@43_xa_ashutoshsononey32 philosophically no one knows what they don’t know. people don’t argue empirical evidence unless explaining why it does what it does. In the world of eye witness there should be enough empirical evidence that shows just how obscured people see the world. My favorite example is. When you don’t know something is there and your brain fills in the picture with what it assumes should be there, and once you know it’s there it almost magically appears out of nowhere, and after that you will always notice it there. We could be in the same observable room and you see something different than me but there could be things you and me both don’t see but exists. It’s called science, ain’t it a crazy ride. Hopefully someone uncovers more and more for all of us to see and then we can believe. You know things , I know things, and there are things to learn. Might argue about it along the way. It’s a process.
that's corect but there still is a history no matter what. Things happened in some way leading to this. That's enough to start considering it i suppose.
That's only three sides. I have one. Its a bright side!..Yeah, that's it. I never hurt a flea. I checked, its true. I've crushed bed bugs because the landlord lied. That's his story, not mine..."I FORGOT MY UMBRELLA"...
Full quote: "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk." is from Hegel's work "Philosophy of Right" meaning that wisdom/understanding comes only in historical hindsight. Indeed it's bittersweet.
Why do you think that is the full 'quote'? You're just 'quoting' the English translations which added the 'fullness'. "Die Eule der Minerva beginnt erst mit der einbrechenden Dämmerung ihren Flug" is the full quote, and the translation is up to the reader, but the meaning ought to remain as was presented in the video.
@@neoepicurean3772do you feel as though you may have gone a bit overboard in your reply? I am but a skulker in Internet forums but I must tell you, I think so.
@@crypticscrutiny1153 Haha :D I've had two classes this semester, one on Wittgenstein, the other on Nietzsche. So I've had a guts full of German translations. I was only pointing out that the quote given in the video was closer to the German (arguably) that the 'full' quote offered in the comment above. I'm really not much of a skulker or sulker :D
Thanks. It's a fascinating area of thought. On the whole, many things do seem to have improved (medicine, science, technology), while others seem to waver endlessly back & forth (politics, religion). I'd have to say history does not progress strictly linearly - at least not consistently as a single thing. And we can certainly be knocked backwards by various of its aspects, from wars to diseases to natural disasters & more. I do think that we often reach a sort of crux, or nexus point, wherein it becomes virtually inevitable that someone will discover or invent a certain thing. Airplanes are a good example. Fossil fuel engines were there, the ability to work lightweight aluminum was there. It was a matter of who did it first more than when. Someone was definitely going to come up with the bomb; there's no doubt of it. But there are cyclical aspects as well. We veer back & forth between democracy & tyranny quite regularly. Progress is a slippery concept. As Frank Herbert put it, "The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future". Well, ouch! Thanks again. tavi
I recently stumbled on your channel. And I have been binging it ever since. The video's are well made, and I do like the often nuanced approach. But one thing I noticed, which is rare for YT channels I think, is how you use pauses (with music and imagery, but no narrative). I think it gives audience time to breathe. Let it sink in, what just has been said. I really appreciate those pauses (you seem to have implemented those, very early on in your YT career too).
Jorge Luis Borges wrote a short story about a town where at least one person had to stay awake each night, the idea that the town would disappear if no one was awake to keep the idea of the town alive. History is just a succession of overlapping narratives. Reality is just a collective hunch.
I think the problem with historical progress is that everyone defines progress differently, and is therefore able to say they’re correct. So what exactly is progress?
Thank you for consistently providing material for contemplation and social discourse, that is well reasoned, rooted in historical fact, and clearly presented. A notification from you is always an invitation to examine possibilities, and marvel at the impressive range of the human experience. You and your team are a welcome inspiration.🖤🇨🇦
At 37:30, I hear what could be the whole guiding philosophy of your channel stated so clearly, why modern policy-makers and historians need to be in conversation. Twice in the video I shouted “he said the thing!” when the words “then and now” came up. By the end of the video, I could appreciate that choice to be so overt with that theme. This video’s like a Then and Now thesis.
I maintain that my palaeolithic ancestors had it all, and so-called progress is a vast and painful detour that, if things go well, will bring us right back where we started. It seems just as likely ‘progress’ will end up killing us all.
Wow! Very well worded. I've been thinking of native Australians a lot and how the British were quick to call them primitive and take their land. Yet they did not overpopulate and neighboring mobs fought but should we call it a war? Many monuments around for first explorers.... That needed leading and shown to water holes on their deathbeds but if we recognise the whites following native trails we are still not recognising the aborigines as humans or equals.
I think it's interesting that: The Sustainable Society Index, a ranking produced by the nonprofit Sustainable Society Foundation, used 3 well-being categories to compare countries: human, environmental and economic. Within the categories are: Purpose well-being, social well-being, financial well-being, community well-being, and physical well-being. But my word-search of the report showed no instances of the word "liberty" or "freedom". I was stunned since I, like you, would make liberty the primary criteria or at least in the top 2 criteria.
Freedom is such an easy concept to interpret in bad faith. You have the freedom to make money in that like, the goverbment leta you be rich, but that freedom is effectively meaninglesa for a lot of people
Freedom is implied, not expressed, because Freedom is not an absolute. It is a cultural construction. For instance, in some Buddhist societies, if you have taken care of your family's needs, you can enter a monastery, and retreat from the world. But in Western societies, the economy demands that one must now face a lifetime of having to work, because the cost of retirement is being individualised and the ability to save enough to retire is being eroded by the profit motive in capitalism. So ultimately, retirement may for some may no longer be a choice. So, each society makes choices of what freedom is, and the powerful in them spend time, effort, and money, to influence such choices. Hence, you have people in poverty in the richest countries in the world. We are co-creators of our identity and reality. In this, we are never free. We are bound in civilisation like oxen hitched to a plough. There are benefits, but there are distinct limitations, that may, or may not, promote freedom in any meaningful sense.
what do you mean by liberty/freedom? there are no consensus definitions. it's pretty clear that we don't have libertarian free-will. variety, options, difference, 'degrees of freedom' in the world don't seem free in any sense to me, just a fact about the plurality and disunity of the world.
@@real_pattern I would argue that at minimum, freedom means political and civil human rights: freedom of speech, press, and assembly; freedom from slavery; freedom from government arrest or punishment without justification in law; and freedom from vague or excessive law. The last one is not named on any charter of such, but I'd say it's a necessary companion to the one preceding it, because the "rule of law" is only a restraint on power so long as there aren't too many or too-broad laws.
To suggest that there is any inherent tendency for history to "progress" is smacking of teleology, which smacks of religion, which smacks of superstition and a level of idealism that is unwarranted by the historical facts. We move ahead in some ways, get worse in others. The technology and creature comforts generally improve over time, but the planet degrades and the capacity for destruction has grown immensely. To a large degree, we are still fighting many of the same bitter battles that have persisted throughout recorded history. Progress is not a guarantee or natural design. Eventual decay is probably the more genuine built-in design, in a world governed by increasing entropy.
The story with penicillin is out of context. Many times in history, in many countries it was noticed that mold can inhabit deseases. Also Fleming abandoned an idea of its mass ipmlication. Only later two scientists tinkered with it and thank to them humanity saw mass production of penicillin
"Progress" only makes sense relative to a value system. Thus it begs the questions of "whose value system?" and "why theirs?", and also questions regarding the imposition of value systems. Even if we take a seemingly-agreeable and simple value like "get everyone fed", we could argue that while _recently_ (last 200 years or so) there has been much progress, the invention of agriculture was, in another way, a regress (it permitted there to be more, but _less well-fed,_ people, than hunter/gatherer lifestyles). Moreover, what progress we have made is fragile and presently conditioned upon ecologically and thermodynamically unsustainable social systems. So whether it represents true progress in the long run, i.e. a lasting change to the conditions of humankind, is yet to be seen. In other domains, the idea of progress is much harder to ascertain: if we take something more abstract like "justice", then it depends heavily on where you are in the world. Some places have achieved more (e.g. Northern Europe) but at the active expense of others (e.g. Africa) while leaving some (e.g. the Middle East) stuck in conservative, oppressive hierarchies.
Value systems develop because we are a social species. Cooperation increases survival and social rules increase cooperation. These 'rules' are a matter of constant negotiation.
penicillin doesn't cure gonorrhoea anymore. its typically treated with intramuscular ceftriaxone now - which is a third generation ceflasporin that used to be used to be reserved to treat more serious illnesses just 10 years ago.
I find some times we focus to much on individuals in history instead of all the work by all the people that led up to it and its impacts good and bad on society and the environment
Before watching. To the point that the civilization collapses. We would lose so much knowledge before when civs would collapse that we couldn’t build on it. I think when the nuclear war hits and we all collapse again we will be sent back to what Afghanistan is now. The Stone Age.
Really nice video and good food for thought. A couple thoughts: not to take anything away from liberty as an essential core value of society, but, as the French Revolution rightfully touted, where did we leave fraternity and equality at? 🙂Also, it is indeed pretty hard not to conflate human progress with technological advancement and it seems to be many people's natural response, while forgetting that societal evolution has many more facets to it that seem to be sometimes not taken into account when discussing where we are, where we were, and where we're heading.
18:25 in the German speaking realm, it's always been called middle ages (Mittelalter). First time I heard the term in English I thought: "Do you mean night?"
On October 16, 2023 I said on my blog that: "Since the invasion of Iraq ordered by George W. Bush Jr., the empire of politically organized violence has completely dominated the American economy and society, deformed journalism and corrupted state institutions until mortally poisoning democracy in the USA. Israel continues the example of its main diplomatic, military and economic partner. Without diplomatic ambitions or civilizational prospects, these two countries wander from one military conflict to another because the war has become a continuation by other means of the private profits of armaments manufacturers." A few days later Vladimir Putin stated that the USA benefits from wars: “just business”. It's good to know that Putin agrees with me. It's bad that this historical reality is minimized by the Western press, because the owners of communication companies are also shareholders in armaments factories. There is no lightness possible in a historical process that pushes civilization towards its negation because war is a profitable business. The barbarity becomes more evident when we notice that caring about Palestinian victims is becoming a crime in the USA, UK and Europe.
Quoting Putin is like quoting Hitler. He literally says an entire people- Ukrainians - do not actually exist. A bizarre excuse for a land-grab. Why didn't you mention this 'limited military operation'? Is it just 'just business' for Russia?
I haven't watched the whole thing but I am making more of a note for myself on the problems of liberty as well, in a strange way some people out there might argue we have too much liberty today, or that societies promotion of liberty, the freedom to do anything, has it's downsides in the promotion of living which is overly harmful - for instance with the normalisation of casual sexual relationships, or the promotion of social media, or even the celebration of eating unrestrained - leading to the acceptance of unhealthy food eating habits, etc. some argue, not necessarily entirely myself, that these pushes for liberation destroy the social fabric societies have been woven with, which only leads to chaos and confusion.
There is a quote I read recently and it has caused me to look at things quite differently. In the Arcades Project N 2.2, Benjamin writes: It may be considered one of the methodological objectives of this work to demonstrate a historical materialism which has annihilated within itself the idea of progress. Just here, historical materialism has every reason to distinguish itself sharply from bourgeois habits of thought. It's founding concept is not progress but actualization. Contrasting progress with actualization is a very interesting thought experiment. Thank you for your fine work.
Nice quote. Progress is different from teleology in that it is never sated -- it is increasingly destructive means without an end. Or, perhaps, no end humanity is prepared for.
Progress, progression... iteration, counting, it is a concept that only applies to algorithms. Processes that already have set steps... Procedures. Like with Charles Darwin's theory, we have come to understand it more as a naturally occurring selective pressure caused by circumstances in the environment. History is much the same. It's just that we have language and writing...
The human experience is paramount throughout history. And human rights and liberty is valued highly within the experience, as is justice. Unfortunately the experience also highly values things like “happiness” which can be very different and very dangerous for us. Is choice best above all else? Or environmentalism? Liberty is best but regulation makes liberty possible
""All government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual." ~ Emma Goldman
I learned a lot and they’re always thought provoking …I liked the layering / cross reference etc , you’re a charismatic presenter too…that winged back chair distracted me, in a good way, it made think of Thomas Bernhard’s novel The Woodcutters…
How is it that we hear about Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations a lot, and he wrote "read, write and account" multiple times, and 'education' Eighty Times but we do not hear the Capitalists advocating mandatory accounting in the schools?
00:03:25 _...people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things that historians usually record while on the banks unnoticed. People build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry, and even whittle statues._ That's because they are the same people.
Have you read Bookchin's Ecology of Freedom? His section on the "Genealogy of Freedom" tackles a lot of these subjects from a somewhat different angle.
2:25 Well, I would note that Aristotle's definition of _Touche_ (Luck, Chance) is just that. An _unintended consequence_ of someone's action. The example he gives is going to the market, and running into someone who owes him money -- he promptly pays it back. That he ran into him was a deliberate consequence of his action, though unintended. That's called chance, by Aristotle. In this regard, I would also note that the way the ancients thought of fate and luck was FAR different than we living in the shadow of that ubiquitous philosophy of existence: modern mathematical physics!
Fantastic doc!! Although…. could one consider the regression of the medieval period the building of potential energy that pushed Europe to the first ever Industrial Revolution and beyond? Just a thought
We record only the bad stuff in history because we obviously figured the good stuff. It's the bad stuff that we need to re-analyse. Once we figure it, we don't record that we did, we just don't have records of the bad thing happening.
I’m so surprised by your conclusion. I felt inspired by an idea yesterday only to see parts of that idea exemplified at the end of this video today. The connection of a germ theory to idea-viruses. Imagine a world where we make the leap from miasma theory to germ theory except in the domain of ideas. Surely ideas have caused as much if not more death and suffering than any microscopic organism. How much harder will it be to discover a ideological pathogen than it was to see a microscopic bacteria? How much smaller are ideas than a germ?
You could argue that technology has led to a regress, therein it could implode through a transcendental object beginning a more rapid, modern and human/humane/ecologically wise stage of economic development and much more. In my opinion nature itself has been building this thing.
I think technology and knowledge progresses, but human behavior is cyclical. Human behavior has been similar over time no matter how much technology has progressed.
7:43 "intersubjective"? So, just subjective? I don't see what makes "intersubjectivity" different from subjectivity. Ideas are always held individually, after all. Influenced by others, of course, but that's true for virtually all subjective ideas we hold.
Wow - great video - loved it! Tip: When you show a quote like the one by Will Durant - you have to put his name on the screen because without this, the transcript and captions called him "Will Girond". I just happened to know who said it.
Only 10 minutes in and I'm impressed, tells me this is gonna be good. Thanks for sharing your content with us. Already so far I just resonate with that attitude toward science and reason, but also taking a moment to notice the good. Better it's out there than not at all.
I think you should stop yourself when you're saying things like "I think when you look at the dark side of history (eg the Holocaust) the word that comes to mind is Bittersweet".
10:30 "The Biblical idea that the Sun went around the Earth..." I'm going to nitpick here: while it is in my view correct that this was a strongly _christian_ idea back in the day, I wouldn't say it's _biblical_ since it is never explicitly stated in the Bible that the Sun revolves around the Earth. As is often the cause with religion, commonly held beliefs are not necessarily what is in the holy texts.
How is it a" paradox" that "the most important innovation in history....were happening at the same time as the most devastating catastrophe in history"? Unless you believe in God or something? They're just two unrelated events.
Surely this video shows, that, whilst there have been blips and deviations from progress, that dialogue does continue and on the whole, things have got better; thus history has progressed - whilst not inevitable, it can be seen over the long sweep of history; human beings are capable of critical enquiry, judgement and an intent to make life & liberty greater.
This is a rather idealized version of progress and liberty. Much of our modern prosperity is due to scientific and technological advancement. Without it, democracy would look quite different. It was a aspiration arising from the failings of monarchy. But democracy and tyranny of the majority also has its limitations. We may soon wish to limit the power of our Democratic citizens over us - since they are not committed to freedom of those they disagree with.
I found these two videos very interesting. We all tell ourselves stories about the state of the world. Generally people seem to come down to either seeing civilization as getting better or worse. For me and my wife the year 2000 would go on to define our outlooks. At 10 years old I remember having a wall chart showing humanities achievements. My wife on the other hand was in Church with the pastor praying straight through midnight just incase they got raptured.
The statement that the Bible says the Sun goes around the Earth is a flat out lie. I challenge anyone to point out a chapter and verse that does. The Catholic Church were the one's that interpreted Joshua's request that the sun not set by saying "Sun stand still", that it meant his perspective was divine and therefore correct. This is tantamount to anyone that says "the Sun has gone down" must think the Sun is moving. The church's interpretation was wrong and that's where the error lays.
One idea of wisdom is simple rules and traditions that come from knowledge of higher order consequences of actions that are beyond the immediate consideration of the individual. There's things within the lifetime and so within their interests such as healthy eating and then there is wisdom beyond a single or multiple generations where the consequences are not obvious or important to the agents involved in the present. Each generation that has not experienced the bad consequences of certain behaviours is likely to repeat them. History is one way of passing down this wisdom. Ray Dalio's work is largely a study of this from a western economic point of view and the building up of debts and explains the tradition of usury being banned in Abrahamic traditions. Many other indigenous traditions will be around preserving things like water and biodiversity so they are prepared for the flood or famine than only occurs every few hundred years.
Hi Lewis, am new to your content and feel you understand something a lot of people don't seem to get. I would love to have a conversation with you and hopefully we can work on something together. Please get in touch am confident it would be of mutual interest. Regards Paul Crucial
History is nothing but the evolution of human thought. The trace of the arc from apes to A.I. Today we call that thought "philosophy" or "ideology". Freedom is a human construct and a type of thought. There is also no such thing as "progress", only "change". Empires continually rise and fall so there is no real "progress", only change of hands and thus, the only one constant throughout this eternal "change" is man's pursuit of power and his inner evil. Man's desire to rule himself according to his own ideas of good and evil and not God's. There is also no one best way of rule. Aristotle expressed the idea that democracy is not the best form of government and he was murdered for his thinking. Recorded history is full of biases because each country (empire) records history in a light that is favourable to themselves. Records are thus not bias free and not really historicaly accurate. Today our culture is fixated on de-colonising our past, as if that will change anything about it or the future.🙄 We have become so reasonable after The Enlightenment that we've ended up losing all sense of reason whatsoever. I homeschool our 15 year old son and so have had to read and watch years worth of historical data in order to bring myself up to date to teach him about history. The above summary is what I have learned from the experience.
No such thing as progress? I invite you to imagine your situation, sitting exactly where you're at now, if it was 500 years ago. No fridge full of food, no cozy shelter, no medical care or drugs, no clothes from the store and most likely, no refined metal. All you'd be thinking about is power and your inner evil?
Regarding "what happens on the banks": there is a quote from George Eliot's Middlemarch that has a similar message: "..for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."
Progress is going from point A to B and knowing how far point B is. I made progress. The future of progress usually gets stalled, or stuck, because no one knows where the hell it is going. I'm going to bed now. I don't know what time I will wake up. Is sleep part of progress? Then history has gone to sleep. Doesn't matter. We made some yesterday. Lets read the media sources and take a look at history. Its too soon. No one is interested. Its an "about what?" question. Hegel had no personal history other than reading a lot and discovering what all the Greeks must have felt like being what he thought. He wasn't the only curious writer. I don't wonder the woman I'm interested in felt like when she was five years old. What do we learn from history? We're not like those people were anymore. Anything else to learn and put to use before I check out some old Playboy Magazines? For the interviews for sure, the ads, you bet and maybe the hairstyles from beehives to etc. Tip to bottom, eh?..haha...Good video...nudge wink..
Like Spinoza insists and Hegel insists is impossible- we know what something is within its full context. And while we perceive history to have culminated in our immediate present where the conclusion is obvious so we do know the full story already, such a perception is always wrong. It is fair to insist not all of history is a straight line to betterment, but I am unsure of the justification in calling it bittersweet
I think if you're going to try to use history to understand the present and future that shouldn't be the work of academic historians. Studying history is really all about authenticity and trying to develop a clear understanding of things in the past and that means dealing with messy and conflicting narratives and sources written by people whose experiences of life are often completely alien to your own.. I think its a completely wrong approach to see history as a tool to be used and doing so is a massive disservice to the experiences and beliefs of generations and generations of people, because you're going in with an incredibly myopic sense of what you want to get out of it. That being said history is definitely something to be learned from - but it really should be a secondary thing and a strong moral foundation should come first. History is able to completely transform depending on your narrative and perspective and that can be incredibly toxic if the moral foundations are wrong- take the Nazis veneration of their idea of history, for instance.
The problem with history is that there is so much of it that you can build-a-bear any narrative you would like to.
😢😊
There are sides to every story yours, mine, and the truth
@43_xa_ashutoshsononey32 philosophically no one knows what they don’t know. people don’t argue empirical evidence unless explaining why it does what it does. In the world of eye witness there should be enough empirical evidence that shows just how obscured people see the world. My favorite example is. When you don’t know something is there and your brain fills in the picture with what it assumes should be there, and once you know it’s there it almost magically appears out of nowhere, and after that you will always notice it there. We could be in the same observable room and you see something different than me but there could be things you and me both don’t see but exists. It’s called science, ain’t it a crazy ride. Hopefully someone uncovers more and more for all of us to see and then we can believe. You know things , I know things, and there are things to learn. Might argue about it along the way. It’s a process.
that's corect but there still is a history no matter what. Things happened in some way leading to this. That's enough to start considering it i suppose.
That's only three sides. I have one. Its a bright side!..Yeah, that's it. I never hurt a flea. I checked, its true. I've crushed bed bugs because the landlord lied. That's his story, not mine..."I FORGOT MY UMBRELLA"...
Full quote: "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk." is from Hegel's work "Philosophy of Right" meaning that wisdom/understanding comes only in historical hindsight. Indeed it's bittersweet.
Why do you think that is the full 'quote'? You're just 'quoting' the English translations which added the 'fullness'. "Die Eule der Minerva beginnt erst mit der einbrechenden Dämmerung ihren Flug" is the full quote, and the translation is up to the reader, but the meaning ought to remain as was presented in the video.
@@neoepicurean3772thanks dad
Hegel was such an interesting character
@@neoepicurean3772do you feel as though you may have gone a bit overboard in your reply? I am but a skulker in Internet forums but I must tell you, I think so.
@@crypticscrutiny1153 Haha :D I've had two classes this semester, one on Wittgenstein, the other on Nietzsche. So I've had a guts full of German translations. I was only pointing out that the quote given in the video was closer to the German (arguably) that the 'full' quote offered in the comment above. I'm really not much of a skulker or sulker :D
Thanks. It's a fascinating area of thought. On the whole, many things do seem to have improved (medicine, science, technology), while others seem to waver endlessly back & forth (politics, religion). I'd have to say history does not progress strictly linearly - at least not consistently as a single thing. And we can certainly be knocked backwards by various of its aspects, from wars to diseases to natural disasters & more. I do think that we often reach a sort of crux, or nexus point, wherein it becomes virtually inevitable that someone will discover or invent a certain thing. Airplanes are a good example. Fossil fuel engines were there, the ability to work lightweight aluminum was there. It was a matter of who did it first more than when. Someone was definitely going to come up with the bomb; there's no doubt of it. But there are cyclical aspects as well. We veer back & forth between democracy & tyranny quite regularly. Progress is a slippery concept. As Frank Herbert put it, "The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future". Well, ouch! Thanks again. tavi
Oo I agree with this
What a great F Herbert quote! I have read so many of his books but I don't think I have come across that quote-- where is it from please?🙏🏾
I recently stumbled on your channel. And I have been binging it ever since. The video's are well made, and I do like the often nuanced approach.
But one thing I noticed, which is rare for YT channels I think, is how you use pauses (with music and imagery, but no narrative). I think it gives audience time to breathe. Let it sink in, what just has been said. I really appreciate those pauses (you seem to have implemented those, very early on in your YT career too).
Jorge Luis Borges wrote a short story about a town where at least one person had to stay awake each night, the idea that the town would disappear if no one was awake to keep the idea of the town alive. History is just a succession of overlapping narratives. Reality is just a collective hunch.
Hell No! Reality is Reality and sooner or later it will show itself one way or another. Relativism is our worst enemy.
Platonic idealism
What is the name of the story?
I think the problem with historical progress is that everyone defines progress differently, and is therefore able to say they’re correct. So what exactly is progress?
"History is nothing but the progress of the consciousness of freedom." -Hegel. I can't stop thinking about this since the moment I first read it.
The consciousness of freedom? What does that mean?
@@706easy Becoming aware of our need for freedom.
Because it is patently false?
@@zwatwashdc How is that "patently" false?
Thank you for consistently providing material for contemplation and social discourse, that is well reasoned, rooted in historical fact, and clearly presented. A notification from you is always an invitation to examine possibilities, and marvel at the impressive range of the human experience. You and your team are a welcome inspiration.🖤🇨🇦
At 37:30, I hear what could be the whole guiding philosophy of your channel stated so clearly, why modern policy-makers and historians need to be in conversation. Twice in the video I shouted “he said the thing!” when the words “then and now” came up. By the end of the video, I could appreciate that choice to be so overt with that theme. This video’s like a Then and Now thesis.
I maintain that my palaeolithic ancestors had it all, and so-called progress is a vast and painful detour that, if things go well, will bring us right back where we started. It seems just as likely ‘progress’ will end up killing us all.
Wow! Very well worded. I've been thinking of native Australians a lot and how the British were quick to call them primitive and take their land. Yet they did not overpopulate and neighboring mobs fought but should we call it a war? Many monuments around for first explorers....
That needed leading and shown to water holes on their deathbeds but if we recognise the whites following native trails we are still not recognising the aborigines as humans or equals.
These essays are phenomenal and were I still teaching I'd recommend them as guiding structures of historical/philosophical inquiry
I think it's interesting that: The Sustainable Society Index, a ranking produced by the nonprofit Sustainable Society Foundation, used 3 well-being categories to compare countries: human, environmental and economic. Within the categories are: Purpose well-being, social well-being, financial well-being, community well-being, and physical well-being. But my word-search of the report showed no instances of the word "liberty" or "freedom". I was stunned since I, like you, would make liberty the primary criteria or at least in the top 2 criteria.
Freedom is such an easy concept to interpret in bad faith. You have the freedom to make money in that like, the goverbment leta you be rich, but that freedom is effectively meaninglesa for a lot of people
Freedom is implied, not expressed, because Freedom is not an absolute. It is a cultural construction. For instance, in some Buddhist societies, if you have taken care of your family's needs, you can enter a monastery, and retreat from the world. But in Western societies, the economy demands that one must now face a lifetime of having to work, because the cost of retirement is being individualised and the ability to save enough to retire is being eroded by the profit motive in capitalism. So ultimately, retirement may for some may no longer be a choice.
So, each society makes choices of what freedom is, and the powerful in them spend time, effort, and money, to influence such choices. Hence, you have people in poverty in the richest countries in the world.
We are co-creators of our identity and reality. In this, we are never free. We are bound in civilisation like oxen hitched to a plough. There are benefits, but there are distinct limitations, that may, or may not, promote freedom in any meaningful sense.
what do you mean by liberty/freedom? there are no consensus definitions. it's pretty clear that we don't have libertarian free-will. variety, options, difference, 'degrees of freedom' in the world don't seem free in any sense to me, just a fact about the plurality and disunity of the world.
@@real_pattern I would argue that at minimum, freedom means political and civil human rights: freedom of speech, press, and assembly; freedom from slavery; freedom from government arrest or punishment without justification in law; and freedom from vague or excessive law. The last one is not named on any charter of such, but I'd say it's a necessary companion to the one preceding it, because the "rule of law" is only a restraint on power so long as there aren't too many or too-broad laws.
Then & Now is an excellent explainer both then and now!
To suggest that there is any inherent tendency for history to "progress" is smacking of teleology, which smacks of religion, which smacks of superstition and a level of idealism that is unwarranted by the historical facts. We move ahead in some ways, get worse in others. The technology and creature comforts generally improve over time, but the planet degrades and the capacity for destruction has grown immensely. To a large degree, we are still fighting many of the same bitter battles that have persisted throughout recorded history.
Progress is not a guarantee or natural design. Eventual decay is probably the more genuine built-in design, in a world governed by increasing entropy.
Agreed. There is no such thing as a net gain, only trade offs and preferences.
The story with penicillin is out of context. Many times in history, in many countries it was noticed that mold can inhabit deseases. Also Fleming abandoned an idea of its mass ipmlication. Only later two scientists tinkered with it and thank to them humanity saw mass production of penicillin
Oh come on
Civil progress is fraught with civil failures
I’m glad this loosely discusses a question I’ve had for a long time, what is freedom?
You should do an episode on 'systems thinking'
"Progress" only makes sense relative to a value system. Thus it begs the questions of "whose value system?" and "why theirs?", and also questions regarding the imposition of value systems. Even if we take a seemingly-agreeable and simple value like "get everyone fed", we could argue that while _recently_ (last 200 years or so) there has been much progress, the invention of agriculture was, in another way, a regress (it permitted there to be more, but _less well-fed,_ people, than hunter/gatherer lifestyles). Moreover, what progress we have made is fragile and presently conditioned upon ecologically and thermodynamically unsustainable social systems. So whether it represents true progress in the long run, i.e. a lasting change to the conditions of humankind, is yet to be seen. In other domains, the idea of progress is much harder to ascertain: if we take something more abstract like "justice", then it depends heavily on where you are in the world. Some places have achieved more (e.g. Northern Europe) but at the active expense of others (e.g. Africa) while leaving some (e.g. the Middle East) stuck in conservative, oppressive hierarchies.
Value systems develop because we are a social species. Cooperation increases survival and social rules increase cooperation. These 'rules' are a matter of constant negotiation.
You are the genius 👏. Yet again you made a video that expanded my mind a bit more and makes me watch it over and over again.
penicillin doesn't cure gonorrhoea anymore. its typically treated with intramuscular ceftriaxone now - which is a third generation ceflasporin that used to be used to be reserved to treat more serious illnesses just 10 years ago.
The bacteria are progressing, just like us.
I find some times we focus to much on individuals in history instead of all the work by all the people that led up to it and its impacts good and bad on society and the environment
Before watching.
To the point that the civilization collapses. We would lose so much knowledge before when civs would collapse that we couldn’t build on it. I think when the nuclear war hits and we all collapse again we will be sent back to what Afghanistan is now. The Stone Age.
Interesting.
Fun fact:
Steam Engine was known in Ancient Greece. It was invented by Hero of Alexandria, and called Aeolipile
What your doing here is good for civilization. We must be informed, not hypnotized, as we push into this communication revolution. Bravo
Really nice video and good food for thought. A couple thoughts: not to take anything away from liberty as an essential core value of society, but, as the French Revolution rightfully touted, where did we leave fraternity and equality at? 🙂Also, it is indeed pretty hard not to conflate human progress with technological advancement and it seems to be many people's natural response, while forgetting that societal evolution has many more facets to it that seem to be sometimes not taken into account when discussing where we are, where we were, and where we're heading.
18:25 in the German speaking realm, it's always been called middle ages (Mittelalter).
First time I heard the term in English I thought: "Do you mean night?"
On October 16, 2023 I said on my blog that:
"Since the invasion of Iraq ordered by George W. Bush Jr., the empire of politically organized violence has completely dominated the American economy and society, deformed journalism and corrupted state institutions until mortally poisoning democracy in the USA. Israel continues the example of its main diplomatic, military and economic partner.
Without diplomatic ambitions or civilizational prospects, these two countries wander from one military conflict to another because the war has become a continuation by other means of the private profits of armaments manufacturers."
A few days later Vladimir Putin stated that the USA benefits from wars: “just business”.
It's good to know that Putin agrees with me. It's bad that this historical reality is minimized by the Western press, because the owners of communication companies are also shareholders in armaments factories. There is no lightness possible in a historical process that pushes civilization towards its negation because war is a profitable business. The barbarity becomes more evident when we notice that caring about Palestinian victims is becoming a crime in the USA, UK and Europe.
It's not a crime to care about Palestinians. It is a crime to ignore Israeli victims.
The judge from blood meridian comes to mind.
Quoting Putin is like quoting Hitler. He literally says an entire people- Ukrainians - do not actually exist. A bizarre excuse for a land-grab. Why didn't you mention this 'limited military operation'? Is it just 'just business' for Russia?
I haven't watched the whole thing but I am making more of a note for myself on the problems of liberty as well, in a strange way some people out there might argue we have too much liberty today, or that societies promotion of liberty, the freedom to do anything, has it's downsides in the promotion of living which is overly harmful - for instance with the normalisation of casual sexual relationships, or the promotion of social media, or even the celebration of eating unrestrained - leading to the acceptance of unhealthy food eating habits, etc. some argue, not necessarily entirely myself, that these pushes for liberation destroy the social fabric societies have been woven with, which only leads to chaos and confusion.
There is a quote I read recently and it has caused me to look at things quite differently. In the Arcades Project N 2.2, Benjamin writes: It may be considered one of the methodological objectives of this work to demonstrate a historical materialism which has annihilated within itself the idea of progress. Just here, historical materialism has every reason to distinguish itself sharply from bourgeois habits of thought. It's founding concept is not progress but actualization.
Contrasting progress with actualization is a very interesting thought experiment.
Thank you for your fine work.
Nice quote. Progress is different from teleology in that it is never sated -- it is increasingly destructive means without an end. Or, perhaps, no end humanity is prepared for.
Progress, progression... iteration, counting, it is a concept that only applies to algorithms. Processes that already have set steps... Procedures.
Like with Charles Darwin's theory, we have come to understand it more as a naturally occurring selective pressure caused by circumstances in the environment. History is much the same. It's just that we have language and writing...
What are your thoughts on Karl Marx's idea that history is a linear progression from class struggle to communist utopia via bourgeoisie dictatorship?
The human experience is paramount throughout history. And human rights and liberty is valued highly within the experience, as is justice. Unfortunately the experience also highly values things like “happiness” which can be very different and very dangerous for us. Is choice best above all else? Or environmentalism? Liberty is best but regulation makes liberty possible
My man, your videos keep me going.
Well presented! History must progress and learn from the past.
one of the most valuable creators on youtube
""All government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual." ~ Emma Goldman
I learned a lot and they’re always thought provoking …I liked the layering / cross reference etc , you’re a charismatic presenter too…that winged back chair distracted me, in a good way, it made think of Thomas Bernhard’s novel
The Woodcutters…
How is it that we hear about Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations a lot, and he wrote "read, write and account" multiple times, and 'education' Eighty Times but we do not hear the Capitalists advocating mandatory accounting in the schools?
00:03:25 _...people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things that historians usually record while on the banks unnoticed. People build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry, and even whittle statues._
That's because they are the same people.
I haven't even watched the first part of this yet lol, give me a couple hours, but I'm sure this is gonna be a great couple of videos
Have you read Bookchin's Ecology of Freedom? His section on the "Genealogy of Freedom" tackles a lot of these subjects from a somewhat different angle.
Contentment is an essential factor in happiness, so you need to try to be satisfied with the food, clothes and shelter you have.
2:25
Well, I would note that Aristotle's definition of _Touche_ (Luck, Chance) is just that. An _unintended consequence_ of someone's action. The example he gives is going to the market, and running into someone who owes him money -- he promptly pays it back. That he ran into him was a deliberate consequence of his action, though unintended. That's called chance, by Aristotle.
In this regard, I would also note that the way the ancients thought of fate and luck was FAR different than we living in the shadow of that ubiquitous philosophy of existence: modern mathematical physics!
Fantastic doc!! Although…. could one consider the regression of the medieval period the building of potential energy that pushed Europe to the first ever Industrial Revolution and beyond? Just a thought
Comment for the algorithm. These kind of videos deserve more exposure.
We record only the bad stuff in history because we obviously figured the good stuff. It's the bad stuff that we need to re-analyse. Once we figure it, we don't record that we did, we just don't have records of the bad thing happening.
I’m so surprised by your conclusion. I felt inspired by an idea yesterday only to see parts of that idea exemplified at the end of this video today. The connection of a germ theory to idea-viruses. Imagine a world where we make the leap from miasma theory to germ theory except in the domain of ideas. Surely ideas have caused as much if not more death and suffering than any microscopic organism. How much harder will it be to discover a ideological pathogen than it was to see a microscopic bacteria? How much smaller are ideas than a germ?
Well done! Thank you!
Fantastic work
considering pinker lied about the oxy finding to justify the leviathan theory i would take all from him as misleading
You could argue that technology has led to a regress, therein it could implode through a transcendental object beginning a more rapid, modern and human/humane/ecologically wise stage of economic development and much more. In my opinion nature itself has been building this thing.
This is absolutely, brilliantly done.
33:00 AH, AH! He said it! He said it!
I think technology and knowledge progresses, but human behavior is cyclical. Human behavior has been similar over time no matter how much technology has progressed.
The problem is the reason needs a reason.
And vice versa
Give it some time, and antibiotics will be a thing of the past
Wild Animals do not need them, Farm Animals are given them as routine!
@@jamesx9881 Yup. It's a bist dishonest that people claim doctors and patients use them too much when most antibiotics are used for livestock.
@@bdarecords_Totally. But we couldn't give up eating animals, could we? Compromising our health is the obvious choice.
humanity is the. reluctant ape.
Filled with the endless novelty.
7:43 "intersubjective"? So, just subjective? I don't see what makes "intersubjectivity" different from subjectivity. Ideas are always held individually, after all. Influenced by others, of course, but that's true for virtually all subjective ideas we hold.
What are your thoughts on Karl Marx's idea that history is a linear progression from class struggle to communist utopia via bourgeoisie dictatorship?
Wow - great video - loved it! Tip: When you show a quote like the one by Will Durant - you have to put his name on the screen because without this, the transcript and captions called him "Will Girond". I just happened to know who said it.
Only 10 minutes in and I'm impressed, tells me this is gonna be good. Thanks for sharing your content with us. Already so far I just resonate with that attitude toward science and reason, but also taking a moment to notice the good. Better it's out there than not at all.
OP has made this education ebb and flow too
Like a smooth dessert
This feels like Cool Worlds but history instead of space
Is it desperation for getting famous or some sort of psychosis level of social media only some are susceptible to?
I do wish I was a student of yours. Top show
Well I guess we all are
Just brilliant.
Freedom comes from free speech and the individual right to bear arms
I think you should stop yourself when you're saying things like "I think when you look at the dark side of history (eg the Holocaust) the word that comes to mind is Bittersweet".
10:30 "The Biblical idea that the Sun went around the Earth..."
I'm going to nitpick here: while it is in my view correct that this was a strongly _christian_ idea back in the day, I wouldn't say it's _biblical_ since it is never explicitly stated in the Bible that the Sun revolves around the Earth. As is often the cause with religion, commonly held beliefs are not necessarily what is in the holy texts.
There is no such thing as a "holy" text.
This deserves more views
this type of comment has been on youtube for 10+ years, why do you post this if i may ask?
@@maketf2343 honestly because I liked this video a lot and commenting can help the algorithm.
How is it a" paradox" that "the most important innovation in history....were happening at the same time as the most devastating catastrophe in history"?
Unless you believe in God or something? They're just two unrelated events.
Surely this video shows, that, whilst there have been blips and deviations from progress, that dialogue does continue and on the whole, things have got better; thus history has progressed - whilst not inevitable, it can be seen over the long sweep of history; human beings are capable of critical enquiry, judgement and an intent to make life & liberty greater.
Can’t find the bibliography in the description below…?
This is a rather idealized version of progress and liberty. Much of our modern prosperity is due to scientific and technological advancement. Without it, democracy would look quite different. It was a aspiration arising from the failings of monarchy. But democracy and tyranny of the majority also has its limitations. We may soon wish to limit the power of our Democratic citizens over us - since they are not committed to freedom of those they disagree with.
32:59 he said it! He said the thing!
Beautiful video
I found these two videos very interesting. We all tell ourselves stories about the state of the world. Generally people seem to come down to either seeing civilization as getting better or worse. For me and my wife the year 2000 would go on to define our outlooks. At 10 years old I remember having a wall chart showing humanities achievements. My wife on the other hand was in Church with the pastor praying straight through midnight just incase they got raptured.
The statement that the Bible says the Sun goes around the Earth is a flat out lie. I challenge anyone to point out a chapter and verse that does.
The Catholic Church were the one's that interpreted Joshua's request that the sun not set by saying "Sun stand still", that it meant his perspective was divine and therefore correct. This is tantamount to anyone that says "the Sun has gone down" must think the Sun is moving. The church's interpretation was wrong and that's where the error lays.
Does history progress? Well, that depends on where your from.
It only progresses if the right people hold the consensus.
We didn't see progress after WW1. But we did see it after the Second World War.
I always thought penicillin came from a melon?
One idea of wisdom is simple rules and traditions that come from knowledge of higher order consequences of actions that are beyond the immediate consideration of the individual. There's things within the lifetime and so within their interests such as healthy eating and then there is wisdom beyond a single or multiple generations where the consequences are not obvious or important to the agents involved in the present. Each generation that has not experienced the bad consequences of certain behaviours is likely to repeat them. History is one way of passing down this wisdom. Ray Dalio's work is largely a study of this from a western economic point of view and the building up of debts and explains the tradition of usury being banned in Abrahamic traditions. Many other indigenous traditions will be around preserving things like water and biodiversity so they are prepared for the flood or famine than only occurs every few hundred years.
Prediction: not a single mention of historical materialism
What are your thoughts on Karl Marx's idea that history is a linear progression from class struggle to communist utopia via bourgeoisie dictatorship?
Oh mighty algorithm why arent we rewarded with boost button?
Good video! Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood. :-)
Hi Lewis, am new to your content and feel you understand something a lot of people don't seem to get.
I would love to have a conversation with you and hopefully we can work on something together.
Please get in touch am confident it would be of mutual interest.
Regards
Paul Crucial
One thing I notice is this video is western history. Not world history
It does, twords hell
History is nothing but the evolution of human thought. The trace of the arc from apes to A.I. Today we call that thought "philosophy" or "ideology". Freedom is a human construct and a type of thought. There is also no such thing as "progress", only "change". Empires continually rise and fall so there is no real "progress", only change of hands and thus, the only one constant throughout this eternal "change" is man's pursuit of power and his inner evil. Man's desire to rule himself according to his own ideas of good and evil and not God's. There is also no one best way of rule. Aristotle expressed the idea that democracy is not the best form of government and he was murdered for his thinking. Recorded history is full of biases because each country (empire) records history in a light that is favourable to themselves. Records are thus not bias free and not really historicaly accurate. Today our culture is fixated on de-colonising our past, as if that will change anything about it or the future.🙄 We have become so reasonable after The Enlightenment that we've ended up losing all sense of reason whatsoever. I homeschool our 15 year old son and so have had to read and watch years worth of historical data in order to bring myself up to date to teach him about history. The above summary is what I have learned from the experience.
No such thing as progress? I invite you to imagine your situation, sitting exactly where you're at now, if it was 500 years ago. No fridge full of food, no cozy shelter, no medical care or drugs, no clothes from the store and most likely, no refined metal. All you'd be thinking about is power and your inner evil?
Imagine homeschooling, especially with such a mindset that hints at conspiracy lunatic. Child abuse.
Damn this video deserves more views
Regarding "what happens on the banks": there is a quote from George Eliot's Middlemarch that has a similar message:
"..for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."
13:15 ish good message.
Progress is going from point A to B and knowing how far point B is. I made progress. The future of progress usually gets stalled, or stuck, because no one knows where the hell it is going. I'm going to bed now. I don't know what time I will wake up. Is sleep part of progress? Then history has gone to sleep. Doesn't matter. We made some yesterday. Lets read the media sources and take a look at history. Its too soon. No one is interested. Its an "about what?" question. Hegel had no personal history other than reading a lot and discovering what all the Greeks must have felt like being what he thought. He wasn't the only curious writer. I don't wonder the woman I'm interested in felt like when she was five years old.
What do we learn from history? We're not like those people were anymore. Anything else to learn and put to use before I check out some old Playboy Magazines? For the interviews for sure, the ads, you bet and maybe the hairstyles from beehives to etc. Tip to bottom, eh?..haha...Good video...nudge wink..
Lore of Does History Progress? Momentum 100
This is a classic
So well researched and well made video. Thank you so much
Like Spinoza insists and Hegel insists is impossible- we know what something is within its full context. And while we perceive history to have culminated in our immediate present where the conclusion is obvious so we do know the full story already, such a perception is always wrong. It is fair to insist not all of history is a straight line to betterment, but I am unsure of the justification in calling it bittersweet
We understand exactly what he means here in Oklahoma on tribal lands.....
Progresoa hobeto ulertzeko Hegelen hontzari hegan egiten utzi aurretik Walter Benjaminen aingeruari lurrera jaisten lagundu behar diogu.
Weird logical semantics.
Depends what you mean by "progress", and whether you're intentionally misusing the term.
Hes critiquing pinkers version of progress, about things getting better.
iT does .;i;. as CircaTree
Does magic exist?
I think if you're going to try to use history to understand the present and future that shouldn't be the work of academic historians. Studying history is really all about authenticity and trying to develop a clear understanding of things in the past and that means dealing with messy and conflicting narratives and sources written by people whose experiences of life are often completely alien to your own.. I think its a completely wrong approach to see history as a tool to be used and doing so is a massive disservice to the experiences and beliefs of generations and generations of people, because you're going in with an incredibly myopic sense of what you want to get out of it.
That being said history is definitely something to be learned from - but it really should be a secondary thing and a strong moral foundation should come first. History is able to completely transform depending on your narrative and perspective and that can be incredibly toxic if the moral foundations are wrong- take the Nazis veneration of their idea of history, for instance.
Where do you think 'moral foundations' come from? They are historical, just like the 'for instance' you gave.