I give some commentary on the introduction to Lord Russell’s “The History of Western Philosophy.” I am rather pressed for time as my work schedule has me waking up at one AM; and although it’s a Saturday I must make it to the pub for reasons of sanity. As such I’ll definitely be revisting the introduction in more detail. So please take everything said here with a huge grain of salt. There is quite a lot of opinion.
Sweet Ambrosia
Apologies for my sniffling and mushed words as I am recovering from a cold.
I wouldn’t have uploaded at all had I had the time to do a second take. But I’m frankly tired of seeing my website sit stagnant. So here’s my best effort and I hope you enjoy.
Topics
I) Russell’s definition of philosophy
II) Russell’s philosophical landscape – Greece, Catholicism, etc.
III) Russell on Byzantium and in my estimation by extention Russell on Orthodoxy and where in my opinion he might be wrong in his conceptions
This topic has a lot of peripheries like the political interplay of Catholicism and Protestantism and the development of man’s sense of duty to God over the state. There are so many caveats to this and so many philosophical implications that it takes up the rest of the video and I’ve barely scratched the surface.
IV) The importance of Liberalism as a balancing force between disciplinarian ossification and hyperindividualism. That importance being in my opinion the reason for studying philosophy.
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Not Just Zazz…but Pizzazz
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It’s a touch difficult to pick a title for one of these vlogs that’s all over the place. So, I sort of just listed some of the main topics under discussion.
I go over those and some odds and ends of life and new responsibilities. I take that rabbit trail to less solipsistic ends by talking about the importance of applying discipline at opportune times.
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Not Just Zazz…but Pizzazz
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As far as I remember there was more drunken kabob roasting then training of Ursine Commandos.
Sometimes when folks get to know me and find out that I am originally from Russia they ask me geopolitical questions.
And of course I hear the news every sodding day.
News like this:
…Which only tangentially touches on Russia but nontheless makes me raise an eyebrow like so:
Russia has an interest in the Ukraine?
Working against our efforts?
Excuse me. But, I’m Russian American with a Ukranian great grandfather (i.e. the countries are geographicaly and ethnically closely related).
Your efforts in the region are about as natural and warranted as the Russians building up a strong military presence in Mexico while funding La Raza (See Azov Battalion). Do you know anything about the region?
What is it with Americans and their psychotic fear of a sparsely populated but self sufficient country that doesn’t want to become a NATO vasal state? I get being even handed but this level of nervous toedipping into the idea that maybe the demonized side aren’t really demons seems to be peculiarly strong regarding Russia.
Being an American citizen raised here since a young age I don’t have any particular patriotism for Russia. But I do have a perspective that makes me ask what the fuck is going 9000+ times a day.
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I will never cease to be baffled by the pride that a good chunk of humanity seems to take in submitting to preistcraft. By preistcraft I do not necessarily mean religion.
In this broadened definition I include many ideologies and yes…among them I dare include that shibboleth called ‘science.’
Now, I am not a fan of comparing science to religion. This being due to the fact that science is not religion. But there is a sort of popular notion of science that may as well be religion.
It is both pro and prescriptive. It has a metaphysic. It has an ethic. There are within its dogmas not only cosmological claims but outright prophecies.
This is not the science of Spinoza or Feynman. That is to say it is not science. It is whimsy and hubris systematized. That is to say religion.
It has priests and teachers of the law.
I do not even so much here begrudge authoritarianism as I lament sloth. For its profound mental laziness that causes so many otherwise rational people to utter the demure prayer:
“I am not a scientist.”
Well…so bloody what?
Do you not have access to books? Or to get less medieval… to the sodding internet?
Ah but you require special training. These mysteries must of course be properly understood.
Yes, and did you not spend at least twelve years of your life in the school system?
Alright… I get it…that institution is deteriorated and generally rots the mind. Fine, all well and good. I too am cynical about the supposedly unalloyed good of mandatory public schooling.
However…even the most barefoot, twelve-toed, slug snacking Appalachian scion surely understands that the beauty of science is in its inherent democracy. Or if you prefer Libertarianism.
How is it that the experts to which you submit your reason came to their knowledge? Was it through sorcery? Did they approach a shewstone and therein decipher the mind of the most high God?
Or did they apply the fairly simple mechanisms of the scientific method to expand and expound upon the current body of knowledge?
You tell me that you cannot do the same?
Or are you in a roundabout way asserting that I cannot do so. That I must flagellate myself. That I should toss my critical faculties into the purifying flames of inquisition. That I should shroud my brain in the same Catholic darkness that gives you the jollies?
Suppose all those mea culpas ever bleeding from your rosary are valid. That we are both at sea before the vast incomprehensibility of the universe. That we require the confessional booth. That we must submit to a higher power.
Fine.
But I have a question…
WHICH?
To which higher power should I surrender? I suspect that your answer will depend entirely on your political persuasion.
If you do not know the things of which you are speaking of. If they are so arcane and require so many years of academic pilgrimage to fathom…then how…in all sodding Christendom do you know whether you agree.
Would it not be simpler to just vomit Druidic litanies?
Or at least more cough than humble bragging…
If you have ceased to be able to work with the facts and theories thus far achieved and must now entirely lean upon the insights of the clergy. How…HOW…pray tell is this science? The thing whose chief strength is mutability. A strength nourished by diligent scrutiny.
I guess there’s really not much use in railing against this madness. It seems to be more of a drive than a philosophical position.
I doubt I’ll ever understand it.
I guess I just don’t have that kinky submissive streak that plagues such a large chunk of humanity.
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It’s bad enough to deal with the melodramatically apocalyptic ambience of Gen Z (or Omega if you’re Greek), the painfully temporally constipated notion of millenial, but now the generation that has never heard the dulcet tones of dial up is gonna be dubbed Zoomers…a name that sounds like all the MDMA and uppers that were involved in their conception.
This is not the generation that will restore conservative values.
These are the same exact reactionary snots that you were and your parents were.
Children are not the future.
Death and taxes are the future.
Drink now. Drink often.
Buy me a Whiskey
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So, I stumbled across the Shindo Renmei. An interesting group that sprang out of an interesting set of circumstances. It is a peculiarity in the truest sense of the word. Absolutely dependent on the specifics of its time and place.
That is the case with any bit of history.
So why study it?
The popular answer is so that we do not repeat it.
I see no reason to be contrarian. But I also see no reason for such narrow apologetics.
I think the main reason to study history is that it is a gold mine of catalysts and ideas. I think this is the main reason because it is so much more fertile. And also because the wise fear of repeating history is often hijacked by this or that pundit to cherry-pick examples that ‘prove’ why this or that is going to be catastrophic. Or more colloquially, “You’re just like a HitlerStalinTerrorist.”
I think it’s possible to extend this notion even further. This ‘mine’ is perhaps the ultimate case of art for arts sake. Art here being any endeavor including science and philosophy.
Art…or ‘well informed doodling’ should practiced precisely because practice begets art. There needs be no other reason. No harried seeking of supporting themes, or grants, or panty parting guitar solos but simply doing for doings sake.
The preferred beverage of those silent servants in the civilian officer corps who’ve been sending waves and waves of our men at somebody, for some reason, for generations. Godspeed gentlemen…Godspeed!
It’s been 15 years since ‘Team America World Police’ taught us the meaning of patriotism. It’s heartening to see that the seeds of freedom it planted continue to blossom in the hearts of keyboard warriors across this brave land of ours.
McNamara’s Domino Theory of War
I decided to comment on a YouTube video and received a swift bald eagle to the nuts for my communism.
Here is my shameful faux-pas: Not digging the slippery slope argument. Our involvement in the middle east often precipitates further destabilization. Saddam and Gaddafi weren’t saints but they did bring stability. I’m surprised that someone as reasonable as yourself on the Assad kerfuffle is spouting neocon foreign policy just to stick it to a wanker.
This Marxist screed must be due to my Russian origins. Forgive me I’ve had a bit too much vodka. Sure supporting military adventures all around the world while the economy stagnates might seem unwise but that’s because as a godless Bolshevik I don’t have enough faith.
Thank sweet baby Jesus, and the applepie bakin’ mammy that birthed him behind the Nashville bar, where Elvis made his first pelvic thrust into our hearts that a true patriot was around to set me on the straight and narrow: blah, blah, blah, everything is always America’s fault. Got it. How did America deserve the ’93 WTC bombing? Was that just “blowback” too? Is America always at fault for everything?
Ah…but alas surviving on canned goods for the benefit of the Politburo has stupefied me, and I can’t help but spread red propaganda from Frankfurt school luminaries like George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
nobody said america is to blame. the military industrial complex that eisenhower warned us about gets us into foreign entanglements that george washington warned us about. your idea of patriotism is unamerican, gets americans killed, and impoverishes the nation.
