Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics

What is modernity? I look at this question through my previous video - the Shock of Modernity - and my next video - the Fist of Modernity - and ask how we can think about the vague term and how it applies to the current COVID-19 pandemic. I take a brief look at Foucault's comments on the Plague during the 17th century and its place in the genealogy of governmentality, while thinking about contemporary issues like Viktor Orban in Hungary and authoritarianism in Russia.Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I take a look back at the introduction to Romanticism to see if it can offer any insights to current events, including the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and little issues like modernity, reason and industrialization. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is creativity? I take a look at the philosophy of creativity to try and find out. Plato said the inspiration is a kind of madness. To the Ancient Greek philosopher, creativity was a kind of divine inspiration – it came from outside the limited understanding of men – a burst of lightening not reducible to human reason.Almost 2000 years later, he mathematician Henri Ponclaire influentially argued that creativity felt like swarms of ideas combining randomly in his unconscious followed by the conscious selection of one of them according to aesthetic criteria.To Ponclaire then, unlike Plato, creativity came from inside the person, but was still guided by aesthetic criteria – trends, standards, social norms, histories - on the outside – determined by society.But how is that aesthetic criteria determined? What makes this a better example of creativity than this?Almost all psychologists and philosophers agree that creativity must be both original and valuable. This, although contested, is likely the best definition of creativity we have.I take a look at where value and originality come from, while building a tentative approach to creativity that includes Study and Knowledge, Activity and Industry, Tranquillity and Reflection, Tension and Opposites, and finally, always remember, to add a bit of randomness…Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this video, I take a look at what ‘trust’ is philosophically. When trust is in low supply in our societies, it’s a sign of a deeper issue. That’s why any social progress involves, in some way, an increase in trust. Trust is a difficult concept to define, but it is, ultimately, an optimism in people; which is why any positive social change should revolve around trust in some way.So much of our modern society relies on trust. We trust the food we buy is safe, the medicines we take aren’t poisonous, that drivers and pilots won’t crash us, that electricians won't poorly wire our houses…Many studies have shown that trust influences economic growth and societal prosperity. The economist Kenneth Arrow wrote that ‘virtually every commercial transaction has within itself an element of trust’Trust that a person can do the best job, shares your goals, won't scam you, trust is required to setup businesses, to deal with people and work in groups.Trust sometimes involves letting others make a decision for you. Believing that someone has your best interests at heart. Admitting that they’re better placed to understand a situation or to help with a goal.How might pandemics of the past, present, and future, be shaped by, and have an effect on, social trust?Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dive into Rene Girard's concepts of scapegoating, violence, and desire, exploring their impact on literature and culture. Discover how his theories relate to current events like the COVID-19 pandemic and media and politics. Uncover Girard's insights on Christianity and human vulnerability in societal contexts.

In another lockdown special, I look at my introduction to Stoicism video to see if we can learn anything about our attitudes to coronavirus.Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a lockdown special, I look back at George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's Metaphors We Live By to see if it can offer any insights in a time of Coronavirus pandemic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join George Lakoff, a pioneering linguist known for his work on metaphors, and Mark Johnson, a distinguished philosopher and linguist, as they delve into their groundbreaking ideas from 'Metaphors We Live By'. They discuss how metaphors are integral to our understanding of the world, shaping our perceptions and communication in daily life. Discover the transformative power of metaphors in defining reality, from viewing life as a stage to conceptualizing time as a river, revealing how deeply embedded these linguistic devices are in our thought processes.

Albert Camus was an early twentieth century French philosopher whose works expressed a philosophy of the absurd. In the Myth of Sisyphus, published in 1952, Camus challenges the idea of reason, logic and rationality, describing the limits of our understanding of the world as humans, protesting that philosophy itself is an almost useless and self-negating task.Camus is always asking that age old question – what is the meaning of life? Because if we knew the answer to that question we’d know how to act.The question of acting is an ethical question – what should we do?The traditional answers to these questions have, for millennia, come from religion. Religion tells us what we should do and why we should do it.We should not kill because we’ll go to heaven if we don’t. Answering these questions secularly without the aid of a higher celestial authority becomes more difficult. For Camus, in fact, it’s almost useless. How can we ever know what to do with any certainty when even the clearest questions have exceptions?For Camus, the absurdity of habit and the limits of any transcendental reason are illustrated by the image of Sisyphus – condemned by the gods to roll a rock to the top of a mountain every day, only for it to roll back down for him to repeat all over again. IN Sisyphus, Camus sees the human conditioned at its starkest.But he highlights the moment when Sisyphus returns back down to the bottom of the mountain towards the rock – it’s in this moment that he is most aware, and in an awareness of the truth everything becomes clear, we acknowledge our fate and return to it anyway. Acknowledging the problems of acting and acting anyway takes courage. Knowing that absolute truth is unavailable and being resolute anyway is a demand of being human.He writes that ‘all Sisyphus' silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing. Likewise, the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols.’We become most human – most free- when we acknowledge this.We must live with an awareness of this absurdity or risk falling into a numb and frozen immobility – our fate is to act without being sure of how to act.The important thing, Camus writes ‘is not to be cured but to live with one’s ailments.’ Life is ‘unjust, incoherent and incomprehensible.’ We must live anyway.Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’re probably already a stoic in someway. It’s part of our culture. Influenced by Socrates and emerging in Ancient Greece in the 3rd century BC, it’s a foundation of Christianity, is maybe the first psychology, contributed to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, guided a Roman Emporer, and has become increasingly popular in recent years, through events like Stoicon, Annual Stoic Week, and a flurry of new of popular books and articles.Could it really be a guide to the best possible life?This introduction to Stoicism will mix two things: what the Stoics of Ancient Greece and Rome actually said – the original doctrines – and how this might be interpreted and be useful today.IN the first part, I’ll look at the Ancient Stoics – Marcus Aurelius (Meditations), Epictetus (Discourses), Seneca, and Zeno; and in the second part, I’ll look at Stoicism in practice, especially through William Irvine’s A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy.The Greek Stoics divided Stoicism into three parts: logic, physics, and ethics. None of these terms, though, meant what they do today.Logic was formal logic, but also rhetoric, language, poetryPhysics mostly meant the study of God and the world – essentially how things work.They also broke all of this into two parts: theory and practicePhilosophy, importantly, needed to both studied and practiced, learned and executed. Exercises, reflection, and self-improvement were fundamental.Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.