Weltgeist

DOWNLOAD: Schopenhauer's Essay On Education: https://weltgeist.tv/education

WATCH: Schopenhauer on Reading: https://youtu.be/LCTHrBC2zSw
WATCH: Schopenhauer on Writing: https://youtu.be/EI64O2RYrLg
WATCH: Schopenhauer on Noise: https://youtu.be/9MwFNj0W0_k

In the natural state, humans form ideas based on their observations of the world. Experience comes before learning – this is how humans make sense of the world around them. When ideas are generated in this way, there is an obvious link between an observation and the subsequent idea.

Traditional education flips this dynamic on its head. In traditional, or, articifical education as Schopenhauer calls it, the idea precedes the experience.

What happens when you learn the ideas, before you have the necessary experience, is you will apply those ideas wrongly as soon as you step out of the classroom into the real world.

The teacher is busy cramming the head of the student full of ideas, instead of teaching the student how to think in the first place. Children will then grow up with a worldview that is based on hearsay and opinion, and they are rarely equipped to handle the real world.

Children are submerged in a ready-made apparatus of opinion and prejudice, and if the real world conflicts with this web of ideas – which is bound to happen as the child grows up, then he will not change his opinion but rather lash out at the world instead. Although lacking the proper term, Schopenhauer is describing here what we would call cognitive dissonance today.

Education should seek to put observation before ideas and thus mimick the natural way in which humans learn things.

However, Schopenhauer also notes that during youth, our faculties of judgment are not yet fully developed. This is why he proposes that in the first years of a child’s education, there will be no subject matter that falls into what we would call “the humanities” today. So no philosophy, no religion, no matters of opinion.

Until age 16, a child should be taught only those subjects in which objective errors are possible, for example, mathematics or languages. Schopenhauer also mentions history here, but only the kind of history that is concerned with memorization, such as remembering dates.

The added benefit of this approach, says Schopenhauer, is that our memory is the strongest during our youth. And those things we memorize when we are young, we often remember for life.

Therefore it’s of great importance that these youthful years are used to let children soak up as much quality information as possible. Schopenhauer proposes that a group of experts from every branch of knowledge comes together every 10 years, to decide on a canon of essential knowledge.

Schopenhauer argues that maturity must come with experience. Today, we might say this is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. For Schopenhauer, engaging with the real world is of extreme importance.

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WATCH:
▶ Nietzsche On Hamlet: https://youtu.be/_qVXWGQkHbc

ALSO:
▶ Nietzsche's Warning to Scientists: https://youtu.be/Qy8Xof92OYQ
▶ Why Nietzsche Hated Socrates: https://youtu.be/DM78nStythg
▶ Why Nietzsche Hated Plato: https://youtu.be/nEhNRuPh4As
▶ Why Nietzsche Hated Kant: https://youtu.be/9E_RLvcZ8jI

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 dedicates a paragraph of the Joyful Science to Shakespeare. He praises Julius Caesar as his best tragedy, and calls Brutus “virtuous.”

Yet historically, Brutus was the prototypical traitor, even starring alongside Judas in Dante’s depiction of Hell, being eternally chewed up by one of Lucifer’s mouths.

And even though Shakespeare has Mark Antony call Brutus “the noblest Roman of them all” at the end of the play, he does so for different reasons than Nietzsche finds.

For Nietzsche, Brutus did what he did to protect the freedom and independence of his soul. He killed Caesar not for the good of Rome, at least not on a psychological level. His real reason was that Caesar presented an obstacle to his independence.

And, according to Nietzsche, no price is too high to pay for independence of soul. Not even the life of a friend can stand in the way. That’s what makes Brutus great.

Furthermore, Nietzsche praises Shakespeare for portraying Brutus in a positive light, for not casting a “shadow of suspicion” on the kind of virtue that Brutus represents. A virtue of a different character than Caesar, who could also count on Nietzsche’s admiration.

Nietzsche’s philosophy is all about growth and self-overcoming, and Nietzsche has always championed the individual. Both Caesar and Brutus represent this struggle in different ways. Caesar for making his mark on world history through sheer power of will; Brutus for fiercely pursuing the directives of his soul, even to the detriment of his friend.

The true message of the play is not the death of Caesar, the nature of politics, monarchy versus republicanism, tyranny versus freedom, but about Brutus’ dilemma in choosing between his own ideals or the life of his benefactor. He chose the former, going against morality, and beyond good and evil.

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WATCH: Schopenhauer Explained: The World as Will and Representation
https://youtu.be/f-djIdl8WO4

Friedrich Nietzsche's Daybreak is probably the most underrated canonical work of the famous German philosopher. Overshadowed by Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Daybreak offers an overview of Nietzsche's main ideas in a way you might not have heard about them before. This first part covers the title of the book, Nietzsche's overarching project, and his love for the empirical presocratic philosophers (Democritus, Heraclitus, Anaximenes, Thales of Miletus) and his distaste for the idealistic philosophy of Plato and his World of Forms.

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Download the cheatsheet: http://weltgeist.tv/schopenhauer
WATCH our videos on Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation here:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/i87hX_uznEQ
Part 2: https://youtu.be/jAeKylqj-Xg
Part 3: https://youtu.be/JamIJ2IQHe8
All parts in one video: https://youtu.be/f-djIdl8WO4
"Where do I start with Schopenhauer?" is a question that comes up a lot. Do you need to read Plato, or Kant? Or even Eastern philosophy? In this video we make a few recommendations.

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Antinatalism is the philosophical belief that assigns a negative value to birth. Antinatalists believe that having children is morally wrong and that one shouldn’t do it. There are a variety of possible ethical arguments to make, but the general tone of the antinatalist position is that existence itself has a negative value. In other words, that it’s better to not exist at all. If non-existence is preferable to existence, then it follows that it’s morally wrong to create new life and doom another being to a life of suffering.

This video is not about antinatalism in general. Rather, we’re taking a look at Schopenhauer’s position on this question. There seems to be a great misconception regarding Schopenhauer’s views on procreation.

There is this idea that Schopenhauer was not a complete antinatalist. One philosophy magazine, for example, called Schopenhauer a “proto-antinatalist.” While it’s definitely true that Schopenhauer directly influenced those philosophers who are most famously associated with antinatalism today, like Emil Cioran, in this video we want to argue that there is nothing half-baked about Schopenhauer’s antinatalism. In other words, we want to argue that Schopenhauer was a full-fledged antinatalist, even if the term did not exist at the time.

The two arguments presented in this video take us to the origin of suffering an Schopenhauer's ethical recommendations.

We take some ideas from Arthur Schopenhauer's main work, The World as Will and Rpepresentation, and read between the lines a bit to find out Schopenhauer's reasons for his anti-natalist views.

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A short video discussing an interesting section of Nietzsche's early work Daybreak. If you want more Nietzsche philosophy videos, we have entire series dedicated to Beyond Good and Evil, Daybreak, and the Genealogy of Morals. What is the role of the insane and the genius in society? Nietzsche provides an interesting answer.

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There's a 10 minute bonus video on this subject on Patreon, available right now. Support us:
▶ 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

Caspar David Friedrich's Cross in the Mountains might seem like an innocent painting. It is what is says: a cross in the mountains. 

But it sparked a huge debate culture war in Germany. The painting became the battleground for the so-called Ramdohrstreit, the Ramdohr Battle.

The painting was an altarpiece, yet it depicted a landscape. A huge faux pas: landscape painting was considered one of the lowest genres of painting. Totally unfitting for an altarpiece, which should show a historical scene (the crucifixion of Jesus) or an allegory for God (such as the Lamb of God).

The painting became a dividing line in a battle for the meaning of art. Neoclassicism versus Romanticism.

Should art conform to timeless, objective ideals, or can art also be transformative if it has a strong subjective effect?

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DOWNLOAD "ON NOISE" (free):
https://weltgeist.tv/noise

WATCH: Schopenhauer Explained: The World as Will and Representation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-djIdl8WO4

This is an appreciation video for Schopenhauer's underrated essay "On Noise", part of the Parerga and Paralipomena. We explore and appreciate this grumpy old man's disgust and irritation at all the noise and disturbances of living in the big city. Whips, crying children, barking dogs. Schopenhauer hated it all. But through his irritation and philosophical influence, he did become one of the first modern, Western philosophers to champion animal rights. How? Find out by watching this video, or reading the essay: https://weltgeist.tv/noise .

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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

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WATCH our in-depth video on the Will to Power in Beyond Good and Evil here:
https://youtu.be/2Ap9lkhHizU

PART 1:
https://youtu.be/0TbxTGwge-4

In this second part we go over Nietzsche's entire body of published work and trace how the concept of the Will to Power evolved throughout Nietzsche's intellectual career and philosophy.
We see how Nietzsche first thinks about power in The Joyful Science but how the term was first coined in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and how it gradually becomes an all-encompassing force by the time we get to works such as Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ. We will see how the main question in this series, "is the Will to Power a metaphysical force or a materialist or psychological drive?" is not so simple to answer.
In the third and final part we will conclude our series by looking at some contemporary interpretations of this notoriously difficult concept.

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:35 The Joyful Science
03:22 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
05:38 Beyond Good and Evil
06:57 Twilight of the Idols
08:23 The Anti-Christ
10:15 Conclusion

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