Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 90 It focuses specifically on Seneca's engagement with another earlier Stoic philosopher, Posidonius, who developed theories about the development of human disciplines and technology (artes), having to do with wisdom and philosophy. Posidonius postulates a golden age in which human beings lived in accordance with nature and were ruled over by the wise, and then a degeneration through greed, self-indulgence, and other vices into a lesser state in which they needed more and more technologies. Seneca argues that these were developed using human reason, but not right reason, from ingenuity rather than wisdom, and that while philosophers might have developed some of them, they did not do so as philosophers. In this letter, Seneca also outlines what the matters that wisdom and philosophy deal with are. 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 Purchase Seneca's Letters - amzn.to/2Myx6os

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher and novelist William Gass' article "The Case Of The Obliging Stranger", which begins with a case that runs: "Imagine I approach a stranger on the street and say to him, "If you please, sir, I desire to perform an experiment with your aid." The stranger is obliging, and I lead him away. In a dark place conveniently by, I strike his head with the broad of an axe and cart him home. I place him, buttered and trussed, in an ample electric oven. The thermostat reads 4500 F. Thereupon I go off to play poker with friends and forget all about the obliging stranger in the stove. When I return, I realize I have overbaked my specimen, and the experiment, alas, is ruined. Something has been done wrong. Or something wrong has been done" It focuses specifically on the applicability of moral theories and principles to deciding cases, whether clear or unclear, in our moral decision-making. Gass' view is that both are less useful than ethicists and even some ordinary people make them out to be. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher and novelist William Gass' article "The Case Of The Obliging Stranger", which begins with a case that runs: "Imagine I approach a stranger on the street and say to him, "If you please, sir, I desire to perform an experiment with your aid." The stranger is obliging, and I lead him away. In a dark place conveniently by, I strike his head with the broad of an axe and cart him home. I place him, buttered and trussed, in an ample electric oven. The thermostat reads 4500 F. Thereupon I go off to play poker with friends and forget all about the obliging stranger in the stove. When I return, I realize I have overbaked my specimen, and the experiment, alas, is ruined. Something has been done wrong. Or something wrong has been done" It focuses specifically on his distinction between what he terms "clear cases" and "unclear cases". With clear cases, like that of the obliging stranger, their rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness should be clear to anyone looking at them, and we don't need moral theories in order to make those judgements. With unclear cases, we have differing ways to try to make them more clear, but surprisingly, according to Gass, moral theories turn out not to be helpful in the ways that we expect them to in those cases either. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher and novelist William Gass' article "The Case Of The Obliging Stranger", which begins with a case that runs: "Imagine I approach a stranger on the street and say to him, "If you please, sir, I desire to perform an experiment with your aid." The stranger is obliging, and I lead him away. In a dark place conveniently by, I strike his head with the broad of an axe and cart him home. I place him, buttered and trussed, in an ample electric oven. The thermostat reads 4500 F. Thereupon I go off to play poker with friends and forget all about the obliging stranger in the stove. When I return, I realize I have overbaked my specimen, and the experiment, alas, is ruined. Something has been done wrong. Or something wrong has been done" It focuses specifically on Gass' contentions that moral theories and moral philosophers who don't condemn what was done to the stranger are vicious, and that the wrong is not really clarified well by introducing moral theories and principles. He examines several different ways that people develop, articulate, and argue for their moral theories, and notes that they aren't entirely off-base or useless, but that they often get in the way with what he calls "clear cases". 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion near the end of the work bearing on what the contraries of affirmative, generally universal, proposition, actually are, since this is an issue that people often get confused over. Aristotle will resolve this partly by considering in propositions what is the case by essence (kath'heato), or accidentally (kata sumbebēkos). 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of different ways in which something can be potential (dunamis) or possible (dunaton), terms that have multiple senses and are thus ambiguous. He distinguishes between rational and irrational possibilities, a difference which gets used by many later authors. He clarifies ways that potentiality or possibilities can be related to the actual or things in activity, and to what is necessary as well. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of modal propositions that include or reference necessity. He notes that there is an inverse relation between necessity and impossibility, that with necessity, contraries follow upon contradictories, and that possibility follows from necessity but not the converse. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of what the implications of modal propositions are, that is, propositions that bear upon possibility, contingency, impossibility, and necessity. He identifies propositions of these sorts that imply each other. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

William Clifford, The Ethics Of Belief - The Limits Of Inference by Lectures on classic and contemporary philosophical texts and thinkers by Gregory B. Sadler

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of modal terms such as possible (dunaton), contingent (endekhomenon), impossible (adunaton), and necessary (anankhaion) as they are used in propositions, where affirmations or negations possess truth or falsity. He also discusses what real and mistaken contradictions of these types of propositions are. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion bearing on whether and when it is possible to combine multiple predicates into one predicate for a given subject in propositions. As it turns out, in some cases this is possible, but in many other cases starting with true propositions leads to a false proposition when the predicates are combined 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of what have come to be called "modalities" such as necessity, contingency, possibility, and impossibility, with the truth values of future seemingly contingent propositions in mind, for example that a sea-battle will or will not take place tomorrow. One possible approach is to say that since propositions must be either true or false, future propositions already are true or false of necessity and that we simply don't know their truth or falsity. Another is to say that it is necessary for them to be either true or false, but that neither of these truth values are necessary to contingent propositions referring to future events that have not yet happened. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of what he calls propositions that contain "indefinite" subjects or predicates. These can be ambiguous and create problems for interpretation that do not arise when propositions are made universal or particular by using universal terms such as "all," "every" "no", "none", or when singling out a particular or using "some". 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of contrary and contradictory propositions, both of which are ways in which propositions are opposed to each other, with contradictories being more opposed to each other than contraries. With contrary propositions, if they are universal, one of them must be false (and it is possible for both of them to be false). With contradictory propositions, one of them must be true and the other false. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of universal and particular propositions. Universal (katholou) propositions will generally be indicated by terms like "all", "every" or "no" applied to the subject, and refer to an entire group or class of things. Particular propositions (kath' hekaston) apply to at least one individual subject, but could also be framed to include more. Aristotle does also note that not all propositions are universal or particular, since some of them could be indefinite. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of propositions (apophanseis), which are a common type of sentence (logos), characterized by being either true or false. Propositions are generally affirmations (kataphaseis) or denials (apophaseis), and are the main focus of the work On Interpretation. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, On Interpretation, focusing on his discussion of nouns or names (omonata), verbs (rhemata) and sentences (logoi). Sentences are significant parts of speech, often composed of nouns and verbs, but not all of them are propositions (apophanseis), since they are not all affirmations or denials which have either truth or falsity to them. 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 You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Aristotle's On Interpretation - amzn.to/3nS55ud

This is part 2 of the recording of my invited talk at Christopher Newport University, "Plato, Persons, And The Highest Good". It focuses on the question of whether the highest good in Plato is personal (as it would be e.g. for Christian Platonists) or impersonal (as it's usually taken to be). Centering the discussion on the ascent to the highest Good in the Symposium, I also discuss portions of the Republic, Phaedrus, Phaedo, Apology, and Gorgias 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This is part 1 of the recording of my invited talk at Christopher Newport University, "Plato, Persons, And The Highest Good". It focuses on the question of whether the highest good in Plato is personal (as it would be e.g. for Christian Platonists) or impersonal (as it's usually taken to be). Centering the discussion on the ascent to the highest Good in the Symposium, I also discuss portions of the Republic, Phaedrus, Phaedo, Apology, and Gorgias 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century pessimist philosopher and environmentalist Peter Wessel Zapffe's "The Last Messiah" It focuses specifically on the final parts of the work, where he considers and rejects several possible solutions to the problem posed by modern society for the human animal beset by a surplus of consciousness and a tendency to fall into "cosmic panic" when realizing their existential condition. He then narrates the coming of a "last messiah", who has stripped their soul naked and subjected themselves to the most profound questioning, who advocates no longer reproducing and letting the human race die 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Zapffe's The Last Messiah - https://openairphilosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OAP_Zapffe_Last_Messiah.pdf

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century pessimist philosopher and environmentalist Peter Wessel Zapffe's "The Last Messiah" It focuses specifically on the third of the four "suppression mechanisms" that he identifies, which he calls "diversion". It might also be accurately called "distraction", and involves keeping our attention and consciousness occupied by a succession of changing contents. He discusses a number of ways in which we engage in this ranging from entertainment to projects, even religious life and commitments. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Zapffe's The Last Messiah - https://openairphilosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OAP_Zapffe_Last_Messiah.pdf

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century pessimist philosopher and environmentalist Peter Wessel Zapffe's "The Last Messiah" It focuses specifically on attachment as one of the four "suppression mechanisms" he discusses in the essay, which involves creating fixed points in or a wall around the shifting chaos of consciousness. This occurs at the individual, the interpersonal, and the societal level, and older attachments can often be replaced by newer attachments 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Zapffe's The Last Messiah - https://openairphilosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OAP_Zapffe_Last_Messiah.pdf

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century pessimist philosopher and environmentalist Peter Wessel Zapffe's "The Last Messiah" It focuses specifically on the first portion of the work, where he sets out the human condition as he sees it, where as a species the trait that was our great advantage, consciousness, has become too developed in us, leading ultimately to a "cosmic panic", which we attempt to set aside through four main "suppression mechanisms": isolation, attachment, diversion, and sublimation. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Zapffe's The Last Messiah - https://openairphilosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OAP_Zapffe_Last_Messiah.pdf

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible" It focuses specifically on his interpretation and assessment of the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, who Shestov says is much more interesting in his vices and inconsistencies than in his virtues. Tolstoy was someone who didn't simply write but attempted to live out his views on life, not always with great success, and struggled against ideas and worries most other people can put aside. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible" It focuses specifically on his references to the work, thought, and life of Ivan Turgenev, a Russian author who was perhaps one of the most westernized of his generation. He also discusses the conflict between Turgenev and Tolstoy and what it represented. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible" It focuses specifically on his references to and evaluation of Anton Chekhov, who Shestov credits with a more realistic attitude towards philosophies than many other writers, namely that they are very helpful for characters to have and to articulate, but less so for the writer or person himself. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible" It focuses specifically on Shestov's views on the works, and philosophical attitude towards life and art, of the Russian author Alexander Pushkin. He credits Pushkin with a sort of optimism that allows him to take risks both in his writing and in the matters of living. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible" It focuses specifically on the passages in the work where he writes about Russian culture and its contrasts with Western European culture. Shestov notes that European culture was transformed in being brought into Russia in just a few generations. He looks at strengths that this provides as well as weaknesses to the "Russian spirit". 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th and 20th century existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov's book "All Things Are Possible" It focuses specifically on his remarks about the philosophical movement and tendency of "positivism" and its relationships with the metaphysics it claims to leave behind and criticize. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Shestov's All Things Are Possible - https://amzn.to/2RLL4ae

This is part 5 of the recording of my talk at the Fourteenth Annual Marquette Summer Seminar on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, "The Significance of Thumos in Platonic and Aristotelian Moral Psychology". An important difference between the Platonist tradition and the Aristotelian is the status accorded to thumos in their respective moral psychologies. In very broad strokes, the Platonic tradition consistently follows and reinterprets Plato's tripartite conception of the soul, maintaining thumos one of three main parts of the soul, distinct from, in between, and interacting a rational part and the appetites. Thumos has a clear scope and proper function in Plato's texts and those of later Platonists. In Aristotle's moral psychology, thumos has a more restricted status, for the most part reinterpreted as one main mode of desire or affectivity (orexis). By contrast to other moral psychologies, e.g. that of the Stoics who treat thumos as just one emotion or passion among others, thumos in Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition retains a distinctiveness from other, lower forms of affectivity, evidenced by discussions like that of akrasia due to thumos in N.E. 7 or that of thumos as one of the main causes for human actions in Rhet. 1. The status, function, and proper education of thumos remained a matter of contention and reinterpretation through antiquity, evidenced by discussions bearing upon thumos, for example in Plutarch, Galen, Philo, among others. My paper first outlines Plato's treatment of thumos, drawing primarily upon Republic and Timaeus. It then sets out an Aristotelian account of thumos reinterpreted as a main mode of orexis, central to anger (orge), friendship, and other affective states, drawing mainly upon the two Ethics, the Politics, and the Rhetoric. Similarities and continuities between Plato's and Aristotle's positions are stressed, particularly the need to understand, orient, and educate thumos. Both positions are briefly contrasted against other interpretations which do not accord thumos a distinctive status, including Stoic thought. The paper also briefly discusses selected later reinterpretations of and controversies about thumos in the ongoing Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This is part 4 of the recording of my talk at the Fourteenth Annual Marquette Summer Seminar on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, "The Significance of Thumos in Platonic and Aristotelian Moral Psychology". An important difference between the Platonist tradition and the Aristotelian is the status accorded to thumos in their respective moral psychologies. In very broad strokes, the Platonic tradition consistently follows and reinterprets Plato's tripartite conception of the soul, maintaining thumos one of three main parts of the soul, distinct from, in between, and interacting a rational part and the appetites. Thumos has a clear scope and proper function in Plato's texts and those of later Platonists. In Aristotle's moral psychology, thumos has a more restricted status, for the most part reinterpreted as one main mode of desire or affectivity (orexis). By contrast to other moral psychologies, e.g. that of the Stoics who treat thumos as just one emotion or passion among others, thumos in Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition retains a distinctiveness from other, lower forms of affectivity, evidenced by discussions like that of akrasia due to thumos in N.E. 7 or that of thumos as one of the main causes for human actions in Rhet. 1. The status, function, and proper education of thumos remained a matter of contention and reinterpretation through antiquity, evidenced by discussions bearing upon thumos, for example in Plutarch, Galen, Philo, among others. My paper first outlines Plato's treatment of thumos, drawing primarily upon Republic and Timaeus. It then sets out an Aristotelian account of thumos reinterpreted as a main mode of orexis, central to anger (orge), friendship, and other affective states, drawing mainly upon the two Ethics, the Politics, and the Rhetoric. Similarities and continuities between Plato's and Aristotle's positions are stressed, particularly the need to understand, orient, and educate thumos. Both positions are briefly contrasted against other interpretations which do not accord thumos a distinctive status, including Stoic thought. The paper also briefly discusses selected later reinterpretations of and controversies about thumos in the ongoing Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This is part 3 of the recording of my talk at the Fourteenth Annual Marquette Summer Seminar on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, "The Significance of Thumos in Platonic and Aristotelian Moral Psychology". An important difference between the Platonist tradition and the Aristotelian is the status accorded to thumos in their respective moral psychologies. In very broad strokes, the Platonic tradition consistently follows and reinterprets Plato's tripartite conception of the soul, maintaining thumos one of three main parts of the soul, distinct from, in between, and interacting a rational part and the appetites. Thumos has a clear scope and proper function in Plato's texts and those of later Platonists. In Aristotle's moral psychology, thumos has a more restricted status, for the most part reinterpreted as one main mode of desire or affectivity (orexis). By contrast to other moral psychologies, e.g. that of the Stoics who treat thumos as just one emotion or passion among others, thumos in Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition retains a distinctiveness from other, lower forms of affectivity, evidenced by discussions like that of akrasia due to thumos in N.E. 7 or that of thumos as one of the main causes for human actions in Rhet. 1. The status, function, and proper education of thumos remained a matter of contention and reinterpretation through antiquity, evidenced by discussions bearing upon thumos, for example in Plutarch, Galen, Philo, among others. My paper first outlines Plato's treatment of thumos, drawing primarily upon Republic and Timaeus. It then sets out an Aristotelian account of thumos reinterpreted as a main mode of orexis, central to anger (orge), friendship, and other affective states, drawing mainly upon the two Ethics, the Politics, and the Rhetoric. Similarities and continuities between Plato's and Aristotle's positions are stressed, particularly the need to understand, orient, and educate thumos. Both positions are briefly contrasted against other interpretations which do not accord thumos a distinctive status, including Stoic thought. The paper also briefly discusses selected later reinterpretations of and controversies about thumos in the ongoing Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This is part 2 of the recording of my talk at the Fourteenth Annual Marquette Summer Seminar on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, "The Significance of Thumos in Platonic and Aristotelian Moral Psychology". An important difference between the Platonist tradition and the Aristotelian is the status accorded to thumos in their respective moral psychologies. In very broad strokes, the Platonic tradition consistently follows and reinterprets Plato's tripartite conception of the soul, maintaining thumos one of three main parts of the soul, distinct from, in between, and interacting a rational part and the appetites. Thumos has a clear scope and proper function in Plato's texts and those of later Platonists. In Aristotle's moral psychology, thumos has a more restricted status, for the most part reinterpreted as one main mode of desire or affectivity (orexis). By contrast to other moral psychologies, e.g. that of the Stoics who treat thumos as just one emotion or passion among others, thumos in Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition retains a distinctiveness from other, lower forms of affectivity, evidenced by discussions like that of akrasia due to thumos in N.E. 7 or that of thumos as one of the main causes for human actions in Rhet. 1. The status, function, and proper education of thumos remained a matter of contention and reinterpretation through antiquity, evidenced by discussions bearing upon thumos, for example in Plutarch, Galen, Philo, among others. My paper first outlines Plato's treatment of thumos, drawing primarily upon Republic and Timaeus. It then sets out an Aristotelian account of thumos reinterpreted as a main mode of orexis, central to anger (orge), friendship, and other affective states, drawing mainly upon the two Ethics, the Politics, and the Rhetoric. Similarities and continuities between Plato's and Aristotle's positions are stressed, particularly the need to understand, orient, and educate thumos. Both positions are briefly contrasted against other interpretations which do not accord thumos a distinctive status, including Stoic thought. The paper also briefly discusses selected later reinterpretations of and controversies about thumos in the ongoing Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This is part 1 of the recording of my talk at the Fourteenth Annual Marquette Summer Seminar on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, "The Significance of Thumos in Platonic and Aristotelian Moral Psychology". An important difference between the Platonist tradition and the Aristotelian is the status accorded to thumos in their respective moral psychologies. In very broad strokes, the Platonic tradition consistently follows and reinterprets Plato's tripartite conception of the soul, maintaining thumos one of three main parts of the soul, distinct from, in between, and interacting a rational part and the appetites. Thumos has a clear scope and proper function in Plato's texts and those of later Platonists. In Aristotle's moral psychology, thumos has a more restricted status, for the most part reinterpreted as one main mode of desire or affectivity (orexis). By contrast to other moral psychologies, e.g. that of the Stoics who treat thumos as just one emotion or passion among others, thumos in Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition retains a distinctiveness from other, lower forms of affectivity, evidenced by discussions like that of akrasia due to thumos in N.E. 7 or that of thumos as one of the main causes for human actions in Rhet. 1. The status, function, and proper education of thumos remained a matter of contention and reinterpretation through antiquity, evidenced by discussions bearing upon thumos, for example in Plutarch, Galen, Philo, among others. My paper first outlines Plato's treatment of thumos, drawing primarily upon Republic and Timaeus. It then sets out an Aristotelian account of thumos reinterpreted as a main mode of orexis, central to anger (orge), friendship, and other affective states, drawing mainly upon the two Ethics, the Politics, and the Rhetoric. Similarities and continuities between Plato's and Aristotle's positions are stressed, particularly the need to understand, orient, and educate thumos. Both positions are briefly contrasted against other interpretations which do not accord thumos a distinctive status, including Stoic thought. The paper also briefly discusses selected later reinterpretations of and controversies about thumos in the ongoing Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's essay "The Wall And The Books" which can be found in his collection Other Inquisitions It speculates about the connections between two key themes marking the reign of the first Qin dynasty emperor, Shih Huang Ti, who ordered that all books before him be burned and the enclosure of the empire by a great wall. 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 4000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Other Inquisitions here - https://amzn.to/4br9pul

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's essay "The Analytical Language Of John Wilkins" which can be found in his collection Other Inquisitions. It explains the idea behind this rather utopian scheme to remodel language along completely rational and systematic lines in his work An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language . He also compares Wilkins' project with a classification listing of animals in a fictional "Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge", and with a classification scheme of the Bibliographical Institute of Brussels. As a side-note, Michel Foucault famously incorporated and commented on Borges' fictional list of animals in his work The Order Of Things. 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 4000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Other Inquisitions here - https://amzn.to/4br9pul

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's essay "On Chesterton" which can be found in his collection Other Inquisitions It sets out and explores some of the interesting traits of an author who he references fairly often in his stories and essays 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 4000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Other Inquisitions here - https://amzn.to/4br9pul

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's essay "The Enigma Of Edward FitzGerald" which can be found in his collection Other Inquisitions It discusses the polymath Omar Khayyám, who among other contributions in multiple fields, authored a number of quatrains, many centuries later loosely translated and arranged by the English poet Edward FitzGerald into a book known as the The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Borges advances the idea that the poet of that Rubaiyat is in a sense both of them, and neither Omar nor Edward. 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 4000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Other Inquisitions here - https://amzn.to/4br9pul

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's essay "Kafka And His Precursors", in which he first examines the idea of literary precursors, and then identifies and briefly discusses six precursors to the works of Franz Kafka, in his view. These are: Zeno's paradoxes of motion an apologue by Han Yu the writings of Kierkegaard Browning's poem "Fears and Scruples" a short story by Léon Bloy Lord Dunsany's short story "Carcassonne" 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 4000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Other Inquisitions here - https://amzn.to/4br9pul

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Immortal" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It focuses on on the last parts of the story, after the narrator has found the city of the immortals and become an immortal himself. As it turns out, immortality is not everything mortals lacking it imagine it to be, and the meaning of the endless life they enjoy gets diminished. They decide to seek out the river that grants mortality, and the narrator succeeds in finding it 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 4000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Collected Fictions here - https://amzn.to/3xZnwHA

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Immortal" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It focuses on the first portion of the narrative, in which the narrator relates a story about finding out about a river that grants immortality and a city where the immortals are reputed to live. He leads an expedition to try to find the city, and ultimately succeeds, but the city, accessed via a labyrinth, turns out to be quite different than expected. He also finds who the immortals are, and ends up joining them. 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 4000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Collected Fictions here - https://amzn.to/3xZnwHA

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "Borges and I" which can be found in Collected Fictions. Borges writes about and contrasts himself against the "other Borges", the one who does the writing and to whom things happen. Borges and the other Borges share much in common and are intimately connected, but not in ways that Borges is particularly happy about. 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 4000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Collected Fictions here - https://amzn.to/3xZnwHA

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the conclusion, which looks at a question that arises for existentialists, namely whether existentialist ethics is individualistic or not. As it turns out, the answer depends on what conception one is relying upon of "individualism", and de Beauvoir provides important clarifications about the senses in which existentialism does focus upon individuals 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - amzn.to/32IbKya

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "Ambiguity", looking at her discussions about how violence should be evaluated from an existentialist ethical perspective. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - amzn.to/32IbKya

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "Ambiguity" of what existentialist ethics is. In her view, it isn't an ethics that can be summed up in absolute principles, but has to be understood as a method. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - amzn.to/32IbKya

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "Ambiguity", which looks at the distinction she draws between absurdity and ambiguity as characteristic of human existence, and whether or not ambiguity rules out treating anything whatsoever as an absolute or not 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - amzn.to/32IbKya

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "The Present And The Future", which looks at the concept of the "festival" and how it represents a temporary overcoming of the flow of time from the present into the future in history 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - amzn.to/32IbKya

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "The Present And The Future", which centers on the notion of totalities like humanity, the universe, and history, which turn out to be "detotalized totalities", having their meaning for and through finite individuals 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - amzn.to/32IbKya

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion in the section "The Present And The Future", which looks at the two different interpretations of what "future" means. One of these maintains continuity with the present and involves a continual transcendence of it. The other displaces the meaning of the present to a future which justifies whatever one does or has done in the present. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - amzn.to/32IbKya

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on her discussion at the end of the section "The Antinomies Of Action", which looks at the willingness of some people to justify sacrificing others for the sake of some conception of usefulness or utility in achieving some value they view as transcendent. De Beauvoir argues that "useful" is not an absolute term, and that one has to clarify the end that one is claiming justifies the sacrifice. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century existentialist and feminist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and playwright Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Ethics of Ambiguity It focuses specifically on the contempt for both humanity as a whole and for individual human beings that is displayed by some people in the use of their own freedom. She notes that this generally involves the reduction of persons to things, taking away their transcendence and viewing them only in their facticity or immanence. 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 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase De Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity - https://amzn.to/32IbKya