Weltgeist

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WATCH:
▶ Ancient Greece Was a Lot More Violent Than You Think. Here’s Why. https://youtu.be/a4cbNXGOa24

OUR ANALYSES:
▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk
▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c
▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI
▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA
▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8
▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA
▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_I

Music:
"Awkward Meeting"
"George Street Shuffle"
"Minima"
by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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BOOKS MENTIONED:
Tristram Shandy: https://amzn.to/4j1JEDO
Conversations with Goethe: https://amzn.to/4a7oJLl
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship: https://amzn.to/4h30DE4
The Red and the Black: https://amzn.to/3DE0Wqu
The Charterhouse of Parma: https://amzn.to/402Nq7g
Notes from the Underground: https://amzn.to/407lr6r
Julie, or the New Héloïse: https://amzn.to/3DJ2gZb
Don Quixote: https://amzn.to/4a87lq8
War and Peace: https://amzn.to/401IZJY

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Happy New Year
00:18 Tristram Shandy
03:13 Conversations with Goethe
06:04 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
07:55 The Red and the Black
09:50 Julie, or the New Héloïse
12:07 Don Quixote
14:22 War and Peace

OUR ANALYSES:
▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk
▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c
▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI
▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA
▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8
▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA
▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_I

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction
02:19 The Underworld
17:11 The Surface
34:15 The Heights

OUR ANALYSES:
▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk
▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c
▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI
▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA
▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8
▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA
▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_I

Nietzsche was a professor of Greek and intimately familiar with both Homer’s Odyssey and the Iliad. He admired the Greeks for their way of life, their culture, and specifically how they justified life as an aesthetic phenomenon, through art.

In particular he was fond of using Odysseus as an exemplar of this Greek ideal. Wily, cunning Odysseus, throughout the Odyssey, brushes with darkness but is never consumed by it. He escapes from the cave of the Cyclops, he visits the Underworld but never quite enters it (he takes what needs from Tiresias, converses with Achilles, and leaves), he manages to hear the Siren’s Song without being bewitched by it, he enjoys his time with Circe and Calypso but never loses sight of his ultimate goal: Ithaca. Odysseus sticks bravely to the surface, he doesn’t fall into the trap of the “introspective present”; he always pushes onwards.

For Nietzsche, Odysseus represented the best of mankind. A joyful affirmation of life in spite of its sufferings, which are many. In particular Nietzsche singles out his conversation with Achilles in Hades, where Achilles says he’d rather live as a poor farmer than “reign over the endless dead.” For Nietzsche, this was not Achilles showing regret, nor Odysseus flattering his audience of pacifists (the Phaeacians) but rather a Homeric song of praise for life. The Greeks were such staunch affirmers of life that even the lowest life possible is preferable to being dead. The Greeks, in this way, loved life in a way that is alien to us: they took the totality of existence, and in dreaming up their world of gods and myths, managed to say yes to it so much that even a miserable existence would make them happy.

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Schopenhauer on being alone and how to deal with society:
▶ https://youtu.be/eSbaqqDfGxU

▶ SCHOPENHAUER'S WORKS:
Parerga and Paralipomena vol. 1: https://amzn.to/3pK6xCj
Parerga and Paralipomena vol. 2: https://amzn.to/3jJa2p0
The World as Will and Representation vol. 1: https://amzn.to/3FPGkIj
The World as Will and Representation vol. 2: https://amzn.to/3FT0nFC

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The World as Will and Representation, masterpiece of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, doubles as a great introduction to the Stoic philosophy. Both in volume I and in volume II, we are treated to a fair summary of the entire philosophical movement of Stoicism with plenty of (untranslated Latin and Greek) quotes from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and other notable Stoics. Schopenhauer admired the rationality of Stoicism, but ultimately had to discard the system because of one fatal flaw which we'll cover in this video.

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Arthur Schopenhauer is one of the most influential German philosophers. His philosophy of the Will has influenced thinkers and scientists such as Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and even Albert Einstein. In many ways, Schopenhauer will also anticipate existentialism. In this video, the first in a series on the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, we take a deep dive into the first part of Schopenhauer's magnum opus: The World as Will and Representation. We look at Schopenhauer's metaphysical system, his indebtedness to Immanuel Kant, and his philosophy of the Will.

In subsequent videos we'll discuss Schopenhauer's ethics and aesthetics. If you want to be notified when these are uploaded, please subscribe to the channel.

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Let’s talk about money. Money and property are the subject of the third chapter in Schopenhauer’s manual for the good life, Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life.

As we saw in the previous part in this series, Schopenhauer makes it clear that money, by itself, is not enough to make someone happy. True happiness can only come from within, by having good health and developing your intellect and your talents.

However, there’s an obvious point to be made here: in order to develop your talents, or enjoy art, or read philosophy, you need free time. And in order to have free time, you need money.

Money, for Schopenhauer, is simply the means with which you buy time. Money, by itself, is never the goal. But Schopenhauer isn’t a dreamer either. He won’t tell you that you can be happy as a starving artist, living on the street, so long as you’re chasing your passion.

If you’re lucky, you are born into a wealthy family. If you’re like most of us, you’re not so lucky, and you need to work to earn money.

But having to work for money is not the biggest obstacle to a happy life. The real problem, is greed.

“Riches, one may say, are like sea-water; the more you drink the thirstier you become…”

In your quest for money and wealth, there is constant pressure on you to limit your desires. Money has a tendency to take hold of someone. People want more money than they need – it becomes an addiction.

Before you know it, the money you earn is not simply your ticket to freedom. You want a big house, a fancy car, a huge pool. Champagne and oysters. The trick is to keep your desires low and your money high. If you allow yourself to get trapped into keeping up with the Joneses, your money becomes useless because you spend everything you make.

The goal of money is to be free, not become a slave to your possessions or luxurious lifestyle.

Again we find Schopenhauer in agreement with the Stoics, and the Greeks in general.

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WATCH: SCHOPENHAUER Explained: The World as Will and Representation (ALL PARTS)
https://youtu.be/f-djIdl8WO4

Arthur Schopenhauer believed in magic. In an essay called "On the Will in Nature" Schopenhauer tells us, without a hint of irony, he believes in the magical abilities of some humans. How can such a smart and accomplished person fall for the act of a showman illusionist? This has puzzled readers for centuries. Yet, in Schopenhauer's system as explained in The World as Will and Representation, there is room for magic. This video aims to show exactly how.

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON:
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WATCH:
▶ Why Nietzsche Hated Socrates: https://youtu.be/DM78nStythg
▶ Why Nietzsche Hated Plato: https://youtu.be/nEhNRuPh4As

OUR ANALYSES:
▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk
▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c
▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI
▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA
▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8
▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA

Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general. He lived in the 5th century BC at a time when Sparta and Athens went to war. He wrote down an account of this war in the work entitled History of the Peloponnesian War.

Not only is this work considered to be one of the first scholarly works of history, it also cemented Thucydides as the father of scientific history.

The History is marked by an objective, detached, some may say cold, style. Thucydides wanted to differentiate himself from Herodotus, the other great historian of Antiquity, whom he accused of making up stories or embellishing his history. Thucydides wanted to be as objective as possible in his assessment and carefully selected sources and eyewitness accounts with a critical mindset.

These elements might give an early hint as to why Nietzsche admired Thucydides. His praise for the Athenian historian is a consistent feature in his work, from Daybreak to Twilight of the Idols, written 7 years apart. Scholars have noted that throughout Nietzsche’s works, amid all the praise, not a single critical note is raised against him.

In this video we’ll take a deeper look at this praise. We’ll go over Nietzsche’s assessment of Thucydides as it appears in Daybreak and Twilight of the Idols and analyse the relationship between the two through two famous passages in the History of the Peloponnesian War: the so-called Melian Dialogue and the funeral oration of Pericles.

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Support us on Patreon, get access to exclusive videos:
▶ https://www.patreon.com/WeltgeistYT

OUR ANALYSES:
▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk
▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c
▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI
▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA
▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8
▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA
▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_I

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction
00:49 The ascetic ideal
04:18 Scientific victories
07:26 Nihilism in science
10:35 ChatGPT

This is an exploration of an idea in Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals called the ascetic ideal. In short, Nietzsche finds this ideal behind every big aspect of human culture: art, philosophy, religion, and even science.

The ascetic ideal is that which promotes a movement away from the material world, that which denies life and strips humanity of its uniqueness. The ascetic ideal is the precursor to nihilism.

In the Genealogy, Nietzsche explores this concept as it rears its head in religion (Christianity), philosophy (Schopenhauer), art (Wagner), and science (Darwin, astronomy).

ChatGPT and advancements in large language models and artificial intelligence, seem to fit the pattern of modern science whose trajectory Nietzsche criticizes in the Genealogy.

Science took away our special place in the universe (Copernicus), our divine origin (Darwin) and now it threatens to take away our language (ChatGPT).

Music:
"Zombie Hoodoo" and "Ghost Dance" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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