What is Philosophy?

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This is a video intended for college students considering taking a class in philosophy, but who are not sure exactly what philosophy is. This is also a video for parents or other relatives or friends of college students who have decided to major in philosophy, but who are not sure exactly what philosophy is.

[hoagie]

I reckon the majority of us are just people interested in philosophy who found your excellent lectures on youtube and can't get enough

[theorycraft]

Your wrong I'm not a student or parent. I'm just some guy who came across your video on if everyone sees the same red. Now I'm listening to all of them as I work to stay entertained.

[mariellascerri]

I’m a mature undergraduate law student in 🇲🇹 malta and I’ve devoured all your videos !! You have a gift of simplifying what every one else complicated

[chriss]

Talking about philosophy philosophically, pure genius.

[winkylee]

Thank you prof. Kaplan. I really like your lectures. You delivered them in a clear and rigorous way.

[BENZIVAR]

i love this guys teaching! he is one of the best teachers i've ever seen

[johnwalterknych]

Great video. Another thing to add concerning the major philosophical questions (does god exist, free will, Justice, etc.)…even if we forget about them after leaving childhood and get consumed by distractions, taxes, and dates…our decisions and lives are still steered by our subconscious answers to those questions. To take an intro philosophy course it take more conscious control over your life.

[Firerose]

As an engineer, I love philosophy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pay my bills.

[bryanoldenburg]

Thanks for your passion-- your love for learning surely shines through! I wish I'd had a fun professor like you back at the "Yale of the Midwest" (shown in the 1895 photograph). BTW, I recently replicated the shot using a modern-day student with a cell phone up to his face. One wag saw the replication and said, "We've gone from a society of thinkers to one of talkers." I gotta admit, he got me thinking about that one Jeffrey!

[lifebyvikk]

As a. Twenty something subsaharan African from Kenya, I do appreciate this channel, I'm always hungry for knowledge and this is where I run to when I want to learn one or two things

[barryrempp]

I'm not a philosopher (unless the armchair variety counts), but the philosophers I have known have a deep ENTHUSIASM for the discipline. It seems to me that this enthusiasm is encompassed, in a genuine way, within the sense of PHILIA. So I, personally, would not so quickly dismiss the relevance of philia in defining modern philosophy.

Moreover, sophia is also useful for defining modern philosophy. We tend to think of wisdom as profound insightfulness, often of the sort that comes with age and experience. The ancient Greek understanding of it was more along the lines of "skill". A master carpenter or stonemason would be considered wise.

Combining philia and sophia is, in my mind, quite nicely congruent with the pursuits of modern philosophy and helpful in defining it. I happen to love (in the philia sense) language, and frequently find exploring the etymology of a word very helpful in grasping its deeper implications.

Sorry if I'm being pedantic. My intent is to advocate for the art of etymology, and to advise against its offhand dismissal due to a blunt, overly-simple, literal translation of a word.

FWIW, my daughter double-majored in philosophy and history. (A father's nightmare?)

[dotexe]

I'm not one of your students, nor a parent - I'm doing a short course on philosophy after being out of education and work for a while, and your videos help explain the topics further! I'm trying to get better words to explain this crap in my head. Your passion feels so wholesome, and now I'm obsessed!

[OrangeBananaMonster]

The problem with arguments made around 15:00 is that it's actually a subject of debate as to whether some of those questions are objective or subjective. "Which actions are morally good, " for example, has proponents on both sides. Also, there is a philosophical view that doesn't point to the mere disagreement in philosophy, but the fact that philosophers have disagreed over the same questions for the past 2, 000 years in order to cast doubt on a definitive conclusion ever being reached. I also think that math 20:50 is a really bad example of a non-empirical question, as some argue that the foundation of math isn't abstract reason but is grounded in the empirical world. We discovered that 9 isn't prime by observing such division between objects in the real world, and then abstracting to an inductive conclusion. Same with a triangle. Axioms would have never been thought of if they first weren't reflected in experience. And in 29:30, many philosophers (Not Socrates, but Nietzsche, for example) would include rhetoric or persuasion among a philosopher's tools. 39:20 is completely right, though.

[octaviorusso]

I would love to see videos like this about psychology, maybe about Jungian psychology. It would be great if you talked about those topics too. You have a very clear and engaging way of speaking—and you are not pretentious, and that is a great relief; people I know who talk about philosophy are quite pretentious and it's honestly quite annoying to listen to them; you are authentic and humble. I can tell you like what you do, and you don't act as if you were superior to other people because of your knowledge and your ability to communicate it.
Hope you consider expanding into psychology.
Thanks for your amazing work.

[andrewwilson]

I've enjoyed all your videos very helpful and informative for such a big expansive subject

[JasonGafar]

I am always disappointed when people question the merits of doing an undergraduate degree in philosophy, as people often question it's correlation to securing a career. To major in philosophy can inexorably lead to many lucrative careers, such as law, administration, journalism, academia, and others. The personal fulfillment of doing a degree in philosophy is far reaching.

[InYourDreams-Andia]

I'm a mature interested person, Ive seen a good few of your videos, and it all seems very intuitive.

[beirangiaphiapi]

Interesting explanation. Really worth watching.

[MrMcGreed]

As a teacher of philosophy, with a masters degree in tge subject. After watching this video, I'm more sure than before, in telling my students that philosophy is the study of controversies 😜

[perfectlydamagedwithharley]

I'm not in college as matter of fact I fertilize lawns for a living I just like learning new things