Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century pessimist philosopher and environmentalist Peter Wessel Zapffe's "The Last Messiah"

It focuses specifically on the third of the four "suppression mechanisms" that he identifies, which he calls "diversion". It might also be accurately called "distraction", and involves keeping our attention and consciousness occupied by a succession of changing contents. He discusses a number of ways in which we engage in this ranging from entertainment to projects, even religious life and commitments.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Zapffe's The Last Messiah - https://openairphilosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OAP_Zapffe_Last_Messiah.pdf

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century pessimist philosopher and environmentalist Peter Wessel Zapffe's "The Last Messiah"

It focuses specifically on attachment as one of the four "suppression mechanisms" he discusses in the essay, which involves creating fixed points in or a wall around the shifting chaos of consciousness. This occurs at the individual, the interpersonal, and the societal level, and older attachments can often be replaced by newer attachments

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Zapffe's The Last Messiah - https://openairphilosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OAP_Zapffe_Last_Messiah.pdf

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century pessimist philosopher and environmentalist Peter Wessel Zapffe's "The Last Messiah"

It focuses specifically on the first portion of the work, where he sets out the human condition as he sees it, where as a species the trait that was our great advantage, consciousness, has become too developed in us, leading ultimately to a "cosmic panic", which we attempt to set aside through four main "suppression mechanisms": isolation, attachment, diversion, and sublimation.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Zapffe's The Last Messiah - https://openairphilosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OAP_Zapffe_Last_Messiah.pdf

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible"

It focuses specifically on his interpretation and assessment of the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, who Shestov says is much more interesting in his vices and inconsistencies than in his virtues. Tolstoy was someone who didn't simply write but attempted to live out his views on life, not always with great success, and struggled against ideas and worries most other people can put aside.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible"

It focuses specifically on his references to the work, thought, and life of Ivan Turgenev, a Russian author who was perhaps one of the most westernized of his generation. He also discusses the conflict between Turgenev and Tolstoy and what it represented.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible"

It focuses specifically on his references to and evaluation of Anton Chekhov, who Shestov credits with a more realistic attitude towards philosophies than many other writers, namely that they are very helpful for characters to have and to articulate, but less so for the writer or person himself.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible"

It focuses specifically on Shestov's views on the works, and philosophical attitude towards life and art, of the Russian author Alexander Pushkin. He credits Pushkin with a sort of optimism that allows him to take risks both in his writing and in the matters of living.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible"

It focuses specifically on the passages in the work where he writes about Russian culture and its contrasts with Western European culture. Shestov notes that European culture was transformed in being brought into Russia in just a few generations. He looks at strengths that this provides as well as weaknesses to the "Russian spirit".

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible"

It focuses specifically on his remarks about the philosophical movement and tendency of "positivism" and its relationships with the metaphysics it claims to leave behind and criticize.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This is part 5 of the recording of my talk at the Fourteenth Annual Marquette Summer Seminar on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, "The Significance of Thumos in Platonic and Aristotelian Moral Psychology".

An important difference between the Platonist tradition and the Aristotelian is the status accorded to thumos in their respective moral psychologies. In very broad strokes, the Platonic tradition consistently follows and reinterprets Plato’s tripartite conception of the soul, maintaining thumos one of three main parts of the soul, distinct from, in between, and interacting a rational part and the appetites. Thumos has a clear scope and proper function in Plato’s texts and those of later Platonists. In Aristotle’s moral psychology, thumos has a more restricted status, for the most part reinterpreted as one main mode of desire or affectivity (orexis). By contrast to other moral psychologies, e.g. that of the Stoics who treat thumos as just one emotion or passion among others, thumos in Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition retains a distinctiveness from other, lower forms of affectivity, evidenced by discussions like that of akrasia due to thumos in N.E. 7 or that of thumos as one of the main causes for human actions in Rhet. 1. The status, function, and proper education of thumos remained a matter of contention and reinterpretation through antiquity, evidenced by discussions bearing upon thumos, for example in Plutarch, Galen, Philo, among others.

My paper first outlines Plato’s treatment of thumos, drawing primarily upon Republic and Timaeus. It then sets out an Aristotelian account of thumos reinterpreted as a main mode of orexis, central to anger (orge), friendship, and other affective states, drawing mainly upon the two Ethics, the Politics, and the Rhetoric. Similarities and continuities between Plato’s and Aristotle’s positions are stressed, particularly the need to understand, orient, and educate thumos. Both positions are briefly contrasted against other interpretations which do not accord thumos a distinctive status, including Stoic thought. The paper also briefly discusses selected later reinterpretations of and controversies about thumos in the ongoing Platonic and Aristotelian traditions.

To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler

If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM

You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler