The Living Philosophy

This episode is an exploration of the allegations of racism against Jung and looks at some possible defences of Jung. Since Dalal published Jung: A Racist in 1988 there has been something of an open crisis in Jungian circles regarding the extent of the issue and what is to be done about it. This episode is about laying out the issue in as clear a way as possible. To learn more about the schism in the Jungian community see Samuels 2019 in the Further Reading section below. ____________________

Jung describes Americans as having an “astonishingly feeble resistance to collective influences” which he found “positively terrifying”. His 1931 article on the uniquely American psychology is filled with novel insights into American psychology: its herdlike nature, the Heroic Ideal driving it as well as showcasing some of Jung's more unsavoury Shadow elements — his racism which we'll talk more about in the next episode. ____________________

Synchronicity was coined by psychological pioneer Carl Jung. Its meaning is simple: a Synchronicity is a “meaningful coincidence”. But it seems that there has been a lot of misreading of Jung going on. In this episode we are going back to Jung's original definition of Synchronicity in his 1952 work “Synchronicity: An Acausal Principle” to see what he really meant by the term. ____________________

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Could Neuralink accidentally turn all its users into a hive mind? That's what we're going to be exploring in this episode where we take a look inside the brain and at the possibility for Neuralink's high bandwidth and low latency to transform the nature of consciousness. _________________

The phrases "evil" and "sociopathic" (not to mention "indecent") were some of the responses to a passing joke about Jordan Peterson's crying in the episode on his 2005 manifesto "Peacemaking Among Higher Order Primates". In this episode we explore why some people find it funny to laugh at a grown man crying when so much work has been done to destigmatise male shows of vulnerability. We look at the three explanations for Peterson's crying and who believes which explanation and which justifies memes and jokes. ____________________

If an alien arrived on this planet having read only the writings of Marx, Proudhon and other great leftist socialist thinkers, they would be very surprised by the reaction to Rich Men North of Richmond. Oliver Anthony's song was loved by some and hated by others with the usual weird subtextual energies of the Culture Wars infusing both. This episode looks at why, from a historical theoretical it could have been otherwise. And why it wasn't. ____________________

In this video we are going to tackle a challenging question: what is self-actualisation isn't what we should be doing; what if instead it is a big cope — a way of burying our head in the sand (rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic; playing our fiddle while Rome burns — choose your preferred analogy) while the world burns. -------------------

In this episode, we look at why you should listen to South Park's Butters over modern Buddhist gurus. We talk about the sales pitch used by spiritual gurudom to get people hungry for Enlightenment while hiding the truth about the awful reality of that path. Fun fun fun. ____________________

In this episode I talk about the books that rescued me in my darkest times by giving me the breath of heroic inspiration I needed to get moving out of the dark pit I'd found myself in. I talk about what these books had in common and why we need them. ____________________

The aphoristic style of Friedrich Nietzsche is a wellspring of inspiration. In this episode, we explore the connection between this style and Nietzsche's hiking (10 hours of hiking a day, if he is to be believed). It is Nietzsche's walking that gave birth to the aphorisms in a passive form of thinking that stands in stark contrast to the thorough linear thinking of philosophers like Kant and Hegel. ____________________

Karl Marx is the most (in)famous critic of Capitalism. Or is he? As with all stories, it's not so simple. Marx isn't a reactionary dreaming of a tribal communal paradise but more of a sci-fi visionary looking to the society that will transcend Capitalism using its foundation as a jumping off point to a much more interesting, much better world. ____________________

Following on from the last episode on Jordan Peterson's brilliant 2005 essay on "Peacemaking" this time we look at what went wrong and at JBP's arc as that of the classical tragic hero. And having a bit of fun with this we compare him to the villain in one of my favourite fantasy series Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. We look at Aristotle's definition of tragedy, and at mapovers between Peterson and Mistborn's Lord Ruler and also Dune's Paul Atreides. ____________________

In 2005, long before he became a household name, Jordan Peterson wrote an article with the title "Peacemaking Among Higher Order Primates" and it is amazing — partly for its own beauty and pathos and partly for the contract it provides with The Daily Wire Peterson we have today. It is a brilliant ode to what peace looks like and how it might be achieved and a stark reminder of the potential pitfalls for even the best-intentioned. ____________________

Why it Matters is back (kind of). This video revisits the Prophet archetype with a bit more passion and a little less bookishness. It is great to have the previous video as a foundation but as with the old Why it Matters videos the point of this video is to get into why I care so much about this topic and why I think you should as well. We're going to be looking at the Prophet through the lens of Richard Rohr's description of the Prophet's position as being at "the edge of the inside" and we are going to look at some examples of this Prophetic archetype like Karl Marx, Jordan Peterson, Contrapoints and Donald Trump. ____________________

In approaching the underworld there are a couple of terms that people use. Sometimes it can get a bit confusing who's using what and what we should be using. In this episode we look at the term subconscious vs unconscious and what the meaning and background is of each. As we'll see it wasn't always so clear cut — the French psychological heritage from Pierre Janet started with one term then with Freud it bounced to another and Jung and Adler followed in their direction now using unconscious instead of subconscious. ____________________

In this palette cleanser we are going to talk about the philosophy of romcoms for a change. I reckon this should remove any accusations of important work being done on The Living Philosophy. We'll be looking at two romcoms — the classic Norah Ephron When Harry Met Sally and the lesser known Just Like Heaven starring Reese Wetherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. One is reflective of a type of art that strives for psychological accuracy (Dostoevsky, When Harry Met Sally) category — while the second category (Just Like Heaven, Alexander Dumas's The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo) dispense with reality and works at the hyperreal level of the archetypal underworld. *** Damien's YouTube channel: "Science Fiction with Damien Walter": https://www.youtube.com/@DamienWalterPatreon interview with Damien Walter: ***

You can get "Become Who You Are" here: http://designingthemind.org/becoming It's rare that you encounter a fresh take on a path as well-trodden as happiness. I've read a lot of books on the topic and I have to say that Ryan Bush's take is fresh and yet simultaneously ancient. I think this is part of the reason I'm so enthusiastic about it: it integrates a trend in academic philosophy that I've yet to see anyone else talk about: Virtue Ethics. This is an ethical approach to philosophy that goes all the way back to the ancients especially Socrates, Aristotle and the Stoics. Bush integrates this old esteemed tradition with very 21st century fields like Cognitive Science and neuroscience to produce a thought-provoking map of the good life that I can't recommend highly enough.  ____________________

We modern serfs have forgotten something: we've forgotten how to live. You don't question the meaning of life when leisure is the heart of life rather than work. But with the rise of modern urban life, the intrinsic mode of living has died at the hands of the instrumental mode of life. Our entire lives have been colonised by "utility". We don't relax or rest for their own sake anymore — now we rest so that we are more productive. In this episode we explore these two relationships with time: the leisurely intrinsic mode and the future-oriented instrumental mode. _________________

Before the Axial Age the religious archetypes were those of the Priest and the Magician. But with the increased complexity and evolution of society a new archetype emerged: that of the Prophet. This is the archetype of liminal transformation in the midst of a society paralysed by its own success. The Prophet comes in from the edge of inside and shows the society where it has lost its way. ____________________

Philosopher and anthropologist Rene Girard once described justice and public vengeance. Nietzsche expressed the same in his Genealogy of Morals. Why then do we value justice so highly and look down so judgingly on revenge? And what, if this is true, is the purpose of justice? How is it in any way different from vengeance? The answer is that it is profoundly different and in this video we explore why. ____________________

Would you rather live in a better world or a happier one? In this video we are going to explore how equality has made the world a better place but also how, like the Edenic apple of knowledge, it has come with a cost. The world looks better from the outside but seen from the subjective side it seems that things have only gotten worse. This is following up on the recent episode on Nietzsche's concept of ressentiment that we examined in the previous episodes and follows along our explorations in to the social and political radical theme of modern times. ____________________

In The Ritual Process the anthropologist who put Liminality on the map Victor Turner gave a list of contrasts between Liminality and Structure. There is an uncanny resemblance between these values and the values of Leftism. That is what we are going to explore in this episode which in the final episode in our exploration of Victor Turner's work in this field. ____________________

"When all you have is a hammer every problem begins to look like a nail." Good philosophy is always trying to break up and recreate its map of the world. In this episode we are going to break up the Individualist model of the world a little and broaden our map to include the Collectivist perspectives. We talk a lot about Nihilism and the Meaning Crisis as if they are only to be understood as individual problems but the challenges and solutions that face us in the 21st century can't be understood merely from one angle. This episode is a case study in the Homelessness Crisis and how it looks from the vantage points of Individualism and Collectivism. ____________________

Is Liminality the real root of the crisis of Nihilism? In this episode we are going to explore this question and whether Liminality is a better diagnosis of the Meaning Crisis than Nietzsche's Death of God. When looking at Turner's qualities of Liminality the relations between it and Nihilism are striking; if nothing else if provides us an alternative angle on the crisis — a different perspective from which to behold the quagmire we find ourselves in. What is particularly appealing about the Liminality-centred explanation is that it can explain Nihilism AND the value system of the Left from Marx to Social Justice — a theme we'll be exploring in a future video. ____________________

For Nietzsche The Last Man stood as the opposite of the Ubermensch and the great danger of the "levelling" tendency of modernity. In this episode we are going to look at what Nietzsche meant by the Last Man and how his prophecy has come through. We look at The Last Man in 21st century society and what Nietzsche got right even while we should be cautious of fully embracing his ideal. ____________________

We live in an age of Liminality. It's at the roots of the Meaning Crisis of Nihilism and Leftist value structures. Coming from the same Latin word as subliminal (*limin* meaning "threshold") it is a term that has entered the mainstream from its roots in Anthropology with the work of Victor Turner. Victor Turner developed the concept in his work The Ritual Process. In this episode we will be answering the question what is Liminality and we'll be exploring it and its two cousins Marginality and Inferiority and how this trifecta shape the value structure of all society in the interplay between their Communitas/Antistructure with the world of politics economics and law — of status, power and competition — (which Turner calls "Structure"). ____________________

Apocalypse is traditionally a religious idea but the secular age has been more alight with an Apocalyptic fervour than any preceding age. In this episode we explore why by looking at predictions through the ages and across cultures in an attempt to triangulate on what it is about the end of the world that is so sticky to the human psyche. We are going to explore the archetypal phenomenon of the end of the world and see why Apocalypse remains so compelling. ________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

Jung once described himself as a failed philosopher. Instead he chose the path of science with psychology. It is surprising then to see what Walter Kaufmann calls Jung's "wildly emotional overreaction" to thinkers like Heidegger and Kierkegaard. Is philosophy Jung's Shadow? In this episode we explore what Jung said about the philosophers and why. For this we'll draw on letters written by Jung and look at the tension in him between what he calls his No. 1 Personality and his No. 2 Personality and then we're going to explore whether this hatred of the philosophers might not come from a fault-line in Jung's own psychology. ____________________

A summary of my Camino experience: what I hiked, why I hiked and what I learned. ________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

83% of America's counties voted for Trump in the 2020 but these counties account for only 29% of America's GDP. Why aren't this lesser off rural/exurban population voting for the party who theoretically are most aligned with their interests i.e. the Democratic Socialists? The answer might lie with Karl Marx who saw this population as "rural idiots" representing "barbarism within civilisation". For Marx only the urban working class could bring about societal transformation. Every successful Communist revolution had to unlearn this bias of Marx. Looking at the American political situation today we see two Americas: a rural/exurban ocean and a densely populated urban and suburban archipelago. And like Marx rather than his successful revolutionary followers, the Far Left of today dismiss these ruralites as Conservative Reactionaries rather than the most readily mobilisable support. ____________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

Anthropologist Victor Turner, who popularised the term Liminality, found that human society has two modes of interrelatedness that function like a yin and yang — mutually dependant and without which human life would be impossible. Structure is the mode of status and hierarchy in society; Communitas of love, compassion and myth. These two modes show up in very interesting ways in our current society. These can be fruitfully mapped over with the religious and scientific mindsets; with the Constrained and Unconstrained Visions of Thomas Sowell's work; with the Order and Chaos of Jordan Peterson's work Maps of Meaning and with the left- and right-hemispheres of the brain in Iain McGilchrist's work. None of these are 1:1 mapovers but there's something rich even in this difference. This episodes marks the beginning of our explorations in this fertile model of human life. ____________________

The term "reactionary" is associated with the right-wing but like the term radical this term is a concept that transcends the one-dimensional left/right model. That being said it is almost exclusively applied to the right and these days it is used almost exclusively as an insult rather than a self-identifier. It was originally synonymous with right-wing, but it doesn't have to be a right-wing phenomenon, as there are left-wing reactionaries as well. The term has its origins in the French Revolution, where the National Assembly was divided into those favoring revolution on the left and the supporters of the king on the right. The term "reactionary" refers to the political group who wanted to return to pre-modern feudal monarchy. Today, a reactionary is someone who wants to go back to a previous time that was more glorious. While conservatives want to conserve the status quo, progressives want to pull the system towards improvement, and reactionaries want to push the system back. The reactionary idealisation of the past is similar to the Fascist parties of the mid-20th century. Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" is a pure example of the reactionary spirit, and similar sentiments were present in Britain around Brexit. Left-wing reactionaries can also exist, and they may see something very wrong in the current system, but their solution is backwards towards some idealised past.________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

Radical is a word that's thrown around a lot these days but whose meaning is left a bit vague. This episode explores the meaning of the term radical and why it is such an accurate finger on the pulse of the Culture Wars. From Trump and Bernie to Marx, Antifa and the Proud Boys our age embodies the spirit of radicalism. This is the first in a new theme on the channel where we're going to unpack more political philosophy terminology and schools of thought. ________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

God is dead - Nietzsche's most notorious line and also one of his most commonly misunderstood. The Nietzsche God is dead statement is a New Atheist sentiment but the warning of a Postmodernist. It is commonly mistaken for a modernist sentiment proclaiming the death of Christianity's God. But that is not what Nietzsche intended. It was not a declaration of atheism; atheism was already a trivial point of view (if still controversial) by the end of the 19th century. Nietzsche was not echoing a common sentiment but pushing beyond to its unseen implications. Nietzsche was pioneering the postmodern perspective. This is obvious from the aphorism it occurs in. In The Gay Science Nietzsche tells the parable of the madman who declares the death of God. The madman's audience are not religious believers or members of the Church as one would expect from a declaration of God's death. The audience was a crowd of jeering non-believers. This points to the real intention of Nietzsche's statement. In this episode we are going to explore the meaning of this statement in light of this insight and see what exactly Nietzsche meant by his provocative statement that God is dead and we have killed him. _________________ ⭐ Support the channel (thank you!) ▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy ▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy________________

Spoiler Alert - this look at the philosophy of the Metamodern masterpiece Everything Everywhere All At Once deals with the whole movie so there will be spoilers. The Nihilism of the internet age's apology Everything Everywhere All At Once is an amazing movie. It is one of those rare movies that is not only unbelievably entertaining but also incredibly profound. Not only does it give a brilliant exposition of Nihilism but it offers a diagnosis of Nihilism's causes and proposes a way past it. It's a beautiful funny rollercoaster through the multiverse that has so much heart. Like any Metamodern work of art it oozes sincerity beneath its absurd humour. This podcast is my attempt (after many drafts approaching its philosophy from many different angles) at giving voice to the philosophy of this 7x Oscar-winning classic. Hope you enjoy it _________________ ⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

It's become common to appeal to our evolutionary past to justify present ideologies. In this episode we are honing in on a vegan account of human diet and contrasting it with a less ideologically motivated piece published by The Atlantic. There's a few interesting discoveries to be had. For one it's always interesting to see how subtle warpings of facts can lead to very different perspectives. It's also interesting to contemplate what such work tells us about the worldview of the writer. It's also interesting to see how evolutionary arguments are misused in the name of an agenda. All of this comes into play with this PETA article on veganism but there's a mirror of this sort of ideological work going on among the Carnivore and Paleo subcultures online. ____________________

This episode is an attempted revaluation of the much maligned Ego. Drawing on Jung, Freud, New Age thinking and the myth of Icarus and Daedalus we pick apart the many meanings of Ego as we try to unearth the infamous reputation of Ego in the culture and to restore to it some of its lost dignity. ____________________Further Reading:- Basic Writings of Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann- The Freud Reader edited by Peter Gay________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

In this episode we are going to explore Nietzschean spirituality in contrast to Buddhist spirituality (and other Ascetic Ideal spiritualities and religions). This topic was prompted by a question from Kevin Sherman on Patreon so thanks to Kevin for the interesting spark. This script kind of poured out of me and it was only afterwards that as I was listening to it again and again in editing that I found myself inhaling through my teeth a bit with the critique of Buddhism. I feel like I was a bit heavy-handed in places and I'm sure many of you will agree. My qualification for this is that I wanted to be a little bit provocative around the spiritual element to cut past a lot of the inflation you find in New Age circles but in hindsight I feel I didn't give enough space for the value of Buddhism. Maybe I need to make an episode explaining why Buddhism is amazing to counterbalance and in what ways it is preferable to Nietzschean spirituality. In the meantime I thought I'd include this qualification here in the description where I'm not quite sure anyone will see it. For those of you who do read the description, hello. ____________________Further Reading:- Basic Writings of Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann (contains full texts of The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo) - The Portable Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann (contains Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist)________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

Why it matters is back! And this time we're talking about why Nietzsche matters. We're going to look at why I find Nietzsche so important and why you should too. ___________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

In this deeper dive into philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche we are going to look at his big ideas and his overall philosophy through the orienting generalisation of his thought as being health vs. decadence. Through this lens we can fruitfully place Nietzsche's "no-saying" work where he critiques Christianity, science and philosophy as well as his "yes-saying" work in Thus Spoke Zarathustra (with Zarathustra's three great ideas of the Ubermensch, the Eternal Recurrence and the Will to Power) and his fascination with the Greek god Dionysus. Nietzsche is commonly known as the Father of Existentialism but he could just as well be called the Father of Psychoanalysis or the Father of Postmodernism. Along with Marx and Freud, Nietzsche is one of the most influential thinkers in the past 200 years. ____________________

Friedrich Nietzsche is commonly known as the Father of Existentialism but he could just as well be called the Father of Psychoanalysis or the Father of Postmodernism. Along with Marx and Freud, Nietzsche is one of the most influential thinkers in the past 200 years. Nietzsche's ideas are famous (and due to much manipulation of his work, infamous) — the Will to Power, the Ubermensch/Overman and the Eternal Recurrence are the three great doctrines of Nietzsche's Zarathustra. They form his positive philosophy. This is the Health side of the equation. But these positive doctrines are only way half of Nietzsche's philosophy. The other side is his critique of Christianity and of Ascetic Ideals in general, his enquiries into the origin of morality and his explorations of the crisis of NihilismIn this brief episode we look at Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy through his distinction between Decadence and Health. This video is a taster of Nietzsche and will be followed up in a future episode by a much deeper dive. ____________________

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.____________________

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. ____________________

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. _____________Sources:The Cut article: https://www.thecut.com/2022/09/jordan-peterson-cries-responding-to-olivia-wildes-critique.htmlThe 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). ____________________Further Reading:- de Chardin, T. 1956. *Man's Place in Nature*, Fontana Press: London ________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy_________________ 

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!____________________Further Reading:- Sowell, T., 1987. _A conflict of visions: Ideological origins of political struggles_________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy________________Media Used:1. Dark Times  — Kevin MacLeod2.  Lightless Dawn — Kevin MacLeod3.  There's Probably No Time — Chris Zabriskie4.  Mesmerize  — Kevin MacLeod5.  Evening Fall Harp — Kevin MacLeod6.  Long Note Three — Kevin MacLeod7. Anguish — Kevin MacLeodSubscribe 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)_________________⌛ Timestamps:0:00 Introduction2:21 What is a Vision?4:25 Constrained vs. Unconstrained: Human Nature4:47 Constrained Human Nature6:45 Unconstrained Human Nature10:20 Unconstrained: Progress and Change11:42 Constrained Progress: Progress and Change15:15: Summary of the Constrained and Unconstrained Visions16:56 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._________________

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." ____________________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________________⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy________________