[@ChrisWillx] Is Being Smart Worth the Depression? - Alex O’Connor & Joe Folley (4K)

Link: https://youtu.be/h9Bp7AuUh_E

Short Summary

Ancient philosophy was deeply practical, aiming to guide people toward a good life through ethics rooted in metaphysics and logic. Modern philosophy, while often dissected into specialized fields, can lose its practical grounding and become overly theoretical, yet at its best, it maintains a focus on real-world application and self-discovery. This shift can result in ethics lacking a robust metaphysical base, leading to individuals selectively adopting philosophies based on personal preference rather than profound intellectual development.

Key Quotes

Okay, here are 5 quotes from the transcript that I found particularly valuable, interesting, surprising, or opinionated.

1. "We're trying to do the ethics without the metaphysics. As Joe just said, like a lot of these ancient philosophers in particular are remembered for their ethical teachings...But but why? Because of their metaphysics, because of what they believe was true about the world...And so if all you have are the ethical commitments now, that there isn't really a way to make progress because ethics is kind of conjectural if it doesn't have a metaphysical grounding." (Highlights the danger of cherry-picking ethical principles without understanding their underlying philosophical basis.)

2. "I think that philosophy doesn't develop in the way that something like physics does...Instead of something which you sort of go from ignorance to knowledge over the course of 20 generations, you go from ignorance to knowledge over the course of one generation and everybody has to sort of start a fresh. Which is why you find that these ancient philosophers and early modern philosophers and modern philosophers and guaranteed future philosophers too are all essentially saying the same thing." (Offers a compelling argument against the linear progress narrative often applied to philosophy.)

3. "...one of philosophy's historic successes is just creating lots of new fields...philosophers are good at making jobs for other academics...Originally maths was inseparable from philosophy and then you know that becomes its own field of study and you know physics is originally rolled into philosophy and it becomes its own field of study. Economics is another one that stems from philosophy..." (Provides a defense for the field of philosophy by highlighting the branches of study it has spawned.)

4. "Nihilism just means there's sort of no purpose to it all...you could just as easily be having a wonderful time and think there is no rhyme or reason to this. I'm having a great time, but there's absolutely no purpose to this. And you'd still be a nihilist because you think that there's no purpose behind it all. But it doesn't mean you have to have a bad time doing so." (A nuanced and potentially liberating perspective on nihilism.)

5. "Emotivism is not a reporting of your emotional state. It is the expression of the emotion itself. So it's the difference between saying I don't like murder and going like gh murder...You can't really like debate it exactly. It's just an expression." (Highlights the core concept of the emotivism theory.)

Detailed Summary

Here's a detailed summary of the YouTube video transcript using bullet points, covering key topics, arguments, and information:

I. Introduction: Ancient vs. Modern Philosophy & Practicality

• The video explores the differences between ancient Greek philosophy and contemporary philosophy.
• Ancient philosophy wasn't as compartmentalized into distinct fields like epistemology, ethics, and logic.
• Ancient philosophy was extremely practical, focused on how to live a good life. The video suggests that modern day philosophy at its best still is, or, at least, it should be extremely practical.
• The video suggests that modern philosophy does not make the same amount of progress as previous generations.

II. Metaphysics and Ethics

• Ancient philosophers grounded their ethics in metaphysics and logic (e.g., Stoics and Epicureans).
• Modern philosophy may attempt ethics without the necessary metaphysical grounding, leading to less progress.
• Without metaphysics, ethics becomes conjectural and based on personal preferences.

III. Stoicism & Divine Providence

• Stoic ethics of acceptance stem from a belief in divine providence and a rational universe.
• Modern Stoicism often lacks this metaphysical assumption.
• The emphasis on Stoic logic has diminished over time, even between Greek and Roman Stoicism.

IV. Modern Philosophy: Intellectual Masturbation or Development?

• Modern philosophy is sometimes criticized for being more concerned with "intellectual masturbation" than teaching fundamental life questions.
• Philosophy doesn't develop linearly like physics, but rather requires each generation to rediscover basic principles.
• There is a stagnation and many of the philosophical tenets have already been discussed or discovered by previous generations of philosophers.

V. Chat GPT and the Cycle of Rediscovery

• The video talks about the philosophical implications of AI that lack memory.
• It's discussed that the core of philosophy is rediscovering questions and answers.

VI. Philosophy's Successes & New Fields

• Philosophy's successes are often "hidden" because they give birth to new fields of study (e.g., mathematics, physics, economics, linguistics, psychoanalytic theory).

VII. Unfairly Ignored Ancient Schools

• Eastern Philosophy is often neglected by western thinkers.
• Aristotelian metaphysics is underexplored, particularly the concept of the four kinds of causation (formal, material, efficient, and final).
• Modern science primarily focuses on efficient causes.
• The Presocratics, and their ideas, have also been unfairly ignored or neglected. Zeno is a good example.

VIII. Aristotle's Ethics & Friendship

• Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is a highly practical and useful book.
• It emphasizes the importance of virtue but acknowledges that virtue alone isn't sufficient for a good life.
• Aristotle's concept of the "golden mean" describes virtue as a balance between two vices.
• He also stresses the importance of friendship, especially "friendships of virtue," contributing to a flourishing life.
• Friendship as an organizing factor in life has been culturally overshadowed by romantic partnerships.

IX. Stoicism's Popularity

• Stoicism is currently popular because it suits a modern world where people are lost and unsure.
• It offers consolation without requiring metaphysical baggage.

X. Nihilism & Dark Philosophies

• Nihilism, the belief that there is no inherent purpose, doesn't necessarily lead to suffering.
• Trying on a philosophy, living according to it for a week, can be insightful.
• Pessimistic philosophies, like those of Emil Cioran, can lower expectations and provide a sense of comedic relief in the face of suffering.
• There is dose dependence related to suffering and an individuals reaction to it.

XI. Pessimism & Anti-Natalism

• Pessimistic philosophers can sometimes be self-indulgent, focusing on their own suffering.
• Anti-natalism, the view that it is immoral to have children, is presented as a non-self-indulgent pessimistic philosophy.
• David Benatar's Better Never to Have Been argues that it's better for no one to be born, even if their life would be filled with more pleasure than suffering.
• All humans are disabled in some philosophical sense, because they cannot do everything.
• Before you exist, the potential pain that you would avoid does matter, whereas any potential pleasure that you might experience is irrelevant.

XII. The Argument Against Suicide

• Benatar's argument that it is immoral to begin life will inevitably create a powerful argument to not continue life.
• Kimu states that that meaning of life is literally whatever is keeping you from killing yourself.

XIII. The Myth of Sisyphus

• It's one of the first works that Kamu wrote. His later work is better.

XIV. Evolving Philosophical Views

• Philosophers' views develop over time, influencing their work.
• Personal experiences and political considerations influence their writings.

XV. Useless Philosophers

• The video touches on whether any figures contributed significantly to philosophical thought without having practical implications.

XVI. What Philosophy to Jettison?

• If you find philosophy useful, then it is useful. There is no need to jettison.

XVII. Philosophy of Mind

• Growing realization that consciousness may be fundamental (Panpsychism).
• Clichés of connectedness found in ancient literature, meditation, and psychedelic experiences.

XVIII. Problems to Overcome in Panpsychism

• The combination problem
• Just because the brain is the most complex thing that we know, it is the thing with the most consciousness.
• Most of its neurons are in its arms. It seems that it gives it a vibe and the arm will work out the details.

XIV. Consciousness

• One way that the mind is understood is that there is a parliamnet of different drives. Once we have won out on a course of action, we then put a PR brain in place to justify it.

XV. Panpsychism & The China Brain Experiment

• Is what is happening just an illusion and we can scale it up?
• If you get 10 billion brains, you can scale them up and make an even more unified mind.
• For example, if you take an octopus, it can do both separate and unified minds

XVI. Split Brain and the Unity of Consciousness

• Study of patients who have had the corpus colossum severed. If a patient is shown a picture on a brain hemisphere that is unable to report it, they do not know what to say. But, if they are asked to draw a picture, they are able to report. It will just act independently from one another.
• The unified sense of self may not actually be what's going on in reality.

XVII. Imotivism

• Ethical statements are just expressions of emotion, not reports of facts. For example, saying Boo or a unique emotion. The expression of a emotion is more of what it is like and can not be true or false. It is all a sort of vibe.

XVIII. Are moralities as divergent as we think?

• The tribe of 150 people are is going to last as long as a tribe that says yay to murder. There is an evolutionary implication. It deselects those individuals from making it very far.

XVIIII. Emotivism, Ethical Disagreement, and Moral Psychology

• Ethical emotivism doesn't mean "anything goes," as there are pragmatic constraints and potential agreements.
• Moral debates often involve factual disagreements that influence emotional states.
• A possible moral disagreement that emotivism would struggle to accommodate is the notion of rights versus consequences, or what a priority should be placed on each.

XX. Responsibility

• The people on this podcast state their biases and how they are feeling throughout and this helps build trust and is more open and honest and allows people to weigh the opinions more thoughtfully.