I don't comment a lot, but I feel that I have to do it. Thanks a lot for your channel. I came here a few weeks ago to learn about philosophy of the mind, and stayed there since. It's such a wonderful endeavor to explain those difficult concepts with such pedagogy, and for free, open to everyone ! You are one very useful teacher :)
I wish I had taken philosophy seriously when I was at school. Not because of the career prospects but because of the enormous personal benefits. Absolutely loving these videos.
I've recently stumbled upon your channel. As a retired engineer I tended to dismiss Philosophy as idle naval gazing. However as I've gotten older have come to appreciate its value. For me this has been driven largely by what the hard sciences have learned over my lifetime and being in awe that brains evolved to prevent being eaten by lions have been able to figure out so much. The models our brains have evolved to create do not do a very good job of describing the underlying reality. I loved the stoner reference, I did have a lot of those back in the 1970s.
I studied philosophy as part of my MA in Theology at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. Loved it because it was challenging and clarifying. Your videos are excellent.
I agree to a point. I agree that philosophical questions can be outside the realm of mathematics and empirical science, however the questions of mathematics and science are themselves a part of philosophy. In other words science and mathematics and religion are a subfield of philosophy but philosophy is not a subfield of any of these things.
@@jan_v_ier im glad to hear it but I have a question or two of my own. Who’s @Kurt Mohler and what was his question? You have me feeling like the supercomputer from Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
I was fortunate enough to have a full semester of philosophy in College. By far, my favorite subject and the most indespensible part of the method and validity of scientific thyeory, method and existence itself. Thank you so much for this. You are a kick-a##, bad-a## prof, the best I have ever seen anywhere. Thank you so much for giving your time to educate us.
As a lifelong student of Philosophy, I define Philosophy as "Thinking Outside the Box". Using the tool of Logic, the Philosopher seeks to arrive at TRUTH in a holistic manner rather than through the narrow lens of certain specialized disciplines like Theology, Physics, etc. There will always be a place for the teaching of Philosophy in our schools but the relevance of the subject will depend on how the subject is taught. It was either Wittgenstein or Heidegger who cautioned about the danger of making Philosophy too scientific.
One of the BEST videos on the subject. Please also make a video on the "Scientific Method" and whats similar and whats different among Religion, Philosophy and Science at the most fundamental level.
And keep in mind that no triangles exit, and, if they’re stipulated to exist, they’re never 2-dimensional but are 3 dimensional- owing to the 3D atoms in the ink used to describe the 2-dimensional plane that itself is actually 3-dimensional. 😂 And I get that. 🤵⌒🐬⌒µ⌒🦉
Mathematician here. I would argue that a society is no more real than a triangle is. Of course, it depends a lot on your definition (as it depends for the triangle). If you define a society simply as a group of individuals, then may be it is "more real" (more tangible, more physically present) than a triangle. But I do think that the shared culture of those individuals, their share rights and responsibilities, their shared knowledge, and their institutions are integral parts of a society, without which a society is not a society. Those are as abstract and intangible as a triangle.
I am 72 years old man ,learning from your channel and realized that if your channel would have been available to me when I was younger my life would have been very different, perhaps a happier one . It helps me now , and for that I kindly thank you.
So many people learn these things very late in life. It's not their fault. I hope you are doing well ! I wish you good health so that you are able to engage in philosophical discourse !! 😄
At 14:41 Professor Kaplan raises the question of “What is the fair way to arrange society?”, and then goes on to assert that it cannot be answered empirically. Yes, it cannot be answered through controlled experiments, but if we have information about various ways in which past societies were arranged and, for each, how fair it turned out to be, then we can run a correlational test to see if there is any relationship between the two variables (societal arrangement and fairness). It is through such scientific studies of history that we know societies arranged based on totalitarianism and injustice do not last long because the human spirit yearns for freedom and justice. But philosophy would still be useful in this context as it would help define terms such as “societal arrangement” and “societal fairness” operationally before any data can be collected. Philosophy can also be useful in interpreting the results, as to why a particular connection exists between these two variables.
Philosophy is best understood as three distinctive areas, each with its own tools and aims. Truth Wisdom, Practical Wisdom, and Academic Philosophy require answers, solutions, and credentials respectively. An answer is a framework of understanding. A solution is an action plan.
While building a fair society certainly involves philosophical reflection, I don’t believe doing so can necessarily be divorced from empirical investigation. Provided one believes how people feel and their well-being are relevant to building a fair society, then one will necessarily run into empiricism as one investigates, even scientifically, how people actually feel and fare in various societies, past and present. Indeed, one might well spend much more of the process diving into empirical research than engaging in philosophical discussion.
At first, I thought this was a re-upload of your March 2020 video, also titled _"What is Philosophy?" Edited to 30 minutes, down from 51 minutes. The talking points are identical: children, stoners, religious people, pickles, baby chicken, 9, empirical v. non-empirical, triangle, ice tea, chemists, GMAT, LSAT, GRE, money. But this looks like a different recording. For one, you've written using larger letters. Now I'm convinced you're a real professor. Because my college professors were exactly like that-every semester, they gave identical lectures. Same talking points, same scribblings on the board, same jokes. After a few years, they didn't even have to think about what they wanted to say. They spoke robotically from rote memory. Anyway, looking forward to next semester's _"What is Philosophy?"_ lecture. I bet you'll be able to trim it even further, say around 18 minutes-TED length.
Philosophy is the discipline that examines the human capacity to produce meaning. This is my take on the subject, of course, but I'm willing to argue it as well. The video is great but it doesn't answer what philosophy is, just what it isn't. Keep up the incredible work, Jeffrey!
Examining the capacity of humans to produce meaning is just a part of epistemology. Asking if there is a world separate from myself or if I exist are clearly questions that fall under philosophy, but not your definition. David Hume, John Locke, and George Barkley would somewhat agree with you. They thought that philosophy should, 1st and foremost, define the limits of a human mind to understand/produce meaning.
Back in 1996 I was in Greensboro college area with my Air Force comrades... we were partying with the college gals, wow small world, fast forward, I degreed in Phil + Social Sci for a double, worked hard in other occupations for many many years, half retired now after hard work grinding and investing, enjoying these awesome vids... !
Thank you for posting your lectures and reading lists online. May I know if it is possible for us to have a look at the essay and quizzes questions for your courses? I am new to philosophy and would like to know how difficult it would be to write a piece of philosophical article. Thanks a lot.
I don't know what you would say at the age of 45 years I will enroll myself as a student of M.A. in philosophy from IGNOU in our country! I like the subject very much. I will follow your channel obviously. you're really doing a nice job.
The perception of mathematics is insanely wrong. When non-mathematicians are talking about "mathematics", they often refer to arithmetic and such. They obviously don't have a slight idea of what mathematics actually is, that aside. Saying "we're not gonna prove this by calculating things on a calculator" is extremely ignorant which I would not expect to be said by a philosopher. This contributes to the misconception of what mathematics is. Apart from that awesome video, keep it up!
Very stimulating lecture. I'm only half-way through 14:32, but after you describe philosophy as being about the questions that are left after you eliminate the questions that can be answered empirically and those that can be answered analytically (Never mind that that I think that distinction is ill-formed, c.f. Quine's Two dogmas) What is left? I tend to agree with Hume that there is nothing left, but philosophy isn't (or shouldn't be) about Nothing. So it's clear, philosophy isn't about answers, it's about the questions. Properly formulating and classifying questions, at which point they can be turned over to scientists or mathematicians and logicians, or consigned to the flames. The first question to ask is whether a question is worth answering.
So, to sumarize: The question "What is philosophy" is philosophical in itself. But you argue, that it is the search for answers with rational arguments, that can't be observed or calculated. Therefore (this are my 2 cents), it is very useful to predict consequences, that you don't want to risk find out impericaly.
I have another definition of philosophy. Mine is based on its purpose (what it is for). Philosophy is the infrastructure of thought, in other words it is the study of assumptions. It is interesting that it is nearly a synonymn of Jeff's definition except it includes all religion as well as a proper subset.
The chief philosophical question about fairness is: what is fairness? (Which might be best approached by first asking: what is "fairness"? Ie what do we mean by the *word* in our language games?) Once we have a shared understanding of what constitutes "fairness", the question of whether a given social arrangement is fair becomes empirical. Yes?
Thinking philosophically is good exercise for the brain. It can help clarify the issues to examine and can identify some flaws in reasoning. But without connecting to empirical evidence, it ultimately is impotent. Without connecting to real life .. to empirical evidence ... any attempt to answer questions like the existence of a god, or life after death, or the nature of consciousness becomes a gross overreach of reasonable conclusions, and little more than mental masturbation. And questions like "what should you do?" are better answered by relating those axiological questions to desires (individual and collective) - in Kantian terms as hypothetical rather than categorical Imperatives.
I have studied Psychology and Philosophy. Philosophy covers Wisdom,Experience,Knowledge,Intellect,Etc.. There is a saying,”The Alpha is the Omega”.Never forget that.
Wow thank you so much for sharing today we had a lecture on introduction to phylosophy bt i didn't understood. I tried to search on UA-cam thank God I found your lec here
I am from India, I like watching your video they are informative and easy to understand. While watching your videos I feel like I have always been wanting to watch videos on Philosophy and legal Philosophy like your videos. Thank you. I want to ask, do you write on a transparent glass backwards, so that it is visible to us the right way.?
Thank you for this video. I have always seen myself as poetic and philosophical, but is that not subjective ? It is an opinion, my own and the opinion of others.
Next class we'll try to define what's art. (My nephew is studying philosophy - he's a good student. We need more philosophy, more philosophers and more non-philosophers applying the throught process philosophers use.)
10:51 - Never seen a triangle? Consider the Kanizsa triangle illusion. Since the triangle we are seeing isn't there, I submit that it is in fact a abstract triangle. And it's a real triang because you can't not see it.
Fair is a matter of perception - I think what is a fair society or fair structure for society is subjection - it is subject to your perception, your taste. What you percieve, what you think "tastes" fair. I think we can find a definition of "fair" that most reasonable people would agree on, something like "a situation wehre all parties benefit or suffer equally". The problem comes with measuring equal benefit of suffering.
Many after holding degrees of attainments could neither understand nor therefore teach... that makes educational attainments meaningless and wastage of resources. It's a good presentation. Thank you!
8:43 I think that 9 being prime is not a good non-empirical question. I think all mathematics are constructed from the natural numbers and Euclidian geometry. We learn about the natural numbers and geometry from experience by manipulating collections of distinct items in space and time. Composite numbers are numbers that can be arrange into a square or rectangle with rows and columns of equal size (with at least two rows or columns) Prime are natural numbers that can't be arranged as such. Thus nine being prime is defined by observation and experiment.
Great video, clear and well explained. A few questions though 9:50 Couldn't you lay out say nine apples and visually observer them? And could you physically experiment with the nine apples? Therefor making it empirical? Also 10:43 Couldn't God take the place of the triangle in this scenario where I could draw my take on God with the ink and therefor making it non-empirical?
Not sure if this question has been answered / posed: HOW does the clear board work?? Is he writing backwards?? Is it even glass, why is there no reflection?? Why are the markers neon?? Where do you get them! How have I hated philosophy classes in college yet am now watching this at 1am?? Grateful for you professor. (But I need to know about the magical invisible board!!!)
Great lecture. Here are some thoughts. I think it's great how it distinguishes it from science and math, but then could do more to relate them all. When you take these three (and possibly religion or "faith", four) together, only then you can be confirm your "sophos". What do I mean by that? Let's take "What is a fair way to arrange society". The first needed is consensus about the meaning of Fairness, assuming that can be achieved. It's not even an argument about how to organize anything, but runs prior to that. The meaning, usually, will be derived by observing commonality in examples that we thought were more or less fair, or more fair in some ways than other examples. Now, there may be no way to organize it fairly, because there may be no agreement on the definition. Now, if someone can provide a definition and have all others agree, we are not far from a religion: a definition is just a concept explained with words attached to a label. The abstract concept of fairness when narrowed, can be reasoned now logically and mathematically. But since we are talking about "organizing Society", it's likely that whatever the axioms and rules at play, wherever logic takes us, if applied to an actual Society, would have effects on its members. Do they matter? For example, is it fair to organize society in a way that gets all it's members killed? Half the members drowning? All of them sad and depressed? So from axioms (what is the essence of "fairness" if it exists, or its fruits, and what is the noun "society"), we develop arguments and reach conclusions or "wise" answers, which are supposed to be wise irrespective of actual examples. But if in practice by Society we mean societies like any, including ours, then when applied to societies, we would expect the outcomes to be congruent with what we have defined is Fair. Now, what if, and that's what often happens in practice, what is fair ends up resulting in the most unfair, horrendous consequences, abhorrent and a mockery of any fairness and patently unjust and unfair? We could argue that it is Fair, but that unfortunately humans (or any other society) can live fairly. Well then, is it fair to organize societies in a way that results in unfairness? This would inform the definition, which may need fine-tuning. And this makes Mayeutics more interesting. For it is about logic (math), it is also about experiments (ie. reasoning by bringing to mind past real life experiences and actual observations as in Plato's dialogs, and making predictions), and making effort to try to predict the consequences ofways to organize society, as it is about Wisdom, either by faith (if religiously), or reasoning i(f philosophically addressed). Usually, we have these separated, because philosophy isn't about experiments, nor math, then we can arrive at false wisdom, for example, concluding that in order to organize society in a way that is fair, we'd have to organize it in a way that results in unfairness. The fault isn't the logic, it's either the definitions or the misunderstanding of important details - the wrong model. And this is in part why philosophy can't be just about things that aren't math or experiments, but rather, the perfect complement in tandem with them, for those with Sophos in their hearts.
The purpose of philosophy is to discover reality/ontology. Science and religion are part of philosophy to answer this question. Wisdom is knowledge of reality. All is a dream is the reality.
In the hallowed halls where wisdom weaves, A scholar stands, as autumn leaves, Begin anew, the journey grand, Philosophy's first lecture, take a stand. Behold the realm of thought untamed, Where Socrates and Plato named, The questions deep, the queries vast, In this intellectual die is cast. Philosophy, the quest profound, In every mind, a fertile ground, Seeds of wonder, questions sown, In the fertile fields of the unknown. First lecture of the semester's dawn, A symphony of ideas is drawn, A canvas blank, the mind a stage, Where thoughts and musings engage. Socratic method, questions wielded, In dialectic dance, truth revealed, Not answers sought, but queries posed, Through reason's lens, the world composed. Metaphysics, like a cosmic sea, Where being, essence, meld in glee, The nature of existence, pondered deep, In the philosopher's embrace, secrets keep. Epistemology's gentle breeze, Whispers through the ancient trees, What can we know, and how we know, In wisdom's river, let us row. Ethics, like a guiding star, Illuminates the path afar, What ought we do, what choices right, In the tapestry of virtue's light. Aesthetics paints the colors bright, In beauty's palette, day and night, The sublime, the art, the muses' call, In philosophy's embrace, we stand tall. So, in this first lecture, let minds soar, Philosophy's ocean, let's explore, In the crucible of thought and debate, The seeds of wisdom germinate. As the semester unfolds its pages, Philosophy, in myriad stages, A journey vast, a quest divine, In every lecture, the intellect shall shine.
Philos - From Phileo, to love (familial/brotherly) + Sophia (the embodiment of Wisdom). The seeking of Wisdom. In fact it is the evaluation of ideas to determine validity of the methods used, and to follow valid methods to evaluate Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics, and Metaphysics, among others. Logic is the root of all other philosophy, so to understand Logic is to understand the root of all other questions.
I love philosophy and I value it. But it is disappointing that we still haven't actually answered any of those questions. It seems that philosophy has made zero progress since the time of the Ancient Greeks. Perhaps the only reason to do philosophy is to learn how to think, so that we can apply what we've learnt to other facets of our lives.
I know that 9 is not prime by _observing_ that it is the product of 3 and 3. This use of "observe" is standard. If, then, we maintain that this knowledge (of 9 not being prime) is not empirical knowledge, we cannot make the use of observation _per se_ as the means of distinguishing empirical from non empirical.
The shadow of a cylinder illuminated from the side is 2-dimensional rectangle on a flat surface. The shadow of a pyramid on a flat surface in certain orientations is a 2-dimensional object. - from an engineer...
I am a psychologist but despite leaving philosophy in 90s does not exonerate philosophy from the parent of all profession but uses statistics for discovery.
When I was in first grade, during recess, I asked myself the question, "Why am I here?" I thought about it and decided I was too young to answer. When I was in nursery school I stole a big ring of keys. I buried them near our house. When I tried to dig them up, I could not find them. I did a lot of digging. Then I gave up and walked home. One the way I came up with a BIG THOUGHT: God knows where they are and that I did a bad thing. In college I started following God and Jesus Christ. I have had a good life and now am 72. I have some answers and still many questions. Dr. Kaplan's lectures are good and help me with thinking through things.
I have a philosophy class next semester, so I figure I would watch the series so i have a bit of an idea of what the class will be about and what some of the material will be over.
15:30 i think you actually could answer this imperically. you would get bias and subjectivity and it might leave something things out but you could definitely try to answer it imperially. first create/find a bunch of kinds of ways societies are set up and then measure overall happiness of the people living there (through dopamine production or whatever else) and then which has the highest is the best way.
"What is Philosophy?" In three words: Let me think. In ONE word: Thought. Thought is the absolute basis for Philosophy. Thus ... Philosophy is ... thought.
TRUE Philosophers are hated. Because ... we question ALL! That includes ... ourselves. Hell, I even question my questions. Philosophers are the nemesis of science as is today, since we do not mere accept what we've been told. We analyse it, verify it, and therein lies the issue: We find errors. And science no longer wants this, instead, they want you to accept, without further thought. Same for politics. This is pure evil, that established and pushed an ever greater evil: Economy. And economy was pushed so far, "God died" and economy became the new god, indoctrinated so deeply, it cannot change any more. Since we've been indoctrinated to fight everything that stands in the way of politics and economy. The corruption got too deep within us, it went SO deep and rooted SO strongly, it virtually became part of our DNA. Politics and economy is what kills people, what eradicates nature, what destroys the planet. And we LOVE IT. Even at the cost ... of ourselves ... . Sad. Philosophise on that.
Your lectures are so serious fun that I watch each of them many times. You speak so well , I love them.
I am currently studying philosophy, just through the love of it. These videos are incredible, thanks for the time you take in explaining them.
Whose your favorite philosopher
@scrubfive9239 hi, I have really enjoyed reading John Searles books
You must be Chinese sponsored.
Iam too
I don't comment a lot, but I feel that I have to do it. Thanks a lot for your channel. I came here a few weeks ago to learn about philosophy of the mind, and stayed there since. It's such a wonderful endeavor to explain those difficult concepts with such pedagogy, and for free, open to everyone !
You are one very useful teacher :)
Useless.
I wish I had taken philosophy seriously when I was at school. Not because of the career prospects but because of the enormous personal benefits. Absolutely loving these videos.
You must be Chinese sponsored.
I've recently stumbled upon your channel. As a retired engineer I tended to dismiss Philosophy as idle naval gazing. However as I've gotten older have come to appreciate its value. For me this has been driven largely by what the hard sciences have learned over my lifetime and being in awe that brains evolved to prevent being eaten by lions have been able to figure out so much. The models our brains have evolved to create do not do a very good job of describing the underlying reality.
I loved the stoner reference, I did have a lot of those back in the 1970s.
Naval gazing is actually used all the time - to spot ships, for example.
@@MathTravels spell check strikes again, my bad.
@@tomschmidt381 No, I though it was great!
I came here to chirp "navel."
I'll see myself out.
I studied philosophy as part of my MA in Theology at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. Loved it because it was challenging and clarifying. Your videos are excellent.
So does GOD exist?
@@summerbreeze5115 😂
I love this guy!! He has helped me with so many philosophy papers….
I agree to a point. I agree that philosophical questions can be outside the realm of mathematics and empirical science, however the questions of mathematics and science are themselves a part of philosophy.
In other words science and mathematics and religion are a subfield of philosophy but philosophy is not a subfield of any of these things.
Exactly ! Good observation ! That is exactly how it was in Ancient Greece !!
this makes sense. it answers @Kurt Mohler's question. Cause if mathematics is a subcategory of philosophy that would explain why
@@jan_v_ier im glad to hear it but I have a question or two of my own. Who’s @Kurt Mohler and what was his question?
You have me feeling like the supercomputer from Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
Love this channel. I have always liked philosophy, particularly the mind experiments so common in philosophy.
I am a student of literature but interested in philosophy as well. The way you express the ideas, let them remain constantly. Keep going sir.
You must be Chinese sponsored.
Your lecture about philosophy helped me a lot. Thank you so much ❤
I was fortunate enough to have a full semester of philosophy in College. By far, my favorite subject and the most indespensible part of the method and validity of scientific thyeory, method and existence itself. Thank you so much for this. You are a kick-a##, bad-a## prof, the best I have ever seen anywhere. Thank you so much for giving your time to educate us.
You must be Chinese sponsored.
Absolutely ingenious!!! Best philosophy introduction ever!!!
Absolutely amazing videos! You sir should have millions of subscribers
As a lifelong student of Philosophy, I define Philosophy as "Thinking Outside the Box". Using the tool of Logic, the Philosopher seeks to arrive at TRUTH in a holistic manner rather than through the narrow lens of certain specialized disciplines like Theology, Physics, etc. There will always be a place for the teaching of Philosophy in our schools but the relevance of the subject will depend on how the subject is taught. It was either Wittgenstein or Heidegger who cautioned about the danger of making Philosophy too scientific.
One of the BEST videos on the subject. Please also make a video on the "Scientific Method" and whats similar and whats different among Religion, Philosophy and Science at the most fundamental level.
Great work! I had a wider understanding of Philosophy because of you sir.
You must be Chinese sponsored.
You are an excellent professor of philosophy......you attract the inquiring mind...
keep making these videos please. I love your philosophy content and the videos by Michael Sugrue. You both are amazing.
Very interesting and making philosophy simple to understand
I'm an Engineering student, but watching philosophy videos😂
You can be both
Same here 😂
You get two gold stars!
Same here 😂
And keep in mind that no triangles exit, and, if they’re stipulated to exist, they’re never 2-dimensional but are 3 dimensional- owing to the 3D atoms in the ink used to describe the 2-dimensional plane that itself is actually 3-dimensional. 😂 And I get that. 🤵⌒🐬⌒µ⌒🦉
I encouraged my son to be a Philosophy major. Why? It teaches you to think clearly. This education has helped him in law school and in his law career.
Did he do anything with his degree other than law school?
Mathematician here. I would argue that a society is no more real than a triangle is. Of course, it depends a lot on your definition (as it depends for the triangle). If you define a society simply as a group of individuals, then may be it is "more real" (more tangible, more physically present) than a triangle. But I do think that the shared culture of those individuals, their share rights and responsibilities, their shared knowledge, and their institutions are integral parts of a society, without which a society is not a society. Those are as abstract and intangible as a triangle.
I am 72 years old man ,learning from your channel and realized that if your channel would have been available to me when I was younger my life would have been very different, perhaps a happier one .
It helps me now , and for that I kindly thank you.
So many people learn these things very late in life. It's not their fault. I hope you are doing well ! I wish you good health so that you are able to engage in philosophical discourse !! 😄
At 14:41 Professor Kaplan raises the question of “What is the fair way to arrange society?”, and then goes on to assert that it cannot be answered empirically. Yes, it cannot be answered through controlled experiments, but if we have information about various ways in which past societies were arranged and, for each, how fair it turned out to be, then we can run a correlational test to see if there is any relationship between the two variables (societal arrangement and fairness). It is through such scientific studies of history that we know societies arranged based on totalitarianism and injustice do not last long because the human spirit yearns for freedom and justice.
But philosophy would still be useful in this context as it would help define terms such as “societal arrangement” and “societal fairness” operationally before any data can be collected. Philosophy can also be useful in interpreting the results, as to why a particular connection exists between these two variables.
Philosophy is best understood as three distinctive areas, each with its own tools and aims. Truth Wisdom, Practical Wisdom, and Academic Philosophy require answers, solutions, and credentials respectively. An answer is a framework of understanding. A solution is an action plan.
Thank you very much, Mr. Kaplan. I didn’t get why philosophy was born in Greece. Your explanations help me out a lot to come up with an answer.
Philosophy was not born in Greece , that is the Eurocentric misinformation . Thousand years before there were Indian and Chinese philosophers.
@@jeetsharma5691 philosophy has existed since mankind could make choices
The first of the "Greek" philosophers were actually from modern-day Turkey.
While building a fair society certainly involves philosophical reflection, I don’t believe doing so can necessarily be divorced from empirical investigation. Provided one believes how people feel and their well-being are relevant to building a fair society, then one will necessarily run into empiricism as one investigates, even scientifically, how people actually feel and fare in various societies, past and present. Indeed, one might well spend much more of the process diving into empirical research than engaging in philosophical discussion.
At first, I thought this was a re-upload of your March 2020 video, also titled _"What is Philosophy?" Edited to 30 minutes, down from 51 minutes. The talking points are identical: children, stoners, religious people, pickles, baby chicken, 9, empirical v. non-empirical, triangle, ice tea, chemists, GMAT, LSAT, GRE, money. But this looks like a different recording. For one, you've written using larger letters.
Now I'm convinced you're a real professor. Because my college professors were exactly like that-every semester, they gave identical lectures. Same talking points, same scribblings on the board, same jokes. After a few years, they didn't even have to think about what they wanted to say. They spoke robotically from rote memory.
Anyway, looking forward to next semester's _"What is Philosophy?"_ lecture. I bet you'll be able to trim it even further, say around 18 minutes-TED length.
I feel so much better about my two philosophy degrees now.
What is it providing you
I mean is it worth in build a career Or future
Philosophy is the discipline that examines the human capacity to produce meaning.
This is my take on the subject, of course, but I'm willing to argue it as well.
The video is great but it doesn't answer what philosophy is, just what it isn't.
Keep up the incredible work, Jeffrey!
Examining the capacity of humans to produce meaning is just a part of epistemology. Asking if there is a world separate from myself or if I exist are clearly questions that fall under philosophy, but not your definition. David Hume, John Locke, and George Barkley would somewhat agree with you. They thought that philosophy should, 1st and foremost, define the limits of a human mind to understand/produce meaning.
@@sibanbgd100I see your point, but asking those questions and trying to answer them is a production of meaning.
Man, this might be the best video I've seen in my life, for me, you know.
Amazing job
Well, that means that you haven't seen many awesome videos then ! 😂 But yeah, I get you. The video above is awesome ...
Back in 1996 I was in Greensboro college area with my Air Force comrades... we were partying with the college gals, wow small world, fast forward, I degreed in Phil + Social Sci for a double, worked hard in other occupations for many many years, half retired now after hard work grinding and investing, enjoying these awesome vids... !
Thank you for posting your lectures and reading lists online. May I know if it is possible for us to have a look at the essay and quizzes questions for your courses? I am new to philosophy and would like to know how difficult it would be to write a piece of philosophical article. Thanks a lot.
I will have to contemplate HOW you did that, but THANKS. So well done.
Really appreciate your work 🙂❤️keep it man bruh I am here 😊
Very appropriate explanation of the question what is philosophy...you have simplified to the maximum possible..thank you
I don't know what you would say at the age of 45 years I will enroll myself as a student of M.A. in philosophy from IGNOU in our country! I like the subject very much. I will follow your channel obviously. you're really doing a nice job.
The perception of mathematics is insanely wrong. When non-mathematicians are talking about "mathematics", they often refer to arithmetic and such. They obviously don't have a slight idea of what mathematics actually is, that aside. Saying "we're not gonna prove this by calculating things on a calculator" is extremely ignorant which I would not expect to be said by a philosopher. This contributes to the misconception of what mathematics is. Apart from that awesome video, keep it up!
Very stimulating lecture. I'm only half-way through 14:32, but after you describe philosophy as being about the questions that are left after you eliminate the questions that can be answered empirically and those that can be answered analytically (Never mind that that I think that distinction is ill-formed, c.f. Quine's Two dogmas) What is left? I tend to agree with Hume that there is nothing left, but philosophy isn't (or shouldn't be) about Nothing. So it's clear, philosophy isn't about answers, it's about the questions. Properly formulating and classifying questions, at which point they can be turned over to scientists or mathematicians and logicians, or consigned to the flames. The first question to ask is whether a question is worth answering.
Thank you for taking the time to make those videos. I appreciate it and you for doing it :)
So, to sumarize:
The question "What is philosophy" is philosophical in itself.
But you argue, that it is the search for answers with rational arguments, that can't be observed or calculated.
Therefore (this are my 2 cents), it is very useful to predict consequences, that you don't want to risk find out impericaly.
I have another definition of philosophy. Mine is based on its purpose (what it is for). Philosophy is the infrastructure of thought, in other words it is the study of assumptions. It is interesting that it is nearly a synonymn of Jeff's definition except it includes all religion as well as a proper subset.
Hmmm very interesting course of study. It awakes one's curiosity in knowing what he ought to know.
Great lecture, Professor! I wish I had you when I was in school!
The chief philosophical question about fairness is: what is fairness? (Which might be best approached by first asking: what is "fairness"? Ie what do we mean by the *word* in our language games?)
Once we have a shared understanding of what constitutes "fairness", the question of whether a given social arrangement is fair becomes empirical. Yes?
Thnks Sir, your explaination really help me to learn philosofy
Thinking philosophically is good exercise for the brain. It can help clarify the issues to examine and can identify some flaws in reasoning. But without connecting to empirical evidence, it ultimately is impotent. Without connecting to real life .. to empirical evidence ... any attempt to answer questions like the existence of a god, or life after death, or the nature of consciousness becomes a gross overreach of reasonable conclusions, and little more than mental masturbation.
And questions like "what should you do?" are better answered by relating those axiological questions to desires (individual and collective) - in Kantian terms as hypothetical rather than categorical Imperatives.
I think one could argue that we experience the world in 3d but we don’t see things in 3d. So in that case we have seen a triangle
“Fair way to arrange society” plus some axioms about fairness, society and other related model components can then potentially have proof.
Amazing video! Who would of thought that Charlie from "It's always sunny..." could be so smart!!!! :)
Really interesting thanks for making these videos!
I love this, very well presented, you deserve my subscription
I have studied Psychology and Philosophy.
Philosophy covers Wisdom,Experience,Knowledge,Intellect,Etc..
There is a saying,”The Alpha is the Omega”.Never forget that.
Wow thank you so much for sharing today we had a lecture on introduction to phylosophy bt i didn't understood. I tried to search on UA-cam thank God I found your lec here
This is gold! Thanks, Professor Kaplan.
I am from India, I like watching your video they are informative and easy to understand.
While watching your videos I feel like I have always been wanting to watch videos on Philosophy and legal Philosophy like your videos.
Thank you.
I want to ask, do you write on a transparent glass backwards, so that it is visible to us the right way.?
Hello
I study language but I love listening to Philosophy videos;it adds to my perspective on life and language.
Thank you for this video. I have always seen myself as poetic and philosophical, but is that not subjective ? It is an opinion, my own and the opinion of others.
Thank you, I've watched this twice now. I'd like to request a video on good philosophy books for beginners and/or your favorite if you have the time.
I don't know if you are going to read this, but he just put out a new video about the 7 philosophy books to read.
Great class! By the way, have you some text published on this topic? Thank you in advance.
I am really loving that you break my brain into gooo and I have to stuff it back in again...(and asprin). :)
Bro I love these videos. Thanks so much.
Glad you enjoy them!
Awesome video. Thanks
Next class we'll try to define what's art.
(My nephew is studying philosophy - he's a good student. We need more philosophy, more philosophers and more non-philosophers applying the throught process philosophers use.)
clearly explained! very compelling, that i now want to shift from computer science to philo lol)
My philosophy has helped me to live peacefully and healthy by respecting nature. Love of wisedom.
10:51 - Never seen a triangle?
Consider the Kanizsa triangle illusion. Since the triangle we are seeing
isn't there, I submit that it is in fact a abstract triangle. And it's a real triang because you can't not see it.
Good points, thank you for your lectures.
Fair is a matter of perception - I think what is a fair society or fair structure for society is subjection - it is subject to your perception, your taste. What you percieve, what you think "tastes" fair.
I think we can find a definition of "fair" that most reasonable people would agree on, something like "a situation wehre all parties benefit or suffer equally". The problem comes with measuring equal benefit of suffering.
An excellent explanation
Formal logic is foundational in Philosophy. A practical skill for everyday situations.
Many after holding degrees of attainments could neither understand nor therefore teach... that makes educational attainments meaningless and wastage of resources. It's a good presentation. Thank you!
Thanks for making this video
8:43 I think that 9 being prime is not a good non-empirical question.
I think all mathematics are constructed from the natural numbers and
Euclidian geometry.
We learn about the natural numbers and geometry from experience by manipulating collections of distinct items in space and time.
Composite numbers are numbers that can be arrange into a square or rectangle with rows and columns of equal size (with at least two rows
or columns)
Prime are natural numbers that can't be arranged as such.
Thus nine being prime is defined by observation and experiment.
I LOVE the little "..or whatever" additions
Great video, clear and well explained. A few questions though 9:50 Couldn't you lay out say nine apples and visually observer them? And could you physically experiment with the nine apples? Therefor making it empirical? Also 10:43 Couldn't God take the place of the triangle in this scenario where I could draw my take on God with the ink and therefor making it non-empirical?
Not sure if this question has been answered / posed: HOW does the clear board work?? Is he writing backwards?? Is it even glass, why is there no reflection?? Why are the markers neon?? Where do you get them! How have I hated philosophy classes in college yet am now watching this at 1am?? Grateful for you professor. (But I need to know about the magical invisible board!!!)
Answering my own question, is it that when recording the words are actually backwards but you flipped the video in post??
Must knowwww
Great lecture. Here are some thoughts. I think it's great how it distinguishes it from science and math, but then could do more to relate them all. When you take these three (and possibly religion or "faith", four) together, only then you can be confirm your "sophos". What do I mean by that?
Let's take "What is a fair way to arrange society". The first needed is consensus about the meaning of Fairness, assuming that can be achieved. It's not even an argument about how to organize anything, but runs prior to that. The meaning, usually, will be derived by observing commonality in examples that we thought were more or less fair, or more fair in some ways than other examples. Now, there may be no way to organize it fairly, because there may be no agreement on the definition. Now, if someone can provide a definition and have all others agree, we are not far from a religion: a definition is just a concept explained with words attached to a label. The abstract concept of fairness when narrowed, can be reasoned now logically and mathematically. But since we are talking about "organizing Society", it's likely that whatever the axioms and rules at play, wherever logic takes us, if applied to an actual Society, would have effects on its members. Do they matter?
For example, is it fair to organize society in a way that gets all it's members killed? Half the members drowning? All of them sad and depressed? So from axioms (what is the essence of "fairness" if it exists, or its fruits, and what is the noun "society"), we develop arguments and reach conclusions or "wise" answers, which are supposed to be wise irrespective of actual examples. But if in practice by Society we mean societies like any, including ours, then when applied to societies, we would expect the outcomes to be congruent with what we have defined is Fair.
Now, what if, and that's what often happens in practice, what is fair ends up resulting in the most unfair, horrendous consequences, abhorrent and a mockery of any fairness and patently unjust and unfair? We could argue that it is Fair, but that unfortunately humans (or any other society) can live fairly. Well then, is it fair to organize societies in a way that results in unfairness? This would inform the definition, which may need fine-tuning. And this makes Mayeutics more interesting. For it is about logic (math), it is also about experiments (ie. reasoning by bringing to mind past real life experiences and actual observations as in Plato's dialogs, and making predictions), and making effort to try to predict the consequences ofways to organize society, as it is about Wisdom, either by faith (if religiously), or reasoning i(f philosophically addressed).
Usually, we have these separated, because philosophy isn't about experiments, nor math, then we can arrive at false wisdom, for example, concluding that in order to organize society in a way that is fair, we'd have to organize it in a way that results in unfairness. The fault isn't the logic, it's either the definitions or the misunderstanding of important details - the wrong model. And this is in part why philosophy can't be just about things that aren't math or experiments, but rather, the perfect complement in tandem with them, for those with Sophos in their hearts.
I suggest that you read Plato’s Republic.
Philosophy is the position taken by thought in relation to being, that is to say, to what is.
The purpose of philosophy is to discover reality/ontology. Science and religion are part of philosophy to answer this question. Wisdom is knowledge of reality. All is a dream is the reality.
In the hallowed halls where wisdom weaves,
A scholar stands, as autumn leaves,
Begin anew, the journey grand,
Philosophy's first lecture, take a stand.
Behold the realm of thought untamed,
Where Socrates and Plato named,
The questions deep, the queries vast,
In this intellectual die is cast.
Philosophy, the quest profound,
In every mind, a fertile ground,
Seeds of wonder, questions sown,
In the fertile fields of the unknown.
First lecture of the semester's dawn,
A symphony of ideas is drawn,
A canvas blank, the mind a stage,
Where thoughts and musings engage.
Socratic method, questions wielded,
In dialectic dance, truth revealed,
Not answers sought, but queries posed,
Through reason's lens, the world composed.
Metaphysics, like a cosmic sea,
Where being, essence, meld in glee,
The nature of existence, pondered deep,
In the philosopher's embrace, secrets keep.
Epistemology's gentle breeze,
Whispers through the ancient trees,
What can we know, and how we know,
In wisdom's river, let us row.
Ethics, like a guiding star,
Illuminates the path afar,
What ought we do, what choices right,
In the tapestry of virtue's light.
Aesthetics paints the colors bright,
In beauty's palette, day and night,
The sublime, the art, the muses' call,
In philosophy's embrace, we stand tall.
So, in this first lecture, let minds soar,
Philosophy's ocean, let's explore,
In the crucible of thought and debate,
The seeds of wisdom germinate.
As the semester unfolds its pages,
Philosophy, in myriad stages,
A journey vast, a quest divine,
In every lecture, the intellect shall shine.
Philos - From Phileo, to love (familial/brotherly) + Sophia (the embodiment of Wisdom). The seeking of Wisdom.
In fact it is the evaluation of ideas to determine validity of the methods used, and to follow valid methods to evaluate Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics, and Metaphysics, among others. Logic is the root of all other philosophy, so to understand Logic is to understand the root of all other questions.
Wow! Great job! Thanks, prof.
I love philosophy and I value it. But it is disappointing that we still haven't actually answered any of those questions. It seems that philosophy has made zero progress since the time of the Ancient Greeks. Perhaps the only reason to do philosophy is to learn how to think, so that we can apply what we've learnt to other facets of our lives.
That's why they called philosophy the handmaiden of theology.
Thank you for this!
Please balance the audio left and right. :) other than that, really nice initiative to spread knowledge freely.
Love your lecture! Many thanks
I know that 9 is not prime by _observing_ that it is the product of 3 and 3.
This use of "observe" is standard.
If, then, we maintain that this knowledge (of 9 not being prime) is not empirical knowledge, we cannot make the use of observation _per se_ as the means of distinguishing empirical from non empirical.
the remarkable facts about your teaching is face expressions and making students courious about the topic.so we can want to hear more.
The shadow of a cylinder illuminated from the side is 2-dimensional rectangle on a flat surface. The shadow of a pyramid on a flat surface in certain orientations is a 2-dimensional object. - from an engineer...
Shadows are just an absence of light, they aren’t a “thing” and thus have no dimension.
It is the examination of concepts.
I am a psychologist but despite leaving philosophy in 90s does not exonerate philosophy from the parent of all profession but uses statistics for discovery.
This is the reason why I don't want to argue with a philosopher. 😅
Please sir, Make a video on John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, ?? I am from India (university of North bengal)
Philosophy is really interesting
When I was in first grade, during recess, I asked myself the question, "Why am I here?" I thought about it and decided I was too young to answer.
When I was in nursery school I stole a big ring of keys. I buried them near our house. When I tried to dig them up, I could not find them. I did a lot of digging. Then I gave up and walked home. One the way I came up with a BIG THOUGHT: God knows where they are and that I did a bad thing.
In college I started following God and Jesus Christ. I have had a good life and now am 72. I have some answers and still many questions.
Dr. Kaplan's lectures are good and help me with thinking through things.
I have a philosophy class next semester, so I figure I would watch the series so i have a bit of an idea of what the class will be about and what some of the material will be over.
15:30 i think you actually could answer this imperically. you would get bias and subjectivity and it might leave something things out but you could definitely try to answer it imperially.
first create/find a bunch of kinds of ways societies are set up and then measure overall happiness of the people living there (through dopamine production or whatever else) and then which has the highest is the best way.
"What is Philosophy?"
In three words:
Let me think.
In ONE word:
Thought.
Thought is the absolute basis for Philosophy.
Thus ... Philosophy is ... thought.
TRUE Philosophers are hated.
Because ... we question ALL!
That includes ... ourselves.
Hell, I even question my questions.
Philosophers are the nemesis of science as is today, since we do not mere accept what we've been told.
We analyse it, verify it, and therein lies the issue:
We find errors.
And science no longer wants this, instead, they want you to accept, without further thought.
Same for politics.
This is pure evil, that established and pushed an ever greater evil:
Economy.
And economy was pushed so far, "God died" and economy became the new god, indoctrinated so deeply, it cannot change any more.
Since we've been indoctrinated to fight everything that stands in the way of politics and economy.
The corruption got too deep within us, it went SO deep and rooted SO strongly, it virtually became part of our DNA.
Politics and economy is what kills people, what eradicates nature, what destroys the planet.
And we LOVE IT.
Even at the cost ... of ourselves ... .
Sad.
Philosophise on that.
And yes, even you, Brutus, even you ... .