What is Philosophy?: Crash Course Philosophy #1

Today Hank begins to teach you about Philosophy by discussing the historical origins of philosophy in ancient Greece, and its three main divisions: metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory. He will also introduce logic, and how you’re going to use it to understand and critically evaluate a whole host of different worldviews throughout this course. And also, hopefully, the rest of your life.

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[spikevillanueva]

Me: I'm alive!
Philosophy: That raises a question.

[ennuied]

I chose philosophy to find out why I chose philosophy.

[brotataftw]

this is proof that a "teacher" can determine how u look at a subject

[robinmahmud]

What is philosophy?
Everything
Philosophers : Is it?

[JWMCMLXXX]

When I was a kid, our parents were jealous of our toys.
Now I'm jealous of our kid's online learning resources.
Awesome.

[scarfrak]

Scientists ask "how".

Philosophers ask "why".

[UnderTheEndlessRain]

this made me realize that philosophy is just overthinking everything

[cannockladtalk]

Philosophy is an attempt to understand the world around us and the reasons for it and us and the things that we do. A lot of it can be introspective and deals with questions as to the ideal society and the motivations of people and why they do things. Whilst I like philosophy there exists a caveat within it for me as a central issue:
Namely, Philosophy can encourage apathy as regards too much thinking and not doing, or not putting ones thoughts into a physical manifestation in the real world, this is of course where philosophy can encounter the realms of politics, economics and sociology. But I find for my own introspective analysis that philosophers as a whole tend to to be sterotypically disconnected with real world issues and more focused on spouting platitudes and stoking their own egos. An idea is nothing if not acted upon, Plato took no action to create his republic of ideal guardians, Machiavelli espoused his theories but did not connive and manipulate to put them into effect, Locke took his notions of a liberal or liberated society of freedom but did he campaign for it, did he issue speeches or create a movement or cause to do so? One may of course retort that he practised it by allowing others to do as they do, to which I say the ideal or idea not put into affect is nothing, and less than nothing it detracts. I may have the idea of making a sandwich to appease my hunger, but without the inclination or will to do so i shall remain hungry.
Buddha drew an interesting parallel here when he described a person shot by a poisoned arrow, he states that the man could enquire from whence direction the arrow came, where it was made, what it was made from, who shot the arrow, what is the poison etc etc, but only by dealing with the arrow, i.e. by acting upon it can he affect his life. Thus whilst I admire philosophy and love it myself, I find that most take no action from it, worse they may become armchair philsophers, worse still they may stoke their own egos and platitudes and lastly they may, surrounded only by followers lose touch of the real world they once tried to understand. Wisdom can therefore be a snare, for it is not a conclusion that is important, indeed only dead fish swim with the stream but the evermore exploration and continuance of the journey, once one reaches a definite conclusion and no longer takes an action, is it not that he/she is indistinguishable from the corpses of those laid to rest in previous generations? he/she that states that they now know truth are thus now nobody, for they have stopped action, thus it is that to know, or truly know is to know that you know nothing and thus one lives by continuing on the journey of trying to understand. Philsophy is therefore a journey, for which the action of walking that path IS the aim, the quaint phrase: It is not the destination but the journey that matters springs to mind.
Ugh....you now have me getting philosophical...ah well, here's to more understanding and more wisdom. Have a nice day anyone who reads this.

[gamer_DJM]

One of my favorite things about a new Crash Course series is pausing the intro to read the little info bubbles.

[SeanTurle]

I'm supposed to be studying mathematics right now but here I am thinking what are numbers?

[oioioi]

I want to do philosophy in college but all my friends and family laugh at me :(
I think its utterly fascinating

[TheBVTM]

8:43 sums up philosophy and human reasoning. He said it so casually but yet it was so profound

[RennietheRobit]

I'm ready for my existential crisis!

[isaaczurich]

For me, the best definition I've ever come across for philosophy was "the activity of trying to work out the right way to think about things." The keyword in that definition is "activity, " because part of what makes philosophy so rewarding is engaging with the ideas of different philosophers and interrogating our own ideologies and biases in order to better ascertain whatever the truth is. If all we're doing is learning what others have said and simply repeating it, then we're little more than contemporary sophists.

[kaileo]

I’m so happy to see a comment section that has literally every thought I think at least TWICE per week. 😂😂

[mwthecool]

I'm not even in a philosophy class and I'm watching this! I'm just generally interested in the subject.

[Shangori]

hopefully an episode about why the freakin hell 'how to think' is not part of every education system. It would solve so many problems

[yoursubconscious]

its funny how ppl. pay for university, yet Youtube has taught me everything I studied in business in order for me to get my business degree...

[fausto]

i am 13 years old. i already know i want my college majors to be philosophy and psychology. i want to know why i want that. i want to know why i see things the way they are. why do we exist? what’s the point of life? if we all die, there’s no reason to live, right?
ever since i was a little boy (like 5) i used to think i was in a movie, or life was just an illusion, or life is a dream and when we die, we wake up in an alternative world.

[halaelharrati]

I've always been a deep thinker- constantly asking these unanswered questions about everything. And I've always loved Philosophy and Psychology. These topics are really intriguing