topics 67 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:15.080 of conversation within the great conversation of the Western philosophical tradition, 68 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:20.120 going from ancient Greece to the Medievals, to the moderns 69 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:23.360 and to the postmoderns and the postmodern era in which 70 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:27.240 we currently find ourselves. And there's really there's a lot 71 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:30.600 of value in doing this sort of study. For one thing, 72 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:32.959 it gives better context for the world in which we 73 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:34.600 live right now. You know, I just alluded to this 74 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:37.759 great conversation that's happening over time, and I think that's 75 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:42.000 a good way of framing the epics of philosophical thought 76 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:44.519 in that you know, whether you study philosophy or not, 77 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:47.160 you probably heard the word postmodernism, and so you already 78 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:49.519 know that whatever this era of philosophy is that we're 79 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:53.240 currently living in, well it's a response or it is 80 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:57.120 directly related to modernism, right which came before it, and 81 00:04:57.160 --> 00:04:59.920 then of course modernism in turn has a certain relationship 82 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:03.360 with the medievals, who have a certain relationship with the ancients. 83 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:07.040 And so this world in which we currently live is 84 00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:09.839 but part of this green conversation. And if you're going 85 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:13.480 to really understand what's being said today, you need to 86 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:16.480 know something about that broader context. And so my hope 87 00:05:16.519 --> 00:05:18.000 is that in this study that you'll be able to 88 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:21.240 better understand what is happening today in the significance of 89 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:24.079 the ideas that you've probably heard your entire life, but 90 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:26.879 you know, maybe that in all entirely registered as to 91 00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:30.040 it's just how significant some of these ideas are, how 92 00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:34.079 jarring they are, how much of a break they are 93 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:38.480 from the millennia of ideas, the millennia of years of 94 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:41.959 ideas of discourse that's come before them. You know, I 95 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:45.000 run to this a lot with my students, who who 96 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:49.680 being raised within this postmodern climate, are conditioned to believe that, 97 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:52.240 you know, really, all things are just subjective. There's no 98 00:05:52.279 --> 00:05:54.360 such thing as truth, there's no such thing as goodness 99 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:58.000 as beauty, that these are all power plays or social constructs, 100 00:05:58.120 --> 00:05:59.959 or they come down to nothing more than an individual 101 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:04.000 or even maybe communal opinion. But that's all that ideas 102 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.240 come down to. It's mere opinion. When I start saying that, well, 103 00:06:07.319 --> 00:06:09.920 what if there actually is a reality, and that we 104 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:13.920 don't contextualize reality within ourselves, maybe we can even contextualize 105 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:17.480 ourselves within a reality that stands above and beyond any 106 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:20.040 of us as individuals. I say something like that, in 107 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:23.120 many of them, maybe even over half of them, will 108 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:25.480 act like they're hearing something for the very first time. 109 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:27.879 You know, a fish doesn't know that it's wet because 110 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:30.439 it spends this whole life in the water. And so 111 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:33.720 there's there's a lot of value in studying what people 112 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:36.519 have said in different eras, not because everything they said 113 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.079 is right and everything that we say is wrong, but 114 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:42.199 there's value because two heads are better than one. So yeah, 115 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:43.720 you can look at the ancients and say that they've 116 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:45.560 made some mistakes, but they're not the same mistakes that 117 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:48.759 we're making today. And we can also recognize, I think, 118 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:51.600 if we're reading them carefully for being them honestly, recognize 119 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:54.759 that they got a lot right that we've lost along 120 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:58.040 the way. CS Lewis makes this point in his introduction 121 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:01.399 to Athanacius Is on the incarnationation, or you can also 122 00:07:01.480 --> 00:07:03.120 find it. I think a lot. It's like the value 123 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:06.040 of reading old books or something like that in other collections. 124 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:11.000 But Lewis makes this point that old books aren't necessarily better. However, 125 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:15.040 the ideas, the books, the texts from antiquity that have 126 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:18.800 survived today are probably the ones that are worth holding onto. 127 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:21.759 They've been sifted through time, and so we can look 128 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:23.920 back at the history of ideas and see what stands 129 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:26.160 out over time in a way that we can't with 130 00:07:26.199 --> 00:07:31.639 the ideas that are supposedly new and innovative and creative today. 131 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:36.319 So there's just so much value in getting this other 132 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:41.040 perspective of other eras that were based off different presuppositions 133 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:43.519 and that we're trying to achieve different ends and we 134 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:46.560 tend to be today in our postmodern world. And so 135 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:48.240 you'll be able to better understand the world than what 136 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:51.160 you live. Also, you'll be able to better recover these 137 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:54.000 elements of wisdom that have been left behind by the 138 00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:59.399 mainstream movement of ideas, of academic discourse and whatnot. And also, 139 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:01.639 more than any anything else, I hope that through this 140 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:06.360 study we all grow in our love for wisdom. That's 141 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:10.319 what the word philosophy means phileiosophia. It's the love of wisdom. 142 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:16.879 Philosophy at its root isn't about a knowledge of ideas 143 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:22.000 in a purely intellectual sense. That you know, when Plato 144 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:26.319 talks about philosophy, he means a love of wisdom. As 145 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:28.879 much as he is a rational kind of thinker, you know, 146 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:32.120 we're going to find that more than anything else, he 147 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:34.960 is driven by love. He is a philosopher of love, 148 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:39.559 and all true philosophers are because we love wisdom. We 149 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.720 want our lives to be conformed to the demands and 150 00:08:43.799 --> 00:08:47.879 the beauty and the goodness of wisdom. And so this 151 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:52.360 is not only an intellectual exercise, but exercise of cultivating 152 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:55.919 the right habits and cultivating the right appetites, because we 153 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.240 do all have appetites, and some of them are good 154 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:01.039 in accordance with nature, by which I mean that they're 155 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:03.080 going to lead us to the fulfillment of our form 156 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:05.559 what human nature is supposed to be. But of course 157 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:07.320 we also have other appetites that are going to lead 158 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:10.279 us in the direction of the beastly. And we'll talk 159 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:13.759 more about that dichotomy, especially in ancient thought, in the 160 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:18.200 coming videos and discussions. But the point is that we 161 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:20.399 need to learn discernment. We need to learn the call 162 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:23.159 and to use language of proverbs to hear the call 163 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:26.440 of lady Wisdom over the call of lady folly. And 164 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:30.159 they sound very they sound very similar at first, and 165 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:31.919 so you need that discernment. You need to cultivate the 166 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.399 right kind of love so that you are able to 167 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:38.440 recognize the appropriate voice and respond appropriately. And so there's 168 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:43.000 so much value intellectually, existentially, there's so much value in 169 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:47.240 studying philosophy, and I hope that a lot of that 170 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:52.440 will come through through our studies over these next six weeks. Now, 171 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:56.240 before we get into the flow of the course, I 172 00:09:56.279 --> 00:09:58.240 think it'd be helpful to give you just some basic 173 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:01.240 vocabulary regarding the study for philosophy. I'm not going to 174 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:03.360 overwhelm you now with a bunch of different terms, but 175 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:06.879 I think that some of these major ideas, especially these 176 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:10.039 major branches of philosophy, would be helpful. And so at 177 00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:13.639 the center you have philosophy, philosophy being the love of wisdom. Now, 178 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:16.720 off of that you have a few branches. And exactly 179 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:19.039 how these branches are labeled and constructed, I mean, it 180 00:10:19.159 --> 00:10:21.000 depends on who you're talking to, what book you're reading, 181 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:25.480 But the general at least consensus regarding the major studies 182 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:29.720 major branches of philosophy. On one hand, you have epistemology. Now, 183 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:33.919 pistemology is the study of truth. It asked the question 184 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:36.559 what is truth? And how do we come to know it? 185 00:10:36.919 --> 00:10:39.480 You know, is true something that we can reason to 186 00:10:40.039 --> 00:10:43.120 can we engage in speculation and logic in order to 187 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:46.440 arrive at truth? Is truth something that can only be 188 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:50.639 understood through sense, experience and through scientific investigation? Like these 189 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:53.440 are the questions for pistemology. Ultimately, what is truth? How 190 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:56.679 do we come to know it? Next, we have ontology, 191 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:00.559 not think we've viewed with oncology. Ontology is the study 192 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:03.440 of being or the study of existence, and ask the 193 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:08.720 question what is existence? What kinds of things exist? And 194 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:11.480 off of this we can branch off into a couple 195 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:15.799 of major territories. On one hand, we have physics, right, 196 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:18.679 the study of physical things. Now, why it seems kind 197 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:21.600 of odd to put physics within the domain of philosophy, 198 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:24.159 but I mean this is classically how it's been understood 199 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:27.720 that what we call science, the study of the physical world, 200 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:31.519 used to just be referred to as natural philosophy, because 201 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:37.639 there's this idea that philosophy being this unifying field of wisdom, 202 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:40.720 that this is the mother science. Well really, I mean, 203 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:43.080 if you're the medievals, theology is the mother science, right, 204 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:47.440 and then philosophy is its handmaiden, and so underneath philosophy 205 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:50.159 as the general love of wisdom. Now we yet, I 206 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.639 mean anything that we can study, anything that we can approach, 207 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:57.440 especially through reason, and that includes natural philosophy, includes physics 208 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:00.799 the physical world. Right, Aristotle has a book called the Physics, 209 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:03.519 and so on one hand, we have physics that the 210 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:06.799 study of the physical world. And you know, I think 211 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:10.519 this is actually really important that we reclaim natural philosophy, 212 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:14.799 that we reclaim science for philosophy, because a lot of 213 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:18.879 times science gets treated as if it is philosophy all 214 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:21.799 in its own. You know, people say, trust the science. 215 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:26.399 You know that I listen to science. My philosophy is science. 216 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:30.000 But the problem is that science isn't equipped to do 217 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:32.519 things like tell us how to live what the physical 218 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:35.919 sciences do, or they tell us things about the empirical world. 219 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:39.679 They tell us what is regarding the physical plane, But 220 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.000 then we have to apply other things like ethics, to 221 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:43.919 determine what we ought to do with it, how we 222 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:47.919 ought to live. That there's no scientific experiment whatsoever that 223 00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:49.279 can tell you how to live. All it can do 224 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.879 is give you data which then you utilize within your 225 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:56.000 broader philosophical system. And so science is not a philosophy. 226 00:12:56.039 --> 00:12:59.039 Science is an empirical tool that is used within the 227 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:01.440 study ofosophy, and so we need to reclaim it here. 228 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.320 And so I think this is pretty significant that we 229 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:09.320 maintain physics as part of ontology, which is part of philosophy. Now, 230 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:11.279 the other domain which is going to take more of 231 00:13:11.320 --> 00:13:15.200 our attention is metaphysics, and that is that which transcends 232 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:18.639 the physical realm, that basis whatever exists that isn't physical, 233 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.960 And this can include ideas play doos certainly think so 234 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:26.519 that things like justice actually exist even apart from their 235 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:33.120 physical instantiations, that beauty actually exists, and so ideas can 236 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:38.200 be metaphysical realities. Angels and demons can be metaphysical realities. Certainly, 237 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:41.879 things like the existence of God is a metaphysical concern. 238 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:45.759 And in Aristyle rather Aristyle has a book on metaphysics 239 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:48.320 as well, and we'll be looking at that in week two. 240 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:52.799 And so we've got physics, we've got metaphysics, and that's 241 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:56.080 all part of ontology. And then the other major branch 242 00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:02.360 that I want to bring out here is axiomogy. Sometimes 243 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:04.440 people just call us ethics, but I think it's better 244 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:07.039 to treat ethics as a sub branches. Who get axiology. 245 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:10.519 With axiology is the study of value. What are the 246 00:14:10.519 --> 00:14:15.440 things that we value? What should we value? And that shouldness? 247 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:18.600 I mean that really comes down two ethics. Proper right 248 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:21.360 ethics is the question of what is the good? What 249 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:24.440 does the good life look like? How ought we to live? 250 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:28.279 And then the other major branch here of axiology would 251 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:31.320 be esthetics. And this is, of course the study of beauty. 252 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:36.200 What is beauty? Is beauty objective? Is it real? Does 253 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:39.159 it make demands on us? Or is beauty simply in 254 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:41.039 the eye that beholder as we tend to say in 255 00:14:41.080 --> 00:14:44.039 our post modern context today. I can tell you that, 256 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:46.399 at least for the most part, in the ancient world, 257 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:48.120 they're not going to say that beauty is in the 258 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:50.159 eye of the beholder. I mean, yeah, you have your 259 00:14:50.279 --> 00:14:52.600 your relativist, you have your sophist, and we'll talk about them, 260 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.759 but for the most part they believe that beauty is 261 00:14:55.799 --> 00:14:58.879 something real, and that the path of wisdom requires the 262 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:01.559 discernment to cultivate the right affections. That way you're able 263 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:04.360 to recognize or respond to its call. I think a 264 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:06.440 good way of getting at this is to consider the 265 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:09.919 difference between the muses and the sirens. So the muses 266 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:13.480 are the daughters of Zeus that inspire truth and goodness 267 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.759 and beauty in the craftsmen and the poets and the 268 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:20.279 artisans and whatnot. And so the muses inspired beauty. And 269 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:24.159 what beauty is is beauty is what draws the soul 270 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:28.320 toward what is good and true and life giving. That's 271 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:30.720 what beauty is. It draws the soul toward it is 272 00:15:30.759 --> 00:15:32.840 true and was good and was life giving. Of course, 273 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:35.039 that presupposes that there is such a thing as a 274 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:37.440 good of human nature, something that we ought to aspire to. 275 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:40.600 And beauty is what summons us up to that goal, 276 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:44.879 that teilos that purpose that end. Now contrast that you 277 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:48.200 have these sirens, the sirensho are really these monsters, but 278 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:51.559 they would cast out these beautiful, these apparently beautiful songs 279 00:15:51.879 --> 00:15:56.200 across the seas that would enrapture unwitting sailors filling them 280 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:59.840 with euphoric visions of the greatest desires and summon them 281 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:02.720 to their location on the islands. And so then the 282 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.159 sailor would follow this call, this apparent beauty, until they 283 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:08.519 crash their ships on the rocks and then we're consumed 284 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:13.639 by the monsters. The sirens here stand for seduction, which 285 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:15.480 we tend to think of in sexual terms, and it 286 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:19.759 absolutely can take that manifestation. But seduction is really just 287 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:23.320 counterfeit beauty. It's anything that has the appearance of beauty 288 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:27.279 but doesn't pull our souls, our psyches, our minds toward 289 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:29.840 what is true and good in life giving. No, it 290 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:34.320 draws our souls toward what is faults in life consuming. 291 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:38.279 And so there are muses and sirens all around us, 292 00:16:38.360 --> 00:16:40.320 and we know that to be true. We all know 293 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:43.000 we have certain affections for things that we shouldn't have 294 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:45.320 affections for. We can all think of times in our 295 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.279 lives where to follow the call the siren over the meuse. 296 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.519 And so this viewpoint that beauty is actually something real, 297 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:53.320 like there's certain things we ought to be drawn to, 298 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:55.080 and there's certain things that we ought not to be 299 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:58.639 drawn to. In that the right cultivation of virtue or 300 00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:02.000 cultivation affections leads us to be drawn by the right things, 301 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:06.920 the things which are indeed truly beautiful. That even though 302 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:09.920 that framing of beauty it's very different than how we 303 00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:12.759 tend to talk today, where everything is subjective. I think 304 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:16.200 if we're honest with ourselves, it makes a lot more sense. 305 00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:21.359 And in my experience, most people believe that makes more sense. 306 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.079 You know, whenever I do this in one of my classes, 307 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:28.160 you know, I'll start off by asking the students what 308 00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:29.960 is beauty? And most of them are going to say 309 00:17:29.960 --> 00:17:31.839 something about it. It's in the eye of the beholder, 310 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:34.480 its opinion. It's entirely subjective. But once I lay things 311 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.680 out this way and say, look at your own life, 312 00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:39.799 do you really think that everything you're drawn to is 313 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:44.319 actually beautiful? And you can be that simple like, oh no, 314 00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:47.680 I guess not. And so a lot of what we 315 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:49.680 need here just to be disenchanted a little bit with 316 00:17:49.720 --> 00:17:54.000 the postmodern mindset and recognize that are our souls hunger 317 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:56.960 for the real and we live as if the reel exists. 318 00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:58.880 And if we can cut through a lot of the 319 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:02.480 propaganda that we've been bo against the reality of human nature, 320 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:06.119 then it actually makes us more real. It makes us 321 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:09.359 recognize our reality, and that gives us strength, It gives 322 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:13.279 us purpose, and it gives us significance. And it's kind 323 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:15.160 of significance that can be scary at first, because what 324 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:18.920 it means is that what you do actually matters, and 325 00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:22.319 that's kind of intimidating, but also it's emboldening because now 326 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:25.480 what you do actually matters, and there's joy and contentment 327 00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:28.319 to be had there in striving to fulfill our form 328 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:35.200 as humans. Well, there's my broad introduction to philosophy. Now 329 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:37.519 for this course. The way this is going to run 330 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:41.599 is every week I'll upload some videos. I'll have usually 331 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:45.440 one just really short introductory video that sets up the 332 00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:49.759 text that you're dealing with, just very low level introduction. 333 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:54.119 And that's because I'm not going to give you a 334 00:18:54.119 --> 00:18:57.279 lot of historical context. Now, I'll sometimes i'll bring in 335 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:00.680 or actually I'll often bring in some other ideas and 336 00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:02.599 other philosophers at play that we're not reading, because I 337 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:05.240 think that's going to often be significant for what we're doing. 338 00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:07.000 But I'm not going to give you a whole lot 339 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:09.559 of historical context. I'm not going to go into a 340 00:19:09.559 --> 00:19:10.960 lot of things that you could just google and find 341 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:13.160 out easily enough. I really want to suspend our time 342 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:16.319 in the text together. That's our focus, that's certainly my focus, 343 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.319 and so I'll provide just a short introduction to the 344 00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:21.119 text that we're dealing with that week, and then I'll 345 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:25.400 provide one or maybe more extended videos that deal with 346 00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:29.599 some major topics in the text, depending on just what 347 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:32.400 seems to make sense to me based off what we're reading. 348 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:35.880 I might do a few shorter videos on, you know, 349 00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:38.119 one on each of the texts that we're reading. I 350 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:41.039 might do something more comprehensive on all of them. But 351 00:19:41.319 --> 00:19:44.000 my recommendation is that you watch the intro video that 352 00:19:44.039 --> 00:19:48.559 I post, do the reading, and then watch the extended videos, 353 00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:51.680 because I think that there's a lot of benefit in 354 00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:54.960 just going head ahead with these great philosophers. And by great, 355 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:57.160 I don't mean that they're all necessarily good, even though 356 00:19:57.240 --> 00:19:58.480 most of what we read I think it's gonna be 357 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:02.440 pretty good, but I mean significant, and it's helpful just 358 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.480 to jump right in and for you to go through 359 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:07.799 struggling on your own to figure out what's being said 360 00:20:07.799 --> 00:20:11.680 here before having a guide. I personally find that very helpful. 361 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:16.599 Some of my best philosophical discoveries, the best exercises. My 362 00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:21.000 philosophical reasoning came through reading a difficult text, you know, 363 00:20:21.079 --> 00:20:23.400 late at night. Expressive coursing through my veins is trying 364 00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:26.240 to figure out, like what is being said here. That's 365 00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:28.759 especially true when I was working on my doctoral dissertation 366 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:31.839 on gearkey Guard that you know, he's not an easy 367 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:34.240 to read, especially some of his more difficult texts that 368 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:37.359 I was working with, But just pushing through and then 369 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:40.880 looking for a guide I find it's often helpful. But 370 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:43.279 even still, I'm not going to be exhausted by my videos. 371 00:20:43.319 --> 00:20:45.039 I'm going to give you some I'll give you some 372 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:47.559 frameworks for I think getting hopefully a little bit more 373 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:49.880 out of your reading after you've already done so, and 374 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:54.359 then we'll have our weekly Zoom meetings to discuss together. 375 00:20:54.519 --> 00:20:56.960 Just questions you have, thoughts you have, and you know wherever, 376 00:20:57.359 --> 00:20:59.839 you know wherever that goes, and if you've been through 377 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:02.680 one of my courses before, then you know roughly what 378 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:06.880 that looks like. And to me, that's the most enjoyable 379 00:21:06.920 --> 00:21:10.079 and probably the most profitable part of these courses. Though 380 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:14.079 of course I hope my independent content is helpful for 381 00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:16.720 you as well. All right. So that's basically how this 382 00:21:16.759 --> 00:21:18.480 course is going to run. I look forward to where 383 00:21:18.519 --> 00:21:21.359 we're going with it, and I look forward to meeting 384 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:24.160 with you very soon. All right. Until then, God speak, 385 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:40.519 all right. I hope you enjoyed that, And if you did, again, 386 00:21:40.599 --> 00:21:42.640 go ahead and enroll today as the course is just 387 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:45.079 about to start, as this is getting posted, and I 388 00:21:45.079 --> 00:21:48.119 hope that you'll consider becoming an annual Tier three patron. 389 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:50.920 That way you can continue to move with us from 390 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:53.400 study to study and just join part of this robust, 391 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:56.480 growing community. I'm really excited about where mythic mind is headed, 392 00:21:56.680 --> 00:21:59.240 and I'm grateful that you and like minded or at 393 00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:02.599 least like inter listed people are coming around and helping 394 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:07.640 me to continue moving us in in bigger and greater directions. 395 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:09.839 And before we go, I want to thank all my 396 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:12.279 current patrons, and by name, I want to thank all 397 00:22:12.359 --> 00:22:15.480 Tier three patrons and higher, most of whom by this 398 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:19.119 point are taking advantage of that annual deal and so 399 00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:23.240 many things to Mark, Amanda, Chase, Chaz, Christopher Clinton, David, 400 00:22:23.400 --> 00:22:28.440 Aaron Hevy, Jamie, Justin, Justin, Kyle, Paul, Roger, Ross Tyler, 401 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:31.599