Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay "On Sadness" (De la Tristesse), where Montaigne begins by noting that he does not like or value this emotion, but is also not often subject to it either. By contrast, it seems that many people in the world do value it and even associate it with wisdom, virtue, and conscience.

Montaigne discusses several stories about people who at first do not express their sadness at a great loss befalling their family, but then do so with people they presumedly are less close to, and examines two explanations given for this. One is that the person hits a sort of saturation point with their capacity to deal with the emotion, and then they give way to tears and sadness. The other is that some losses are too great to even be expressed at the time. He also discusses several other emotions that can strongly affect us, in particular erotic love, joy, and shame.

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You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find Montaigne's Essays here - https://amzn.to/4l3iKfH

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay "That Difficulty Increases Desire" (Que Nostre Desir S'accroit par la Malaisance), which begins by invoking a principle and practice from the Skeptic school, that every argument, position, or "reason" has its contrary.

Montaigne considers one position briefly, that our pleasure or joy in a good depends on our feeling of security in its possession, and then examines a number of reasons and examples for the opposed position, that our desire and appreciation of a good we are attracted to is enhanced by the difficulty in attaining it and our lack of security of its possession. This principle applies to warfare and crime, to sexuality and marriage, to religious institutions and movements, among other examples.

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 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find Montaigne's Essays here - https://amzn.to/4l3iKfH

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay "On Democritus and Heraclitus"

It focuses upon his critical contrast of these two thinkers and the temperaments or attitudes towards life they represent, one of laughter and disdain, the other of sadness, compassion, and taking human affairs seriously. It ends with the claim that what is the specific property of human beings is being laughable and able to laugh. He also discusses several other matters, including his general approach in his Essays, and how we can look at the relations between our souls, external goods, and fortune

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 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find Montaigne's Essays here - https://amzn.to/4l3iKfH

This lecture discusses key ideas from the Renaissance-era philosopher, critic, and essayist Michel De Montaigne's work Essays, specifically his essay On Not Judging Us Happy Until After Death (Qu'Il ne Faut Juger de Nostre Heur, Qu'apres la Mort), in which he begins by considering the famous advice given by the Athenian wise man Solon to Croesus, king of Lydia until he was deposed by Cyrus of Persia, namely not to judge any person happy until after their death. Montaigne notes that many people do experience shifts in their condition due to fortune, and provides examples from history and his own era.

Then he notes that because Solon was a philosopher, he likely did not mean the advice to focus solely on external goods that are really indifferents, and in the control of Fortune, since the happiness of a person really has to do with the condition of their soul. We can determine whether someone really is committed to their philosophy or not by what is revealed in their last day as they die. Some people redeem themselves by their way of dying, while others betray themselves.

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 3,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

You can find Montaigne's Essays here - https://amzn.to/4l3iKfH

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Is Patriotism A Virtue?"

It focuses upon the fifth and final part of the article, where MacIntyre discusses the implications of both liberal universal morality and the morality of patriotism being morally dangerous, having valid criticisms of each other, and being both in part wrong.

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 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Is Patriotism A Virtue?"

It focuses upon the fourth part of the work where he brings a morality of patriotism and a liberal universalist morality into dialectical engagement with each other. Looking earlier at criticisms liberal morality had levied against patriotism, he had called patriotism a "source of moral danger". Continuing on, it becomes clear that a liberal, universalizing morality is also such, so that both of them turn out to be "morally dangerous phenomena".

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 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Is Patriotism A Virtue?"

It focuses upon he fourth part of the piece, where MacIntyre suggests that the morality of patriotism and liberal morality should be brought into dialectical engagement with each other. He begins by noting some of the criticisms that can be and typically are brought against proponents of patriotism by proponents of liberal, universalizing morality, which leads to the conclusion that patriotism can be a source of moral danger.

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 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Is Patriotism A Virtue?"

It focuses upon the third section, in which he outlines some of the central claims of what he calls the morality of patriotism. These have to do with the importance of particular communities as places where human beings learn moral conceptions and valuations, but also develop and are sustained as moral agents in robust senses. If these claims are correct then a case can be made for patriotism being a particularly important virtue

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 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Is Patriotism A Virtue?"

It focuses upon his discussion of one common approach to morality in modernity that will inevitably construe patriotism however understood as a vice, rather than as a virtue, one he labels "liberal" morality, which requires moral agents to abstract from their particular roles, backgrounds, and societies, and adopt a disinterested perspective. It also frames itself as being a neutral arbiter between conflicting interests, views on moral matters, and ways of 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 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's essay "Is Patriotism A Virtue?"

It focuses upon the first portion of the work, where MacIntyre notes that the task for the moral philosopher is to provide clarity about the incompatible claims and convictions people make about patriotism, virtue, and morality. He distinguishes patriotism properly called from two other sets of attitudes that are often mistaken for it, and then considers implications of patriotism being classed among loyalty-exhibiting virtues.

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 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler