Reading Philosophy & NOT Reading Philosophy.

hey what's up I got a question here on
patreon asking me what books I would recommend for someone who really has no background in European philosophy they want to start reading books that give them an education on philosophy and I take that kind of question very seriously I took that kind of question seriously before I ever lived in Asia back when I was living in Canada and you know you get another perspective on it when you've asked when you've been asked that question we've answered that sort of question living in Cambodia Laos Southeast Asia generally what have you um it's a serious question and I think you know it's really wrong to take it lightly and just say oh here's my favorite book that I read when I was 18 years old I wouldn't do that to a Cambodian I wouldn't do that to a Canadian either philosophy in the Western tradition it's you know it's such a bizarrely overrated and misunderstood category of books you know why are some of these books in the same shell together why are Aristotle and Plato sharing a shelf with Hegel and Emmanuel Kant you know it's very very difficult to talk to someone today and explain to them why you know the dispute between Immanuel Kant and Sir Isaac Newton over the interpretation of the Bible why that still matters why that's still important because it's not it's not important most people have completely forgotten the the religious philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton during his life he wasn't just a scientist he was also famous as a religious figure and he had what I would consider somewhat bizarre and eccentric views on the reinterpretation of the Bible that were hugely hugely influential at the time and that was what Immanuel Kant was responding to in the critique of Pure Reason and now you know universities around the world are taking Immanuel Kant's critique of Pure Reason and trying to turn it into something that's important to teach to every eighteen-year-old at every University in Europe and that's a lie it's not important it's not meaningful and you know when I say it's a lie I think you can compare it to other philosophies that have come and gone that have had you know some reasonable standing some reasonable influence in society just to keep this brief you can look at Buddhist philosophy it is very easy to look at the influence Buddhism has had in Thailand in Sri Lanka and say ok Buddhism is a philosophy that still really matters today for better and for worse believe me I'm not saying that everything of a Buddhist philosophy is wonderful there are lots of things I could tell you about Buddhist philosophy that are terrible it's not hard for me to do um [Music] it's very difficult to look at just 19th century Greek philosophy sir ha ha little slip there 19th century German philosophy and say that now you know the ancient Greeks I do think are still worth studying worth reading we just recently had on on you now a heated debate that went on for at least 20 minutes but was live streaming with a woman who was a teacher of philosophy shout out to Emma thanks for coming by Emma you know talking about the intellectual legacy of Plato in contrast Aristotle and contrast acidities and Clinton Condors to Herodotus but you know I mean first of all I guess I just pause say some people would dispute my even including lucidity Xander artists in the category of philosophy because they have some much more narrow view of what's what philosophy is and why it matters for most readers I mean I'm not even getting to or how I define philosophy or why I think philosophy is important in the world I think that's fat us and counterproductive to be blunt if people are asking you about what they need to know what they could learn from what why they should read philosophy really um you know the most useful example would be something like Herodotus why is Herodotus interesting or rewarding for people to read well if you're interested in the culture of ancient Greece if you're interested in contrasting the way one ancient society coped with the values of the religious views of the cosmology of an ancient society Herodotus provides so much rich material for reflecting on that culture and how it understood the world you know good and bad I mean Herodotus you know some of the most shocking material is only a few sentences long the excuses for human sacrifice you know and wadis just says oh but you shouldn't sighs these people for carrying out these human sacrifice that was their custom in the attitude towards custom and tradition and religion and you know the even the role that philosophy played in that society the attitudes towards kingship and slavery and democracy that stuff is fascinating but it's only fascinating if you're interested in a kind of you know cultural anthropology you're interested in looking at how a totally alien culture cope with those things it's not interesting in the way that a scientific discovery is interesting not at all and I think part of what goes on in the modern Western world is an attempt to misrepresent the history of philosophy as if it really did resemble the history of Sciences if it presented you with a series of stages and that each stage discovered something that resulted in irreversible progress as not true at all I mean you know the Greeks had one set of debates about the nature of democracy and politics and then for hundreds of years after that different societies had different debates including China and India you know huge parts of the world that are normally just omitted from the way we teach and study with philosophy and politics etc um my point here is when an average person writes to me as this guy did and says you know he has no background in philosophy what books can I recommend I'm not someone who would in a shallow or relaxed way even recommend books that I enjoyed myself books that were important to me personally I feel you know on the contrary that I can't recommend this stuff that it's as bizarre as if you went to Cambodia and you met someone in Cambodia who had seen the magazine rack in a store in a fancy Western store and saw Cosmopolitan magazine Vogue magazine a whole series of fashion magazines with you know beautiful women images of wealth and opulence and leisure someone said you look I have no education in fashion I need what books do you recommend for me to study so I can prepare myself to understand this important genre of literature um you know I think you'd have to start by explaining the person look this stuff is important and meaningful to an incredibly small number of people the debates about you know fashion it's important to some people but this is important and meaningful to a very very small number of people so probably you don't want to do this probably don't want to put in the time on this the difference is that with philosophy the glitt'ring magazine rack what draws people to it is just the inculcated notion that this is the best and most important thing that Western civilization has to offer that that this is the meaning of life itself being presented to you and you know that motivates many people to sit down and try to convince themselves that Immanuel Kant is meaningful and important to their lives today and it's not it's garbage and there is an interesting type of work to do in reconstructing why was this once important and meaningful to people why was it that at the time there was this debate with this famous scientist you know Sir Isaac Newton and this response really meant something but I mean you know I can't recommend that a Cambodian puts in the hours to to you know become familiar with that and I can't recommend that a Canadian does either from my perspective you know the vast corpus of you know Western philosophy is you know it's it's garbage they has no you know and sadly entry in an attempt to make that garbage seem meaningful and important to young people today in universities there there's a lot of intellectually dishonest you know misleading half-truths and fraud that goes on I remember you know you started just you have one example real quick I remember trying to talk about racism within Immanuel Kant and you know the response you get from people are supposedly you know respectable university professors any of these issues one side with slavery within Hegel something here racism within Hegel or what have you you know stuff is all junk anyway Hegel knew nothing about China or India what he wrote about China and India's garbage why can't we just a minute move on the fact the response you get from the establishment is of refusing to allow you to admit that Immanuel Kant was racist that already shows how broken the whole system is you know if your approach to ancient Greece is to try to make ancient Greece seem like paradise then your whole educational system is broken if you can appreciate what was right and what was wrong with if you can look back on that and just look at it as an alien culture in the same way that I look back on ancient India and just said okay well I'm interested in this culture I'm interested in this civilization I'm not here to glorify it and not here to make excuses for it in ancient India there were some really interesting philosophical debates and those are preserved in the Buddhist Canon and in in the Pali Canon you know in the same way you can look back in ancient Greece and whether you're looking at debates on the nature of slavery or debates on whether the world was flat or shaped like a drum there interesting debates that happened but you know this this is really better described as a form of cultural studies than it is true philosophy and even when you're talking about you know the 19th century in Europe tell me what just a couple of centuries ago you tend to be looking at debates that are so heavily burdened with it but with religious culture with Christianity that they've already become very alien and very foreign to us and you know if we're going to talk about Marxism it's even worse who with a straight face today can sit down with a classroom of students in Canada or in Cambodia and say okay we're gonna get heavily into you know the fine differences between the the various schools of thought and Marxism that just a short time ago justified millions of people killing each other you know none of that stuff is meaningful today so that's about it guys sorry this video was already longer than I wanted to be but this is my long answer to why I'm not just casually recommending you a bunch of books to read but about philosophy you know if there is one parallel I remember just reading an article about the state of books on the history of modern medical science and it admitted that you know this is some that isn't really taught in universities that experts aren't comfortable talking about and you know most of the books sort of have to open with warning saying this is a lot more depressing than you think it's gonna be yes it's pretty easy to find a glorified glamorized propaganda version of the history of modern medical science sort of all good news but the real history of medical science you know going back whatever a thousand years or more is full of these you know unbelievable harrowing stories of people dying long slow painful deaths because of a misunderstanding because of an error because of a fad theory the you know the history of medical science was centuries and centuries of unbelievable error that today has no relevance to what we do in modern medicine at all and then you know sort of in a few decades if this crystallization of scientific knowledge you know indeed and you know the invention of soap is you know of modern cheap soap the science of making cheap those 1861 before that there were other ways making soap you know the emergence of modern concepts of Hygiene and the germ theory of disease and you know the invention of the microscope there's the sudden positive uplifting story at the very end but even that has its horror stories within it but was just interest remember when I was reading that article saying look it's actually really hard for people in medical science to be honest with themselves about the history of medical science or why it matters today or in a sense why so little of it matters day why the vast majority that history is just being forgotten and ignored we're in the same situation when we look back at the history of what we call philosophy and it's very debatable what should and what should not be called philosophy but when we look back at that I think we have to admit whether it's religious philosophy you know when all the vast majority of European philosophy was was tied to religion and the atheist philosophy is also tied to religion because it's actively critique critiquing and attacking those guys whether you're looking at religious philosophy or Marxist philosophy it's very very hard to package this stuff as being socially salient and meaningful to people's lives today and it's a shame that so much of Western anemia is engaged in a kind of scam to produce exactly the kind of packaging