The Living Philosophy

The Living Philosophy is two years old! Two years ago the 100 videos in 100 days began. But before there was the Living Philosophy, there was The Living Myth — an Irish mythology podcast with my friend Barry that gave me my first taste of YouTube and podcasting. 

I thought it'd be nice to mark this second anniversary by looking back at the origins of this channel. It's also an auspicious time because I've been having some cogitations about how it's been going and how I want to take things further and I've decided to spend the month of November making an episode on Nietzsche. 

Beyond that I've also been thinking about this canonical video approach in general and the Obsidian work so yeah there's a lot moving and right on the point of the third year. So exciting times.

Thanks to Matt for the suggestion about making a masterpiece. Check out Ideas Sleep Furiously's revamped Substack publication that's got a lot of exciting things happening at the moment: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com/

And for those of you interested in the psychology of Irish mythology check out the Living Myth:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG1V9H3FdD9mEk-75C6VjyA

This is a deeper dive into the Father of Existentialism Soren Kierkegaard. Following on the 5-minute introduction to Kierkegaard, this episode looks in more depth at the philosophy and life of Soren Kierkegaard and why he is one of the greatest philosophers ever.

In this episode we look at the three phases of Kierkegaard's work: the First Authorship (and its masterpieces Either/Or and Fear and Trembling), the Second Authorship (including Kierkegaard's third masterpiece Sickness Unto Death) and the final year of his life where he took the gloves off and directly attacked the church. We also look at the "long foreground" to Kierkegaard's work — the curse on his family and his broken engagement to Regine Olsen. 

Kierkegaard was one of the most prodigious philosophers. In 1843 he published three books in a single day (one of which Fear and Trembling is commonly placed in the canon of great philosophy). In the space of three years he published sixteen books. These books were written using various pseudonyms with many different stylistic devices. This was all part of Kierkegaard's style of "Indirect Communication". Like Socrates he didn't want to give answers he wanted to awaken the quest for individuality in his readers. 

Kierkegaard was part of the select group of Christian Existentialism (his most famous peer being Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky). Like Nietzsche he hated the Church. His form of Christianity was about the self-making quest of Faith. This self is forged out of the dizzying Anxiety of choosing. This choice of faith can only be made by the individual and this is why Soren Kierkegaard spent his career trying to call people away from the "levelling" of Modernity which was turning everyone into "The Crowd" and away from the Church which kept its congregation like children. He was calling them to the "highest passion" of faith. He was calling them to forge their own selves and not give into the inauthenticity of Despair. In this introduction to Kierkegaard we take a brief look at the most compelling reasons why Kierkegaard is relevant today.
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📚 Further Reading:

- McDonald, William, "Søren Kierkegaard", _The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy_ (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/kierkegaard/
- McDonald, William, _Søren Kierkegaard (1813—1855)_, _Internet encyclopedia of philosophy_. Available at: https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega (more in-depth than the Stanford one. Highly recommend) 
- Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography by Joakim Graff (https://amzn.to/3Sx1Tm5)
- Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3DrOVBC)
- Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3TxiNCv)
- Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3TxiY0D)

The above are Amazon affiliate links that let you get an awesome book AND support the channel (with no additional cost to you)
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🎵 Media Used:
1.  Long Note Three  — Kevin MacLeod
2.  There’s Probably No Time — Chris Zabriskie
3.  Dark Times  — Kevin MacLeod
4.  Mesmerize  — Kevin MacLeod
5.  Lost Frontier  — Kevin MacLeod
6.  Shores of Avalon — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod [https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic](https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic)

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Soren Kierkegaard is commonly known as the "Father of Existentialism". This brief introduction to Kierkegaard looks at why you should care about the Danish philosopher and why his work is still relevant today. 

Kierkegaard was one of the most prodigious philosophers. In 1843 he published three books in a single day (one of which Fear and Trembling is commonly placed in the canon of great philosophy). In the space of three years he published sixteen books. These books were written using various pseudonyms with many different stylistic devices. This was all part of Kierkegaard's style of "Indirect Communication". Like Socrates he didn't want to give answers he wanted to awaken the quest for individuality in his readers. 

Kierkegaard was part of the select group of Christian Existentialism (his most famous peer being Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky). Like Nietzsche he hated the Church. His form of Christianity was about the self-making quest of Faith. This self is forged out of the dizzying Anxiety of choosing. This choice of faith can only be made by the individual and this is why Soren Kierkegaard spent his career trying to call people away from the "levelling" of Modernity which was turning everyone into "The Crowd" and away from the Church which kept its congregation like children. He was calling them to the "highest passion" of faith. He was calling them to forge their own selves and not give into the inauthenticity of Despair. In this introduction to Kierkegaard we take a brief look at the most compelling reasons why Kierkegaard is relevant today. 

____________________
📚 Further Reading:

- McDonald, William, "Søren Kierkegaard", _The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy_ (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/kierkegaard/
- McDonald, William, _Søren Kierkegaard (1813—1855)_, _Internet encyclopedia of philosophy_. Available at: https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega (more in-depth than the Stanford one. Highly recommend) 
- Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography by Joakim Graff (https://amzn.to/3Sx1Tm5)
- Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3DrOVBC)
- Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3TxiNCv)
- Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3TxiY0D)

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▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
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💬 Discord 
▶ https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9
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🎵 Media Used:

1.  Shores of Avalon — Kevin MacLeod
2.  Despair and Triumph  — Kevin MacLeod
3.  Long Note Three  — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod [https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic](https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic)
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⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:42 The Life of Kierkegaard
5:38 The First Authorship
6:08 First Authorship - Aesthetical Stage
7:36 First Authorship - Ethical Stage
9:55 First Authorship - Religious Stage
13:50 Second Authorship
18:21 Kierkegaard's Final Stage

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As ever thanks for tuning in!
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#kierkegaard #thelivingphilosophy #philosophy #existentialism #existential #sorenkierkegaard #sørenkierkegaard

Immature heroic complexes and us and them dynamics — after reading The Cut's article "Did Olivia Wilde Just Make Jordan Peterson Cry?" something stirred in me that seems quite obvious in hindsight: the two sides of the culture wars are psychological mirrors of each other. 

Both sides partake of the same ingroup and outgroup signalling. They show a lot of compassion for a certain group and a lot of hatred for the outgroup. There is also the same vein of a hero complex running through both. Each side thinks they are saving the cultures from the demonic Other. 

In this episode we talk about the immature hero complex operating on both sides and how each is a mirror of the other and a co-dependant mirror insofar as they fulfil each other's needs to continue the drama. 
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Sources:
The Cut article: https://www.thecut.com/2022/09/jordan-peterson-cries-responding-to-olivia-wildes-critique.html
The Piers Morgan Jordan Peterson video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1612L2FMHo

Martin Heidegger is the greatest philosopher of the 20th century for many — from Giles Deleuze to the alt-right and undoubtedly one of the most controversial characters in the history of philosophy. In this episode we are going to look at the life and philosophy of Martin Heidegger and his masterpiece Being and Time. We also explore his lesser-known later philosophy after going through what scholars call 'Die Kehre' or 'The Turn". At this point, we see Heidegger on technology and the dangers the technological worldview presents to us today. We also talk about his association with the National Socialist party in Germany and Heidegger's controversial embrace of them as rector at the University of Freiburg before turning his back on them as being part of the technological problem.

Further Reading:

• Collins, J., 2015. Introducing Heidegger: A graphic guide. Icon Books Ltd.
• Wheeler, Michael, "Martin Heidegger", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
• Frede, D., 1993. The question of being: Heidegger’s project. The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, 2.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's theory of evolution posits that with the emergence of the Noosphere (the thinking or mind sphere which transcended the Biosphere and in turn the Physiosphere) the Omega Point was now being converged upon. With the Noosphere Life has penetrated a new ceiling unlike any since the birth of life itself. Now evolution wasn't limited to chromosomes but we saw the emergence of a whole new form of evolution: acquired traits. In other words, culture is a new form of evolution but at the Noospheric level rather than the chromosomal level of the Biosphere. 

Both the Noosphere and the Biosphere of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin have for their substrate what Ken Wilber later called the Physiosphere. With the secret ingredient of complexity, the inert matter of the Physiosphere became vitalised as the living Biosphere. In turn as the complexity of the Biosphere reached a new level, we see the emergence of the Noosphere and with this new emergence, a convergence has begun upon what de Chardin called the Omega Point but which could be called in today's language the Singularity (or as some have called it - the Rapture of the Nerds). 
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Further Reading:
- de Chardin, T. 1956. *Man's Place in Nature*, Fontana Press: London 
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💬 Discord 
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Media Used:

1.  Despair & Triumph  — Kevin MacLeod
2.  Promising Relationship — Kevin MacLeod
3.  Drums of the Deep — Kevin MacLeod
4. Long Note Three  — Kevin MacLeod
5. Anguish  — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod [https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic](https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic)
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⌛ Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:28 A Tale of Two Spheres: the Physiosphere and the Biosphere
04:04 The Third Sphere: the Emergence of the Noosphere
05:12 The Threshold of Reflection
07:40 Knitting Together 

In A Conflict of Visions Sowell distinguishes between the two visions that have shaped the landscape of the modern era (and beyond): the Constrained Vision and the Unconstrained vision. From Hobbes's "bloody war of each against all" to Rousseau's "man is born free but is everywhere in chains" we see these visions develop and grow in the modern era, shaping the world we find ourselves in. 

A Conflict of Visions which Thomas Sowell published in 1987 and has always spoken of as his favourite book is a fantastic exploration of the exact type of historical trend exploration that I'm so fond of. While Sowell's verion of Unconstrained vision suffers somewhat from his Constrained vision bias it is not irreparably so and the whole book has become one of my favourites and one I know I'll be returning to for many years to come. In this episode we are going to review and give a summary of A Conflict of Visions. I hope you enjoy!
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Further Reading:

- Sowell, T., 1987. _A conflict of visions: Ideological origins of political struggles_

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⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
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Media Used:

1. Dark Times  — Kevin MacLeod
2.  Lightless Dawn — Kevin MacLeod
3.  There’s Probably No Time — Chris Zabriskie
4.  Mesmerize  — Kevin MacLeod
5.  Evening Fall Harp — Kevin MacLeod
6.  Long Note Three — Kevin MacLeod
7. Anguish — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod [https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic](https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic)

Subscribe to Chris Zabriskie [https://www.youtube.com/c/chriszabriskie](https://www.youtube.com/c/chriszabriskie)

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⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:21 What is a Vision?
4:25 Constrained vs. Unconstrained: Human Nature
4:47 Constrained Human Nature
6:45 Unconstrained Human Nature
10:20 Unconstrained: Progress and Change
11:42 Constrained Progress: Progress and Change
15:15: Summary of the Constrained and Unconstrained Visions
16:56 An Attempt at Synthesis: A Developmental Perspective

The Three Metamorphoses is Nietzsche's map of the development of Re-Valuers of Values — the Übermensch. At the beginning of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche's Zarathustra delivers his first discourse — The Three Metamorphoses.

In the first 100 days of the channel I made a video exploring this topic. Recently I sat down to transcribe the video and release it in article format on the website. Instead, I ended up overflowing with thoughts and insights. This is one of those incredibly rich corners of Nietzsche that I return to again and again. I wrote draft after draft and ended up with far too much for a short YouTube video (perhaps a lecture someday would be a more suitable format). I pared back the many pages into what you see here.

It is fascinating to cover old ground loaded with the learnings from more recent studies and with the Q3 quest that has been taking shape on the channel of late. The creation of this video was one of those weeks (even more than other weeks) where I felt immensely blessed with what this channel has become.

In brief Nietzsche's Three Metamorphoses charts the metamorphosis from man into camel; camel into lion and finally lion into the child. The camel submits to a higher law; the lion fights the dragon "Thou Shalt" which creates the space for the child to create a new tablet of values — for Nietzsche's Revaluation of All Values.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the philosophy of Nietzsche are inexorably bound together. This was the book that Friedrich Nietzsche most believed in and adored (and where the idea of the Übermensch emerged). It transformed his inner world and this story of Nietzsche's Three Metamorphoses is pivotal to that transformation.
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📚 Further Reading:

- Nietzsche, F. and Kaufmann, W., 1954. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The Portable Nietzsche. trans. and ed. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Viking.

- Jung, C.G., 1998. Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra: Abridged Edition (Vol. 99). Princeton University Press.

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⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy 
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy

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🎶 Audio Used:

Despair & Triumph  — Kevin MacLeod
Dark Times  — Kevin MacLeod
There’s Probably No Time — Chris Zabriskie
Shores of Avalon  — Kevin MacLeod
Long Note Three — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic Subscribe to Chris Zabriskie https://www.youtube.com/c/chriszabriskie

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⌛ Timestamps: 
0:00 Introduction 
0:51 The First Metamorphosis: Man to Camel 
3:09 The Second Metamorphosis: Camel to Lion 
8:26 The Third Metamorphosis: Lion to Child

In the episode on Foucault we touched briefly on the question of what might happen if we combined Jung's analysis of the gods with Foucault's analysis of power. There is a precedent for this question in the work of the philosopher loved by both thinkers: Friedrich Nietzsche. 

In his book, On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche talks about how the gods can have very different effects on their believers. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, God is the embodiment of the superego. He is the ideal that judges; we are creatures with Free Will and whether we thrive or fail is on ourselves. In the Greek tradition on the other hand we have the pantheon of bickering gods. If misfortune befalls us it isn't simply because of something we have done but perhaps becuase of some conflict among the gods that we have no power of. In this way the Greeks "used their gods precisely so as to ward off the “bad conscience,” so as to be able to rejoice in their freedom of soul—the very opposite of the use to which Christianity put its God." 
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Further Reading:

-   Nietzsche, F., 1989. On the Genealogy of Morals, trans. Walter Kaufmann. _Basic Writings of Nietzsche_, pp.437-599.
-   _The Labors of Hercules_. [online] Available at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/labors.html
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🎶 Music Used:

1.  Allégro — Emmit Fenn
2.  Lost Frontier  — Kevin MacLeod
3.  Magnetic - Documentary Background Music

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Subscribe to Emmit Fenn: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcmssGR3ICxlt_7eV47FUhQ
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⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction - The Judaeo-Christian Guilt
1:49 Herakles and the Greek Relationship to Gods
4:15 In the Context of the Recent Episodes
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#philosophy #thelivingphilosophy #nietzsche #jung #foucault #religion #jordanpeterson

The Presocratic Heraclitus of Ephesus is a philosopher's philosopher. His work was beloved by Socrates, Plato, Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger. The philosopher from Ephesus is commonly known as the philosopher of fire (thanks to Aristotle) or, for those with a little more nuance, he is known as the philosopher of panta rei or flux — of constant never-ending change. 

But there is another side of Heraclitus's philosophy that is less talked about and that is his philosophy of Logos. This element of the Presocratic philosopher's work was taken up by the Gospel writer John who opened his Gospel with the line "In the beginning was there was the Logos and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God". John wrote his work in Ephesus and so the comparison with Heraclitus can't be avoided. 

For Heraclitus Logos is the unchanging eternal principle that is the true nature of reality. That leaves us with something of a paradox in a way that is very similar to Parmenides, who also wrote about the contrast between the world of Being and the world of Becoming. 

As well as Parmenides we will also be looking at how Heraclitus's work can be situated as part of the tradition of the Perennial Philosophy and can be fruitfully connected with the Eastern philosophies of Buddha Gautama and of Lao-Tzu. 
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Further Reading:

- Curd, P. and McKirahan, R.D., 1996. A Presocratics Reader
- Geldard, R.G., 2000. _Remembering Heraclitus_. Richard Geldard.
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Media Used:

1.  There’s Probably No Time — Chris Zabriskie
2.  Lost Frontier  — Kevin MacLeod
3.  Juniper — Kevin MacLeod
4.  Eastern Thought — Kevin MacLeod

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Subscribe to Chris Zabriskie [https://www.youtube.com/c/chriszabriskie](https://www.youtube.com/c/chriszabriskie)

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⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:06 Aristotle's View
4:22 The Other Half of Heraclitus
6:52 Heraclitus and the Mystical Tradition
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#heraclitus #thelivingphilosophy #philosophy #history #ancienthistory