*Contents* 01:05 Can we understand life? 03:48 Fundamental engagement with life 06:05 Intuition 11:12 Life as a continuously unfolding process 16:48 Parallel: Psychic states/Ego 20:30 The antagonism at the heart of life 25:03 Parallel: Freedom 27:30 Radical mechanism and radical finalism 30:37 The appeal of radical mechanism and radical finalism 33:31 Analogy: The road already travelled 38:25 The “retrograde movement” 40:07 Summary
You really presented those ideas interestingly and understandably. Thanks Nathan. I like Bergson’s way of looking at evolution where he says we can more easily understand the products of evolution, but don’t have the tools to easily understand life at a deep pre-intellectual level. This seems particularly relevant for those of us who use philosophy to understand the truth and life as we are, so to speak, undertaking an intellectual enterprise. Which is why I feel the arts are so important …. another way of experiencing and understanding the world. I wondered about your struggle to find a word to describe the prevalence of opposites turning up together. Do you think a better phrase might be polar opposites, where a tension is always present? To me it's a bit like Yin and Yang and that amazing black and white symbol where the black portion has within it the beginnings of the white and the white has within it the beginnings of the black. Maybe that’s not so good: Freedom creates Habits, but do Habits create Freedom? Perhaps they do, in that without habits we would be having to learn how to put our socks on each morning. Groundhog Day. Although if I remember that film correctly there were still new things occurring in each repetition. The road that we create as we walk along it and the wheat field were clever ways of illustrating Bergson’s Retrograde Movement. Human beings do seem to utterly need a narrative to explain how we got here. Whether it’s just story-telling and drama or religion and myth-making. It also seems to me to apply to history although serious historians like serious philosophers try to take as well grounded and supportable approach as possible ….. Nevertheless it’s always written by the winners.
Polar opposites: That's good - emphasis on the polar, as in opposite ends of the same thing, like two sides of a coin. There is no coin without a heads _and_ a tails. Yin-Yang: Bergson's metaphysics is going to really lend itself to this analogy later. I can't remember if I used it or not. I hope not... just because it brings too much spiritual baggage with it. Habits creating freedom: I see what you mean. Maybe they don't create freedom as such; rather they create the 'space' for freedom to operate (in the sense that habit allows us to turn our attention to things other than putting our socks on every day!). History: Exactly! I wrote an article about this very topic a while back.
@@absurdbeing2219 I'd like to take a look at that article. Presume it's on your website? I did look at the website, but not in any detail. Time to put that right methinks! I've thought a bit more about the polarity of freedom and habits since I wrote that comment. I completely agree about habits giving you the space for freedom. I wonder though if they don't also provide a necessary grounding too. For example, an artist is not going to be able to create a masterpiece just by buying all the kit and waiting for inspiration to strike. He will need to learn his art : how to use brushes, mix paint, how different canvasses need to be approached and so on and they will have to become second nature ie like a habit. Similarly a footballer. Practice, practice, practice. Then, when it's all in your muscle memory (like a habit or even an instinct) you can create art on the football pitch. Oh, if Bergson has some Yin-Yang type thinking I'll find that very compelling. I understand your aversion to spiritual practices given what I have gathered about your past experiences. I almost didn't use the phrase, but then did as I felt it got my point across best. I have found Classical Chinese thought (what little I've read of it) to be really intriguing. And although there are a lot of rituals attached there aren't any gods and no religion in the way the rest of the world has.
*Contents*
01:05 Can we understand life?
03:48 Fundamental engagement with life
06:05 Intuition
11:12 Life as a continuously unfolding process
16:48 Parallel: Psychic states/Ego
20:30 The antagonism at the heart of life
25:03 Parallel: Freedom
27:30 Radical mechanism and radical finalism
30:37 The appeal of radical mechanism and radical finalism
33:31 Analogy: The road already travelled
38:25 The “retrograde movement”
40:07 Summary
again thanks fellow being for sharing awareness and insights out loud
This channel is one of the best things that has happened to me. Keep up the brilliant work 😊
Awesome! Thanks a lot!
You really presented those ideas interestingly and understandably. Thanks Nathan.
I like Bergson’s way of looking at evolution where he says we can more easily understand the products of evolution, but don’t have the tools to easily understand life at a deep pre-intellectual level. This seems particularly relevant for those of us who use philosophy to understand the truth and life as we are, so to speak, undertaking an intellectual enterprise. Which is why I feel the arts are so important …. another way of experiencing and understanding the world.
I wondered about your struggle to find a word to describe the prevalence of opposites turning up together. Do you think a better phrase might be polar opposites, where a tension is always present?
To me it's a bit like Yin and Yang and that amazing black and white symbol where the black portion has within it the beginnings of the white and the white has within it the beginnings of the black. Maybe that’s not so good: Freedom creates Habits, but do Habits create Freedom? Perhaps they do, in that without habits we would be having to learn how to put our socks on each morning. Groundhog Day. Although if I remember that film correctly there were still new things occurring in each repetition.
The road that we create as we walk along it and the wheat field were clever ways of illustrating Bergson’s Retrograde Movement. Human beings do seem to utterly need a narrative to explain how we got here. Whether it’s just story-telling and drama or religion and myth-making. It also seems to me to apply to history although serious historians like serious philosophers try to take as well grounded and supportable approach as possible ….. Nevertheless it’s always written by the winners.
Polar opposites: That's good - emphasis on the polar, as in opposite ends of the same thing, like two sides of a coin. There is no coin without a heads _and_ a tails.
Yin-Yang: Bergson's metaphysics is going to really lend itself to this analogy later. I can't remember if I used it or not. I hope not... just because it brings too much spiritual baggage with it.
Habits creating freedom: I see what you mean. Maybe they don't create freedom as such; rather they create the 'space' for freedom to operate (in the sense that habit allows us to turn our attention to things other than putting our socks on every day!).
History: Exactly! I wrote an article about this very topic a while back.
@@absurdbeing2219
I'd like to take a look at that article. Presume it's on your website? I did look at the website, but not in any detail. Time to put that right methinks!
I've thought a bit more about the polarity of freedom and habits since I wrote that comment. I completely agree about habits giving you the space for freedom. I wonder though if they don't also provide a necessary grounding too. For example, an artist is not going to be able to create a masterpiece just by buying all the kit and waiting for inspiration to strike. He will need to learn his art : how to use brushes, mix paint, how different canvasses need to be approached and so on and they will have to become second nature ie like a habit. Similarly a footballer. Practice, practice, practice. Then, when it's all in your muscle memory (like a habit or even an instinct) you can create art on the football pitch.
Oh, if Bergson has some Yin-Yang type thinking I'll find that very compelling. I understand your aversion to spiritual practices given what I have gathered about your past experiences. I almost didn't use the phrase, but then did as I felt it got my point across best.
I have found Classical Chinese thought (what little I've read of it) to be really intriguing. And although there are a lot of rituals attached there aren't any gods and no religion in the way the rest of the world has.
The past is pregnant with the future, maybe. Le passé est gros de l avenir.