Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A Busybody

This episode focuses specifically on one of the general practices he suggests to wean oneself away from this vice, namely deliberately redirecting one's attention from the usual objects of morbid curiosity towards better, or at least less bad objects. A person ought to focus on their own problems and troubles, not those of others, but they can also focus on the secrets of the natural world. If that's not interesting enough, and one needs something bad to stimulate, one can read those in histories or tragedies, rather than prying into the secrets of one's neighbors and contemporaries.

You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's On Being A Busybody here - https://amzn.to/3IcyoX5

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

(Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A Busybody

This episode focuses specifically on one of the features of the sort of curiosity or inquisitiveness central to being a busybody, namely that the person exhibiting it attempts to dig into other people's secrets, to find out bad things they would rather keep private, motivated by the desire and enjoyment of knowing those things and bringing them to light. He points out that this sort of curiosity can be not only unseemly or shameful, but also quite dangerous to those motivated by it

You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's On Being A Busybody here - https://amzn.to/3IcyoX5

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

(Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A Busybody

This episode focuses specifically on why the sort of curiosity, inquisitiveness, meddlesomeness, or being a busybody he discusses is actually a vicious disposition, rather than something good. It involves a desire to learn about the troubles, problems, or bad things (kaka in Greek) of others. Instead of focusing upon their own problems or deficits, they focus on those of others.

You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's On Being A Busybody here - https://amzn.to/3IcyoX5

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

(Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's short address "Designing Our Descendants: Seven Traits for the Future", a presentation to the 1978 general meeting at the Hastings Center.

MacIntyre first discusses how intentionally designing descendants is a matter that has political dimensions, then sets out seven key traits that he thinks are most needed, and concludes with projections of what the lives of people in a society where these traits are widespread would look like.

The seven traits in a "new table of virtues" MacIntyre identifies and discusses are:

Ability to live with uncertainty (and an unpredictable environment)

Roots in particularity (a capacity for finding a particular and local way of being a home in the world)

A commitment to non-manipulative modes of relationship with people and nature

Finding a vocation in one's work (an ability to find a work that is peculiarly our own to do in the world)

Accepting one's death (recognition that there will come a time when one's life is complete)

Hope (a spirit of hope for which there cannot be adequate empirical grounds)

Willingness to take up arms (to go to war and to acquire the skill necessary to win a war)

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 3,500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get MacIntyre's After Virtue here - amzn.to/2RiplGT

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel Ubik

It focuses specifically on the mysterious and miraculous substance Ubik that gets referenced in advertisements at the start of every chapter of the work (except the final one) as well as by Runciter in a video Joe Chip sees in his apartment. Ubik turns out to be a substance, developed by Ella Runciter and "other responsible half-lifers" that in its contemporary form undoes and protects against the effects of entropy and consumption by Jory in half-life. It can also be reverted to earlier an essentially unusable versions as well, as Joe Chip finds out.

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get a copy of Ubik here - https://amzn.to/4k8i348

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel Ubik

It focuses specifically on the city of Des Moines, Iowa, where Glen Runciter's body has been transported for his memorial. As it turns out, the team of surviving inertials (since by then Wendy and Al have died) are all there, and Joe Chip has to travel there to meet them. By then, everything, including the city, has reverted from their time-setting in the 1990s to the 1930s. It will turn out that the Des Moines they are experiencing is a projection produced by Jory, while all of them are in cold-pac

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get a copy of Ubik here - https://amzn.to/4k8i348

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel Ubik

It focuses specifically on the many points in the novel, after the surprise attack on Glen Runciter, Joe Chip, and the entire team of the inertials, where a seemingly dead and in cold-pac Runciter breaks through into the "reality" of those who think themselves survivors. At first this happens through strange written interventions, like a matchbook cover, graffiti, and notes, and through Runciter appearing on currency. As time goes on, the manifestations extend to video and even a meeting between Joe Chip and Glen Runciter.

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get a copy of Ubik here - https://amzn.to/4k8i348

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel Ubik

It focuses specifically on the experience of bone-chilling cold, exhaustion and fatigue, and eventual death of a particularly gruesome sort that several of the characters experience once they are in cold-pac and in half-life. At first, they think that it is being caused by Pat Conley, who even thinks that to be the case herself, but it is actually the effect of Jory, a young man in half life, who is "eating" the other half-lifers. The main character, Joe Chip experiences this himself, but is saved for the moment by the application of Ubik in the form of a spray can

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get a copy of Ubik here - https://amzn.to/4k8i348

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel Ubik

It focuses specifically on one main theme of the novel, which is the characters noticing a pattern of objects at first being spoiled or worn out, then reverting to earlier obsolete forms, eventually affecting not just individual objects or even rooms but entire settings in which they find themselves. The examples focused upon include cigarettes, coffee and cream, coins and bills, a tape-recorder, appliances, an elevator, vehicles, and even Ubik itself. This mystery gets a resolution late in the novel when we discover that they are a result of Jory's inability to maintain a consistent phatasmagoric reality for his soon-to-be victims in half-life.

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get a copy of Ubik here - https://amzn.to/4k8i348

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel Ubik

It focuses specifically on the ambush that Ray Hollis engineers, using Stanton Mick's company, based on the moon, as a potential new client for Runciter Associates. Glen Runciter, Joe Chip, and a team of 11 inertials (anti-psionic talents) fly to the location. They are asked not to take readings, which Joe Chip does anyways, discovering that Mick is actually a bomb in human disguise. It turns out that there is a conspiracy that had been laid for quite a while, involving Hollis and his organization, perhaps Mick, Pat Conley, and Runciter's talent scout Ashwood.

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 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can get a copy of Ubik here - https://amzn.to/4k8i348