WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:07.400 This is Jay Dyer from Jay's Analysis. You're listening to 2 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:11.679 Esoteric Hollywood. Esoteric Hollywood is where I deconstruct the biggest 3 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:13.960 films in an unparalleled way, from the classics of the 4 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:18.160 silver screen to today's blockbusters. Learned to watch film with 5 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:35.719 new eyes as we enter Esoteric Hollywood. Greetings, Welcome back 6 00:00:35.719 --> 00:00:41.240 to Jay's Analysis, My friends, subscribers, especially thank you all 7 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:44.880 you subscribers out there. Today we're going to talk about 8 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:50.159 Marcus Aurelius, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and you're listening 9 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:53.640 to Jay's Analysis. My website is Jaysnalysis dot com and 10 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:59.320 I deal with philosophy, theology, the esoteric movie reviews, film analysis. 11 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:02.240 I do a lot of stand up, a lot of comedy, 12 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:04.480 a lot of impressions. I do all kinds of crazy stuff. 13 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:07.840 But I also do philosophy talks and lectures. And so 14 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:11.120 what we're going to do is maybe skip back and 15 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:16.319 go and talk about some of the older post Greek 16 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:20.519 stuff into the Roman period because I had some requests. Actually, 17 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:24.239 people said you didn't ever talk about anything Stoic, what 18 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:27.040 about the Stoics? And that's interesting because the Stoics are 19 00:01:27.159 --> 00:01:30.640 influenced by the Greeks. They were very interested in continuing 20 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:35.480 the Greek tradition with that sort of Hellenized period of 21 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:42.200 the Roman Empire. And Stoicism is interesting. It's not the 22 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:45.280 best philosophy, I don't think, but it's interesting. And you 23 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:50.439 had the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius influenced by Stoicism. So 24 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:53.560 the first thing with that we want to do is, 25 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:56.920 you know that I'm very much a fan of channeling, 26 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:00.519 and so I got my hair cut into this fascy 27 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:03.959 haircut they call it, because we're going to actually channel 28 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:07.879 Marcus Aurelius the emperor today. You ready, so close your eyes, 29 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:11.759 put your legs up into a lotus position. And the 30 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:14.479 way that we channel the Roman emperor is that we 31 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:18.319 do instead of doing this the way that we might meditate. 32 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:26.919 We're going to hell Caesar. Hey Caesar, this is a 33 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:30.680 very controversial hand movement. Now you can do this all day, 34 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:34.240 fuck the poet, right, you can be a communist Marxist, 35 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:39.360 but if you dared to do hell Caesar, fascist fascist alert, 36 00:02:39.479 --> 00:02:45.680 fascist alert, anyway, I'm being silly. We're going to delve 37 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:50.840 into the meditations and part one will be free for 38 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.879 those out there in internet land and then part two. 39 00:02:54.919 --> 00:02:57.280 Of course, you can subscribe at Jays Analysis for four 40 00:02:57.759 --> 00:02:59.199 a month or for sixty dollars a year to get 41 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:02.080 the full talks, likes and interviews and access to the 42 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:04.280 archives where I've talked to a lot of interesting people 43 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:08.639 and done full lectures on the totality of Tragy and Hope, 44 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:13.960 Plato's Republic, this kind of stuff. The subscribers are all 45 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:18.639 very happy. Ninety five percent approval for subscribers at Jason 46 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:26.599 elsis so Stoicism is interesting. It gives us the idea 47 00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:31.039 of a philosopher king, right, so they Marcus, especially Marcus, 48 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:37.000 carries on this notion of Plato's republic being ruled by 49 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.319 the philosopher king, and Marcus sees himself as a philosopher king. 50 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:45.439 So in many ways it's going to function like Augustine's Confessions, 51 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:50.439 which is the first idobiography in history, I suppose Western civilization. 52 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:56.560 It functions as the first known autobiography. And the concern, 53 00:03:56.840 --> 00:04:00.400 first and foremost is with the care of the soul. 54 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:06.159 So virtue matters, the God within matters, and the God 55 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:09.840 within here is this idea of what we're going to 56 00:04:09.879 --> 00:04:13.800 deal with called monism, and the Stoics can accurately be 57 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:22.399 called monists, and Marcus follows the tradition of Epictetus in 58 00:04:22.439 --> 00:04:26.959 the Discourses quite a bit. The reason I troll shows 59 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:30.959 Meditations is because the Meditations, well number one. I happened 60 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:32.800 to just pick this book up in the last few weeks, 61 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:36.600 and I had not read Marcus's disputation. I think maybe 62 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:39.680 an undergrad we had to read, you know, like a 63 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:42.199 selection of it or something. But I went in and 64 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:47.160 read the Meditations, and I thought it is a good companion. 65 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:49.439 And they're going to see a lot of similarities to 66 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:53.920 Christian theology early on Biblical theology. We're going to see 67 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:59.560 similarities to well, it's syncretic, which is interesting. So it 68 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:05.759 does platonism and maybe even blends aspects of Biblical or 69 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:11.560 Christian thought as well as the Roman ideas, Roman tradition 70 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:15.839 and thought, which is very practical, very interested in legalities 71 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:23.000 and bureaucracy and how to form a coherent, functioning state. 72 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:26.279 And what we're going to see is that Stoicism functions 73 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:29.000 very well for the Roman mythos, for the pacx Romana. 74 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:34.839 It's a lot of aphorisms, aphorisms, and it wasn't apparently 75 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:38.519 intended to be something published. It was intended to be 76 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:41.199 his personal diary, and I guess over time it was 77 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:45.439 eventually published. So a lot of platonic theme is one 78 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:47.759 of those that's going to be pre eminent is the 79 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:51.439 control of the passions. The Stoics were at times even 80 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:57.319 almost ascetics, right. They were very much into sobriety temperance, 81 00:05:58.279 --> 00:06:02.800 and we're going to see that throughout these aphorisms. Another 82 00:06:02.839 --> 00:06:05.360 obvious key point that probably everybody's aware of who's heard 83 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:08.680 of philosophy in any degree is a Stoicism is concerned 84 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:13.959 with facing life's ills in terms of what you can 85 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:18.079 and can't control. If you can't control something, no point 86 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:21.720 worrying about it. It's out of your control. It's not 87 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:25.839 something that you even need to worry about. Worry is pointless, 88 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:29.639 you know. We can think of similarities that, say, the 89 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:32.040 Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, who of you 90 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:36.000 by worrying? Can one add one inch to your stature? Right? 91 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:39.759 I mean, there's not really any point in worry, especially 92 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:42.240 when it comes to things outside of your control. And 93 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:47.920 that's the key dictum of Stoicism. So it's aphoristic in 94 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:51.879 the way that perhaps Nietsi or Wittenstein are aphoristic in 95 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:56.399 many of their writings. He does see philosophy as the 96 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:02.839 totality answer to man life and ills. So philosophy is 97 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:07.319 the path by which you can find solace, find peace, 98 00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:12.360 and find answers. Philosophy promotes the life of virtue. As 99 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.360 we've seen before, again, this is straight out of Socrates 100 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:19.759 and Epictetus. Many of the early Stoics had a high 101 00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:23.000 views of Socrates. They thought he was great, not so 102 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:27.040 much a lot of the metaphysics and ontology of Plato, 103 00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:35.639 but rather that within the dialogues you would see Socrates 104 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:39.800 really laying out what it means to live a philosophical life. 105 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:43.279 So it's a lot more interested in the esthetic and 106 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:46.560 what's natural out there in the world, harmony with nature, 107 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:50.680 and a lot less interested in, you know, these sort 108 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:55.160 of big skill speculations about metaphysics and justifying your belief 109 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.360 systems and so forth and so on, so that they 110 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:04.639 don't really care about that. Of course, the first Stoic 111 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:06.839 that we'll talk about is Zeno, but we also have 112 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:10.120 to talk about Epictetis, and a lot of it's going 113 00:08:10.199 --> 00:08:12.720 to deal with death, and so some people have called 114 00:08:12.759 --> 00:08:15.800 it an ontology of freedom in the face of death, 115 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.480 which is interesting. You do tend to have this obsession 116 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:29.000 or this acceptance of death in the Stoic tradition, facing 117 00:08:29.079 --> 00:08:31.560 death as something natural, and that's what we're going to 118 00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:34.759 look at, especially given the fact that we don't believe 119 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:37.720 death is natural. Death is in fact very unnatural. But 120 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:41.639 for Stoicism it ends up being pantheistic, as we'll see. 121 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:48.000 So that is those are the foec i, the focuses 122 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:55.440 of Stoicism, and the introduction of my copy talks about 123 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:57.519 it being proto Christian. I don't know about all that 124 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:05.759 epictetis perhaps, but there were apparently times when Marcus thought 125 00:09:05.799 --> 00:09:11.799 he had mystical visions, and these mystical visions seem to 126 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:15.679 be connected to the notion of an all pervading providence 127 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:19.399 over the universe, which is a Christian doctrine, and in 128 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:24.120 fact some of the other Stoics did. The argument is 129 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:27.240 often made that they were influenced by Christian theology because 130 00:09:27.240 --> 00:09:29.840 they believed in providence, right, and you don't really have 131 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:33.840 a sense of providence unless you believe in some kind 132 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:39.759 of single God or source ruling the universe. Sometimes polytheism 133 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:42.320 might talk about providence, but it's hard to see how 134 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:44.720 there could really be providence if you have just a 135 00:09:44.759 --> 00:09:48.720 bunch of warring gods. Right, providence seems to presume or 136 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:54.639 presuppose a single divine mind or single mind consciousness. So 137 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:56.840 a lot of interesting stuff here. You know, did he 138 00:09:56.919 --> 00:10:02.759 have mystical visions that tied into his philosophies of stoicism 139 00:10:02.840 --> 00:10:07.559 in the state and all that. Maybe, but that's what 140 00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:09.080 we're going to look at today. So if you want 141 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:11.840 to see the full thing, come over to Jason Analysis, 142 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:15.360 and we're gonna do an end up look at the 143 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:18.720 meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and we're going to talk about 144 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:21.840 Marcus viewing himself as the philosopher king straight out of 145 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:25.000 Plato's Republic. And then we're going also, of course, going 146 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:28.519 to critique the philosophy and look at weaknesses in this 147 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:33.240 position and whether or not it can accurately give us 148 00:10:33.639 --> 00:10:35.960 the kind of worldview that I think we want that 149 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:42.080 we all look for as human beings. So, if we 150 00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:44.440 want to talk about the Roman period, and this would 151 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:49.200 be roughly the period between say Aristotle and the first 152 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:55.799 few Caesars, Christ's period into the second century, first and 153 00:10:55.879 --> 00:11:02.440 second century, and that's well, actually, what we're gonna do 154 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:05.279 is we're gonna look at roughly the five schools during 155 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:09.320 this period, and you really only have a few options. 156 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:14.399 And that's what's interesting about this. Not many offers from 157 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:17.440 world views that are out there in terms of what 158 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:21.240 we might call the secular perspective, and philosophy is a 159 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:25.679 secular perspective. Now, you might could argue that Plato's philosophy 160 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:29.960 has elements of the mystery schools or Esoterism or something 161 00:11:30.039 --> 00:11:36.840 like that, and Pythagorianism, but ultimately it's still the vision 162 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:41.240 of reason, right reason conceived of as an abstract and 163 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:45.600 personal principle governing the universe. And we're gonna see that 164 00:11:45.639 --> 00:11:52.679 logos principle actually at work in the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. 165 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:55.720 So you're gonna you're gonna see like five basic schools. 166 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:58.399 And what's neat is that the modern day philosophy is 167 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:02.000 of secularism. They don't present anything different than that. We 168 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:06.679 still only have essentially these same five options in our day, 169 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:11.720 and I think that's very telling. And with with skepticism, 170 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:15.200 first of all, we have obviously the idea of no absolutes, 171 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:19.200 everything is relative. This would be like puro right. The 172 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:24.440 skeptics and their perspective is based in this idea of 173 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:28.000 a lot of times empiricism. We only know what's present 174 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:31.480 to our five senses. That can be deceived quite often, 175 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:34.960 and so therefore it doesn't make sense to think that 176 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:39.039 there's any actual objective principles or truths. How could anybody 177 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:46.279 pertain claim to have access to to these kinds of 178 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:53.399 lofty ideas when in fact true humility, right opposition to 179 00:12:53.559 --> 00:12:59.960 human hubris, demands that that's absolutely impossible. But it's also 180 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.399 so it's kind of a buffet style approach as well 181 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:07.440 to philosophy with skepticism. You might take a little bit 182 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:09.919 of this, a little bit of that, but none of 183 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:13.399 them are quote true. Now, as I pointed out in 184 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:16.600 the little brief video that I did yesterday about relativism, 185 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:20.799 skepticism is relativism. And so this is actually the dominant 186 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:24.639 kind of philosophy of our day, and the problem with 187 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:28.200 it is that it starts out contradicting itself on its 188 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:30.720 own premisses. As we pointed out in that brief video, 189 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:34.799 it says there's no absolutes, everything is relative, but The 190 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:38.039 problem is that that claim itself has to also fall 191 00:13:38.120 --> 00:13:41.080 under the dictum of everything being relative, and so it's 192 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:43.440 self refuting on its own grounds. Right. You can't say 193 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:47.200 that there's no truth, right, because that claim itself would 194 00:13:47.240 --> 00:13:50.200 then also have to be true. And the problem with 195 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:54.639 this is that it's not a paradox. It's actually a contradiction. 196 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:57.240 And there's a difference between a paradox and a contradiction. 197 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:00.559 Even in formal logic or a history of logic. Addicians 198 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:04.320 have discussed this topic, even Birch and Russell, right, the 199 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:08.759 worst man ever, arguably the wickedest dude of all time. 200 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:14.879 Maybe even Russell noted the distinction between a paradox and 201 00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:18.960 a contradiction. So next we had the school of Epicureanism, 202 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:23.759 and this is a kind of a materialistic atomistic atomism. 203 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:27.799 The world is just atom is falling through space. That's 204 00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:32.919 all there is. And it's hedonistic, but it's not hedonism 205 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:37.639 in the sense of total moral abandon and total licentiousness. 206 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:42.600 The hedonists actually thought that the best way to live 207 00:14:43.960 --> 00:14:47.919 was to live in a kind of moderated pleasure. So 208 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:52.279 it's not just bodily sensate pleasures that are the best pleasures. 209 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:54.960 It's a little bit of wine, a little bit of cheese, 210 00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:57.879 a little bit of Netflix. Right, this is the highest 211 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:04.759 levels of pleasure, not Dionysian Jam Morrison, you know, pulling 212 00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:08.919 out his schlong on stage and having sex with microphones 213 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:12.840 right while you're blitzed on Bzillian drugs. That's not what 214 00:15:12.840 --> 00:15:16.600 they mean by hedonism. Of course, we don't really have 215 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:26.159 any reason to accept that the intellectual pleasures necessarily are 216 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:29.080 higher than the bodily pleasures on this perspective. I mean, 217 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:35.399 in other words, Epicurus might prefer the intellectual conversational pleasures 218 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:40.559 with his philosophical friends, But on what basis are we 219 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:44.600 supposed to believe that that's actually objectively a better pleasure 220 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:48.519 than you know, the whorehouse or something, right, I mean, 221 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:52.200 maybe the eyes wide shut party is a better pleasure 222 00:15:52.279 --> 00:15:56.600 than the philosophical nerd chat right. In the Philosophy one 223 00:15:56.600 --> 00:15:58.279 on one class, do you want to go to the 224 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:01.440 party with Bill Harford? Or do you want if we're 225 00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:03.879 just gonna live for pleasure right? Or do you do 226 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:05.720 you want to sit in Philosophy one on one with 227 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:09.360 the fat guy with stinky armpits and debate the matrix. Right. 228 00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:12.559 So in other words, we don't really get any clear 229 00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:19.799 explication or a reason to believe that that the moderated 230 00:16:19.799 --> 00:16:25.559 hedonism of Epicurus is somehow a higher, more lofty pleasure. 231 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:29.440 It's just assumed to be so than the pleasures of 232 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:35.159 moral abandoned. Now, the other school, the third option that 233 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:38.240 we have in this rough period between say the prophet 234 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:44.399 Malachi in the second century, is Platonism ul And now 235 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:46.720 there's there's other options too, in terms of like the 236 00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:50.679 Sibiline cult and the Mythra cult. There's other religious options, 237 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:54.120 but right now we're just looking at like philosophy, secular 238 00:16:54.120 --> 00:16:59.960 philosophy during this period Platonism. Of course, the Academy at Athens, 239 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:05.000 we know what Plato and Platonism taught, the three characteristics 240 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:08.799 of Platonism. If you've heard my lectures, you already know 241 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:11.640 this stuff. We don't have to rehash this. But for 242 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:14.359 those that haven't heard the Plato talks I've done in 243 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:18.119 the last couple of years, including the totality of the republic. 244 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:24.440 In the Platonic scheme, you have basically dualism of the 245 00:17:24.440 --> 00:17:26.799 body and the soul, or of the realm of the 246 00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:34.319 forms in our world, the realm of the forms being invariant, unchanging, 247 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:41.640 immaterial in our world being material flux subject to constant becoming. 248 00:17:43.880 --> 00:17:47.839 And then you have rationalism that the mind or the soul, 249 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:53.200 the news, the reason in man is the highest faculty 250 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:56.359 that's intended to govern the passions of the body, and 251 00:17:56.359 --> 00:17:59.599 it somehow it taps into the realm of the forms directly, 252 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:05.359 and so it's it is definitely a rationalist position. Platonism is. 253 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:09.759 And then you have what we might cause just idealism, 254 00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:13.039 that the highest levels of reality, the absolute, et cetera, 255 00:18:14.359 --> 00:18:19.599 are in fact formal and ideal in an abstract, mathematical 256 00:18:19.640 --> 00:18:22.839 type of sense, not in the realm of the here 257 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:26.400 and the now. So that is that the three basic 258 00:18:26.440 --> 00:18:32.400 principles that we'll find in Platonism. I got my I 259 00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:34.519 got my fascy haircut today, and I got hair in 260 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:40.200 my eye, So then aristotelianism. And I got this haircut 261 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:42.440 as a joke, by the way, because people were making 262 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:44.759 fun of the last time I got this haircut. So 263 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:47.000 anytime I get people making fun of things, I always 264 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:49.279 I always charged forward into the thing that they're making 265 00:18:49.319 --> 00:18:54.839 fun of and saying because I don't care and so Aristotelianism. 266 00:18:54.920 --> 00:18:57.599 We haven't really dived into Aristol yet. We will, I 267 00:18:57.680 --> 00:18:59.480 assure you maybe in the next year or two, we're 268 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:01.720 gonna get pretty deep into Aristotle, cover some of the 269 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:07.160 major works. The logic, the metaphysics, the poetics, the ethics. 270 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:11.839 These are all important to understand in the history of philosophy. 271 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:17.160 And I had plenty of graduate level Aristotle classes. I've 272 00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:18.799 spent a lot of time in Aristotle. I spent a 273 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:23.079 lot of time in Aquinas, especially in my twenties. I mean, 274 00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:28.079 very very intense, in depth time in Aquinas is thought. 275 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:30.839 You know, I've got the whole Suma sitting right over here. 276 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:35.599 I read a good portion of the Suma as well 277 00:19:35.640 --> 00:19:38.160 as the Suma countries and Telaes. I've read the entire 278 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:40.440 volume volumes of the of that one, which is more 279 00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:46.319 of an apologetic work. And to do that you have 280 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:49.920 to be very familiar with Aristotle, There's no question about it. 281 00:19:50.119 --> 00:19:52.720 So we'll do that. We'll also do some Augustine. I've 282 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:55.079 got some Augustine right here in this stack, right here 283 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:59.519 by my thumbing. Augustine. We'll do some of that too. 284 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:03.799 I thought City of God monumental work in the history 285 00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:06.759 of philosophy. It should be analyzed. Nobody does full talks 286 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:10.759 on the City of God. I will, and you need 287 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:12.920 not doubt me, because we did a full talk on 288 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:16.200 Tragy and Hope. So I read the City of God 289 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:19.640 when I was twenty one and took all those questions 290 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.079 to my Baptist professors and they didn't have any answers, 291 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:26.480 and they still don't. So you're gonna get that here 292 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:27.920 for me. You're not gonna get that anywhere. El There's 293 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:29.799 no other professor is going to take you through the 294 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:33.759 entirety of the City of God. But I will. So 295 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:41.319 then Aristotelianism is Aristotle School was located in the Lyceum 296 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:46.480 as opposed to the Academy, and the Lyceum philosophers were 297 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:49.039 called the peripatetics. And they're called this because they would 298 00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:52.440 wander around. They would walk around and sort of stroll 299 00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:57.559 about and philosophize. Actually I do this. I don't know. 300 00:20:57.599 --> 00:20:59.799 Maybe I'm a descendant of Aristotle or something. I don't know, 301 00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:03.160 but generally speaking, if I'm doing an interview, if I'm 302 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:05.960 talking or something, actually I like to be strolling about. 303 00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:08.880 I don't like being confined and having to sit here, 304 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:17.599 but I'll do it. It's focused on obviously the teleology, right, 305 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:19.960 which is purpose in the Greek, that things have a 306 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.200 purpose to which they're going moving towards it, trying to attain, 307 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:28.960 and so everything is in a movement from potentiality to actuality. Right. 308 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:33.079 So the the acorn becomes the oak tree or whatever. 309 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:38.519 So the acorn has the potential to become the full 310 00:21:38.599 --> 00:21:43.119 oak tree, the telos. The purpose of that seed is 311 00:21:43.160 --> 00:21:50.279 to transition into that final form. This is what characterizes 312 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:58.799 Aristotle's philosophy. We could say that Ariostol's philosophy obviously is 313 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:02.359 a more empirical approach, whereas with Platonism it's kind of 314 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:07.720 a unless you make the argument that Platonism is ultimately 315 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:12.799 a mystery school initiatory kind of religious philosophy, which you 316 00:22:12.839 --> 00:22:15.680 could make that argument it kind of is. But if 317 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:17.799 you consider it just in its in as secular sense, 318 00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:23.200 then it's more focused just simply speaking, in terms of 319 00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:28.519 epistemology on reason, on thought and a priori mathematics or 320 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:32.720 these these are characteristics that are not generally speaking empirical, 321 00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:37.319 So you know, algorithms, these kinds of things, you know, 322 00:22:37.960 --> 00:22:42.400 large geometric problems, in mathematics, they might have a relationship 323 00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:48.079 to the physical world, but the objects of these disciplines 324 00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:53.480 themselves are not empirical, right, achilleagon is not an empirical 325 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:55.440 thing out there in the world, but it is a 326 00:22:55.480 --> 00:22:59.400 real geometric thing. And so there's many other examples of this, Right, 327 00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:02.119 a tesseract. There's not something actually out there in the world, 328 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:06.319 but it's a real mathematical object. And so in that sense, 329 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:09.680 because Plato believed that in Pythagoras, they believe that these 330 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:14.839 kinds of mathematical truths were the real, higher true is reality, 331 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:18.599 ultimately speaking, is more in line with that kind of 332 00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:21.880 stuff than it is the flux and change of matter 333 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:26.799 and decay and death in this world. And so in 334 00:23:26.839 --> 00:23:29.759 that regard, Aristotle is much more interested in studying the 335 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:33.400 natural world. He's much more interested in biology than he 336 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:36.920 is metaphysics. Right, So, I mean, he doesn't have a 337 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:40.240 problem writing a book about metaphysics, but his metaphysic is different. Right, 338 00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:44.480 So he'll take form. He believes in objective form. He's 339 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:47.200 a realist, so to speak, but those forms are all 340 00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:53.880 instantiated for him in time and space, in some configuration 341 00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:57.480 of matter. Right, So matter is impressed with some form. 342 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:02.920 Always there's not an abstract out there, a transcendent realm 343 00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:07.519 where the true formal principles reside, and there is for Plato. 344 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:12.559 So next we come to Stoicism cynicism, and there's a 345 00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:15.319 similarity between those two schools. We are going to be 346 00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.160 talking about Stoicism today, as I said with Marcus Aurelius. 347 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:23.799 But we have in Stoicism this emphasis on harmony between nature, reason, 348 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:27.000 and virtue. All of these three are kind of mystically linked, 349 00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:31.240 almost to where if you're living right, you're living in 350 00:24:31.240 --> 00:24:35.920 accord with reason, and reason lives in accord with the 351 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:39.480 principles that are manifested out there in nature in the 352 00:24:39.559 --> 00:24:46.000 natural world. So virtue is to be natural. Virtue is 353 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:50.960 to be rational, and to be rational, and natural is 354 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:53.400 to live according to reason. And so all of these 355 00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:55.079 three are linked. Now how do they get that, Well, 356 00:24:55.079 --> 00:24:57.960 they're all linked because there is, as we said, some 357 00:24:58.039 --> 00:25:03.319 sort of in the mind of the a universal principle. 358 00:25:04.680 --> 00:25:09.759 It's a universal principle that governs all reality. It's a 359 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:12.960 kind of force of reason or logos. And they will 360 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:16.640 actually use the term logos now, they don't mean it 361 00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:19.039 in the sense of what John one one is talking 362 00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:21.079 about in the Gospel of John, that in the beginning 363 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:22.599 was the Word, The Word was with God, the Word 364 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:24.119 was God. He was in the beginning with God, and 365 00:25:24.160 --> 00:25:25.880 all things are made through Him, for him, by Him, 366 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:28.359 et cetera, et cetera. That's not what they're talking about, 367 00:25:28.359 --> 00:25:31.640 because they don't believe in creation. For the Stoics, for 368 00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:36.279 the Roman philosophers, they inherit the Greek idea of cycles, 369 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:39.559 that reality is not created, it's just a kind of 370 00:25:39.559 --> 00:25:44.079 an eternal manifestation of itself extending out forever, never, ever, ever. 371 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:47.799 And in fact, this is kind of an eternal recurrence 372 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:50.960 type of view, madam psychosis. You're just going to live 373 00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:53.559 the life that you've lived now over and over and 374 00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:57.720 over again. It's just going to repeat. And they believe 375 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:00.119 that because they would look out in the world, and 376 00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:03.119 Marcus is going to say this in his Meditations, that 377 00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:08.640 he would say he says that the universal principle mother 378 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:11.279 Earth slash mother Universe, you know, something kind of what 379 00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:14.640 Plato talks about in the Timaeus, gives birth to all 380 00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:18.519 of these various living forms and living creatures, and then 381 00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:22.119 they have a time period where they exist and then 382 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:27.759 they die and they return to the natural world, and 383 00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:32.519 so presumably they're just recycled, right, And this is where 384 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:38.640 we would get the idea of transmigration of souls metempsychosis. Presumably, 385 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:44.079 when you break down in return to dust, the rational 386 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:47.720 soul principle that inhabits you your body or whatever is 387 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:52.160 also presumably going to like meld back into the all 388 00:26:52.359 --> 00:27:00.000 and then be at some point germinated, disperminated the universal shoes. 389 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:02.799 It's odd, and you will come back into existence at 390 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:05.799 some point. And this is why, of course all the 391 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:12.839 traditional what we call pagan religions believed in thetive generative principle, right, 392 00:27:12.880 --> 00:27:16.799 so that the universe is governed by this principle of birth, 393 00:27:17.559 --> 00:27:24.720 cycle of birth, living, your life, death, and then process repeats, 394 00:27:24.759 --> 00:27:28.960 rent and repeat for all eternity. So it's going to 395 00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:34.400 mark these views is no doctrine of creation. Now, there 396 00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:36.799 might be some kind of like mythology of the gods 397 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:39.039 falling and Titans and this kind of stuff and an 398 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:44.480 ancient Golden age, but that's not what actually sets the 399 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:47.880 Biblical theology. For example, apart from these views is that 400 00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:51.079 time is not viewed as a prison. Time is not viewed, 401 00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:53.000