An extraordinarily dense, eloquent talk packed with ideas about the limitations of ideas. Arriving at these kinds of insights in the first place is hard enough. But to then be able to communicate them in a talk with this kind of straightforward clarity is vanishingly rare. Essential listening for anyone working in the field of creative arts...
"Ideas obscure our relationship with reality" - a bold admission. Krishnamurti said the same thing in clearer terms. To communicate the world we need ideas, to apprehend the world we must evict ideas - there's a paradox here. Just like love - you lose it the minute you begin describing it - the only door of entry permitted is that of feeling, the entire human organism as an instrument.
A series of random assumptions right at the beginning: First of all, what the makes you think a "soul" would even be able to _develop_? And second of all, what makes you think a "soul" would be interested in anything let alone only reality? The entirety of science has shown us that our emotions and our personalities are physical constructs. That means that if we have any soul it is nothing more than our pure consciousness: whatever it is that makes us feel as though we are alive and making choices. The soul wouldn't _want_ to do anything. The soul merely experiences what the brain wants to do... if it exists... This entire talk seems to forget the power and importance of fantasy. No... fantasy is not real... congrats on figuring that out, but humans have the longest history of playing and using fantasy to their advantage. Does it help always? No... but it exists and if you try to get rid of it you'll just get depressed so go ahead and accept it. Watch The Purple Rose of Cairo... it'll be more interesting and informative than this.
+Monet I mean that the reason why we believe we have a soul is because we're convinced that we are somehow alive and not just an intricate machine. Our gut feelings and our brain tell us this. We feel like we see out of our eyes from a place where we exist. Now, we know that every logical thought comes from the brain and we know that every emotion comes from a hormone, so if there is a soul it cannot be affecting our feelings or thought in any way. If there is a soul, it must then be that feeling of "I exist and I am experiencing this moment." Therefore, the soul would only be that which experiences what the body and the mind do.
+FailedComedian Agreed, until "so if there is a soul it cannot be affecting our feelings or thought in any way." To my understanding this premise has no evidence. The soul could very well be affecting our thoughts AND feelings, we may simply not know or have not yet discovered the mechanism by which 'it' does that. Could the feeling you describe simply be the absence of hormones/neurotransmitters being released to affect emotions? A void in which one can perceive without emotional distortions. In your last statement, you seem to be describing 'consciousness.' Are you claiming that consciousness (present awareness of ones existence) is interchangeable or equal to soul? Didn't mind the, "Well, the reason why..." ;-)
An extraordinarily dense, eloquent talk packed with ideas about the limitations of ideas. Arriving at these kinds of insights in the first place is hard enough. But to then be able to communicate them in a talk with this kind of straightforward clarity is vanishingly rare. Essential listening for anyone working in the field of creative arts...
"Ideas obscure our relationship with reality" - a bold admission. Krishnamurti said the same thing in clearer terms. To communicate the world we need ideas, to apprehend the world we must evict ideas - there's a paradox here. Just like love - you lose it the minute you begin describing it - the only door of entry permitted is that of feeling, the entire human organism as an instrument.
Amazing talk! As formative to the latter half of the 2010's as TED was to the former.
Fantastic, Great info. And help me see that we are what we think
A really good talk
A global categorized database of ideas would be a huge step - if you could finally get over competition.
A series of random assumptions right at the beginning:
First of all, what the makes you think a "soul" would even be able to _develop_? And second of all, what makes you think a "soul" would be interested in anything let alone only reality?
The entirety of science has shown us that our emotions and our personalities are physical constructs. That means that if we have any soul it is nothing more than our pure consciousness: whatever it is that makes us feel as though we are alive and making choices. The soul wouldn't _want_ to do anything. The soul merely experiences what the brain wants to do... if it exists...
This entire talk seems to forget the power and importance of fantasy. No... fantasy is not real... congrats on figuring that out, but humans have the longest history of playing and using fantasy to their advantage. Does it help always? No... but it exists and if you try to get rid of it you'll just get depressed so go ahead and accept it.
Watch The Purple Rose of Cairo... it'll be more interesting and informative than this.
+FailedComedian "The soul merely experiences what the brain wants to do"... explain?
+Monet I mean that the reason why we believe we have a soul is because we're convinced that we are somehow alive and not just an intricate machine. Our gut feelings and our brain tell us this. We feel like we see out of our eyes from a place where we exist. Now, we know that every logical thought comes from the brain and we know that every emotion comes from a hormone, so if there is a soul it cannot be affecting our feelings or thought in any way. If there is a soul, it must then be that feeling of "I exist and I am experiencing this moment." Therefore, the soul would only be that which experiences what the body and the mind do.
+FailedComedian Agreed, until "so if there is a soul it cannot be affecting our feelings or thought in any way." To my understanding this premise has no evidence. The soul could very well be affecting our thoughts AND feelings, we may simply not know or have not yet discovered the mechanism by which 'it' does that.
Could the feeling you describe simply be the absence of hormones/neurotransmitters being released to affect emotions? A void in which one can perceive without emotional distortions.
In your last statement, you seem to be describing 'consciousness.' Are you claiming that consciousness (present awareness of ones existence) is interchangeable or equal to soul?
Didn't mind the, "Well, the reason why..." ;-)
Anyone can be a philosopher. But is this is a good thing? This guy seems like a bit of an egotist. Perhaps I am too harsh a judge.