Waiting: a philosophical perspective
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Dr. Ellie Anderson, Philosophy professor and co-host of Overthink podcast, shares some ideas about the phenomenology of waiting, drawing on a short piece she wrote about this for the Benton Museum of Art catalogue, the work of philosopher Imad Shouery, and Overthink podcast's episode on the topic.
Ellie's article on waiting (online version): / waiting
Overthink episode on waiting: www.overthinkp...
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“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” - Thoreau
Describe please, seems like this quote has a deeper meaning
@@harisubramanian4165 This quote comes from the chapter in Walden named "Economy" so it concerns itself not only with Thoreau's more practical use of his time and money but the greater use of time we experience as human beings. Interestingly, he begins this paragraph with a comparison of the "frivolous" use of our time with the issue of Southern slavery and emancipation, which played an enormous role in T's life. He calls it "worst of all when you are a slave-driver of yourself." So his time is sacred as eternity is. This leads him to the most famous line in all of Walden which follows immediately: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
I would suggest that waiting opens the door to contemplation and “waiting avoidance mechanisms” open the door to distraction. While the convenience of technology can help alleviate fear or worry, it inhibits the desire to ponder. Reminds me of story I heard about Jung, who noticed most of his clients turned on the radio for background noise as soon as they would walk through their front door. He saw this as doing anything we can to immediately avoid being with ourselves and listening deeply to or thoughts, as most of us don’t particularly like ourselves.
I''ve often put music on to take control of whatever background noise i'm hearing. But lately, i've been so immersed in the 'waiting' (what i formally referred to as 'the acceptance of discomfort' and now refer to as the combination of 'boredom and mild frustration'), that its common for me to not consider background noise at all. I think my motive may have influenced this process. I use the waiting as a means to open space for whatever subconscious activity that allows for possible creativity. My practice of waiting is a kind of listening to my inner self that i'm unable to hear. (yeah, i know how crazy that sounds. haha)
@@jerrypeters1157 Sounds like the religious idea of “Lord, here am I.” Waiting for that inner voice.
I wrote about the topic of waiting a lot in my journal, just a few months back. I called it in-between times, and the gist of it was the idea that we are actually fully alive, and live only in those in-between times. And also, your writing is so immaculate!
My painting practice is all about waiting, proceeding by trial and error at a glacial pace; however, this is the opposite of what you seem to be referring to, as the painting time itself is active, involved. The impatience arises in contemplation of its incompletion. Either way, though, this is a matter of being committed to something that isn't under our control, in this case, acceptance that the good or the better will only evolve a little piece at a time. The paradox of creativity is that it involves both agency and victimhood, not being fully in charge, with the concomitant suffering. Actually, a strange blend of hubris and humility, both of them necessary. The requisite condition for trying is to think that we're good, but the work dictates the terms of engagement, whether we like it or not.
Thank you Dr Ellie! I want to ask since many people are interested in Phenomenology and you are making related videos, can you make a video about beginners guide to phenomenology? For a starter like me, terminology of Heidegger or Husserl is so difficult it discourages me to keep on with the topic.
Great videos. I hope to see you guys in a better place.
I agree!
Great article you wrote. And such an intriguing topic, especially today. So much of our time is sucked away to other things, as you’ve mentioned and quoted, and the cost is not experiencing life, being present. I will use this reminder to be, having time stop being a commodity
this is a great Topic: Waiting. We are forgetting the analogic life...
“Not rushing to fill the time, I let time fill me”…beautiful statement
I couldn't wait to watch this video, but thankfully it's finally time
Loved hearing about Bifo and Bergson here! Super insightful!!
Listening to this while waiting to go in to work.
Very thought-provoking. I really enjoyed this video. My favorite is your video on how to read a philosophical text. I was wondering….would you be open to perhaps creating a video on how to write or review philosophical concepts? I’m writing a research/philosophy paper and I’m struggling with how to integrate the philosophical concepts discussed in class.
Waiting
Remembrance of things past
Lips that sing their song
Reflections on the breath
An inner spark takes flame
Blown into being
A soul fuel that alights
Warmth within the heart
On thermals soar in flight
Melancholic for the bondage
The struggle to be free
A labourer their days
The workings of dark mills
Hope that comes
Like whispers
Chanting gratitude
Focus of the spirit
That finds at last release
Breaking of the chains
That restrict our liberty
Waiting on the weekend
To be free of toil
Counting our small mercies
Those seeds planted in the soil
What may come yet to fruition
Potential in our spoils
That's a really nice poem :0
My whole life is waiting for the ending of each Routledge book before buying the next one... been stuck on Popper for a while now.
Waiting for one’s body to recover from injury or illness. Or, a convict in solitary confinement waiting in a darken cell for a return to normal prison life… or, a passenger waiting for a staled plane to spin to the ground. These forms of waiting await uncertainty.
The tweed jacket and crewneck. Heck Yeah. Collegiate/preppy. A+ style, Dr. Anderson.
Waiting can wait 😜
Going to reread Goddot.
give a bookshelf tour
there's one on on our channel
Instead of "death of time in consciousness" what about "death in consciousness through time" where consciousness is concieved of as present awareness
континентальный философ, но мне интересно
Patience?
Waiting to be born again
Wanting the saddest kind of pain
Nothing is what I feel
Waiting for the drugs to make it real
Waiting to be disciplined
Aching for your nails across my skin
Waiting for the day when I will crawl away
🌹
I take it, Ellie, that when you give time to waiting, "good things will come," and given this time, I like to consider heaven.
Thank you too for this food for thought.
Uh oh she said time is linear. No one tell Einstein.
if it was my professor, I would have really loved college
I think that it is more difficult in modern society to be patient due to the rampant instant gratification made possible by the collapsing of distances wrought by modern technology and the ubiquity of information. The abundance of information at our fingertips is a double-edged sword because you have a more informed populace on the one hand but on the other, it can be more difficult to discern what is truly, personally important from what is trivial and so there is a tendency towards a loss of depth in understanding. I also agree with your statement that thinking requires slowness-not all types of thinking- but thinking in the sense of understanding anything in a deeper, multilayered way and being able to formulate new ideas and insights based on that information. And I thought that the distinction that you brought up between clock time and lived time is interesting because I think that there is a tension between personal, lived time and the "tyranny of the clock" imposed from without by modern society and the concept of clock time as it is talked about here feels like an extension of Heidegger's Das Man. I think that the two temporal domains are inextricably linked but balancing the two in a way that benefits both the individual and society is truly an art.
I enjoy your videos, thank you for making them! Ironically enough though (or not, actually? 🤔), given the topic, the audio on them is a little low when listening out and about apart from when using noise cancelling headphones. I'd really appreciate you using the mic a little closer to your mouth. Cheers! But yes, I personally miss the pre-smartphone world, despite also appreciating these incredible gadgets we have today.
Dr. Anderson has read Unamuno. Respect.
Life is a philosopher giving you opportunities for your mind to wander and a psychologist giving you exercises to fight mind-wandering.
Just wondering, couldn’t that argument for why you are still primarily waiting even when reading a book be applied. If you were watching social media while waiting for a call and someone asked you to go out for a drink, wouldnt you still say “no, I am waiting.” If you were catching up on your emails while waiting for the bus and your friend called and asked what you were doing, wouldn’t you answer “waiting for the bus”?
a retrocausal explanation of romantic waiting would be “reality testing” various futures and weighing their probabilities - both good and bad. ruminating on what is known in counseling as the “need to have, nice to have, red flags” of present, past, and yes, possible future relationships through scenarios, both real, biased, and imagined, no sapient mind is idle. great podcast. very engaging.
I guess I was thinking about "clock time" versus "lived time" the other day after I watched a video of Ella Fitzgerald singing "Summertime". There's no underlying mechanical beat to the song. Phrases are held as long or as short as she feels and the band, the Tee Carson Trio, plays rubato to match her subjective sense of time. Lovely and moving. Compare that to the computer-synchronized pop crap of today...Where'd the human in the music go?
I know I'm stifling my creativity with the near constant input. Which is a terrible thing for someone who lives for their creativity. This video might be the kick in the pants I needed to consciously make some changes.
I think the fact we are mortal beings explains the concept of viewing time as a resource. For example feeling like I wasted my best years, and im not getting them back, makes it really hard to see it any other way.
"Life is waiting", that made me chuckle. How do you feet about digital minimalism as a cure.
Patience comes to those who... wait for it... someone like you
LOVE this reflection!!
This channel has become my comfort place for sure.
Wide angle, huh...
Are you an intj
Interesting....
Stylish.
When I was younger I would often always carry a paperback book just in case (and because I was a voracious reader) but most especially when I knew I was going to be waiting for something or someone at some point. Now I can't recall the last time I saw someone reading a book of any kind out in public.
Dr. Ellie, please tell me where you got that jacket. I want that fit.
Ever thought of writing a novel with these asides as all part of character's stream of consciousness thoughts ? Enough on your plate already I know. But you might uncover some unexpected gem just by letting go, letting it flow. not trying too hard, leaving the hard part for the final denouement and the unravelling of the plot. ( nowadays you don't always even need to do this- just create an interior monologue,), Beckett for instance was often only speaking his thoughts out aloud.
.I would read it. you are entertaining, complex , but understandable. Many a philosopher as been a novelist as well. The Bell anyone?
Thank you for making these videos, you're really satisfying my philosophical itch. I find you so beautiful and intelligent and classy keep doing what you do.❤
If I’m understanding these ideas in my experience, I think there’s something to be said for living in the moment as though the wait is over, but perhaps we have gotten too good at achieving it artificially without a philosophical base like religion or utopian communities. Does that make sense?
Even when religion provides a sense of “arrival”, there’s still the waiting for clarification. Like when someone sits in stillness saying, “Lord, here am I,” listening for that inner voice.
The value of money is its 'availability' as a medium of exchange. May be there is a value in waiting - as a life-value - of being available.
Waiting is in essence passive; you have to wait for that lettuce to grow, as, more 'blackly' you'd wait for the date with the noose and the trap door.
So put on things on the front foot; is there any worth in a dive into delayed and instant gratification?
A major delineation with regard romantic waiting is the projection of the protagonists.... one might see a lettuce and the other a trapdoor.
luv ya work.
Not done with the video yet but I hope there's a reference to Waiting for Godot
No reference. But this is one of my favorite episodes! Appreciated the mention of romantic waiting. A whole topic in itself
We talk about Waiting for Godot extensively in the podcast episode the video refers to--see link in caption! Our podcast episodes are generally much longer and more in-depth (plus conversational) than our UA-cam videos.
This is a really good discourse. I used your vidéo as a way to passed time while cleaning dishes so I did feel related to your argument about saving time.
I like the Joni Mitchell reference. Yes, and these days no-one can even wait for a song to end, they will listen for fifteen seconds and then search for another song.
Amazing 😊
Thank you Professor 😊
Muy bien doc, esperaré en el abismo..❤
Excellent discussion! Thank you very much! 💞
This seems deeply connected to the Christian notion of Hope.
I love listening to you. You transmit a lot, in an optimidtic way
Literalmente bebotea la filosofia jajaja la amo
¿Por?