Jonny Thomson
@philosophyminis • 506,700 subscribers
Videos
If you look after your health, then you will think better. If you eat well and you exercise more, you will have the wisdom of an ancient philosopher — a healthy mind in a healthy body. But this isn't just some slogan plastered over gym walls and CrossFit stations around the world. According to the Roman philosopher Musonius, it's the only way that we can become a good person. Musonius lays out various reasons why training the body is important for a philosopher. The first is that our body is important to almost all of the virtues. To be courageous, to have self-control, and to even enforce justice requires a good body. You need to be strong and healthy if you are to have more opportunities to be virtuous. Second, because we need the body to endure what will come. No one can avoid hardship for long, but we can prepare for it. But you cannot prepare for it adequately in the mind alone. You need to train the body to endure the cold, the hunger, and the long, hard walk of the future. And third, our thoughts will reflect our body. If your body is anxious, sleepless, and sedentary, your thoughts will be anxious, sleepless, and sedentary as well. If you have one too many coffees in the day, you will know exactly what Musonius means. You cannot train your mind if you let your body wilt and lag behind. We need to grow the body to grow how we think. You need to treat your body well in order to think well in order to live well.
Jonny Thomson222,800 views • 6 months ago
I’m often asked what the point of philosophy is, and I usually say that philosophy is what allows us to pull up, to scrutinise, and then to reject, accept, or to modify our beliefs. It’s what prevents us from becoming indoctrinated, closed-minded, or wilfully idiotic. But how can we actually do that? Well, here are three ways, from small to big. The first is to take a leaf out of Karl Popper’s book and to look for falsifying information. Find a belief that you are not 100% sure on, and try to find some evidence to contradict it. Seek rival explanations, alternative answers, or opposite positions to see if it is enough to challenge you. Defend your belief like it were a defendant in a courtroom. Second, employ this thought experiment: Imagine that suddenly you would lose your reputation, your status, or even your job for believing a certain thing. Would you carry on believing it? Or would you suddenly believe the opposite or throw it away? For some things like two plus two equals four, it’s hard to imagine this, but for other things we believe them only because they are socially advantageous. This isn’t a reason to necessarily jettison them, but it is a reason to look at them more closely. And third, we should get Cartesian. Throw all of your beliefs out. Start again. Imagine that you are Jon Snow or a five-year-old child and you are starting out from scratch. But now you are using your adult intelligence to decide what you want to keep and what you want to throw away. Because so many of our beliefs are habits and they are just given to us by those around us. If philosophy is the broom, we are the cleaner. And it’s good occasionally to do a good spring clean of the mind.
Jonny Thomson102,600 views • 7 months ago
Have you ever noticed how some people have an excuse for everything? They say, 'It's the way I was born,' or, 'My boss just hates me,' or, 'It's bad luck.' They blame the universe, their past, or their DNA for the state of their lives, because it's easier to be a victim of circumstance. But according to Jean-Paul Sartre, this is an example of what he called bad faith. In his most famous line, Sartre said, 'existence precedes essence,' which means that you aren't born with a pre-written destiny. You are a blank canvas, and you are nothing more than the sum of your actions. But possessing such immense and radical freedom is terrifying, because when there is no God, no fate, and no biological determinism, there is nothing to hide behind. I am the one pulling the strings. I am the architect of my life. So if somebody says, 'I had no choice,' they are hiding the immensity of their own freedom from themselves. They are lying to themselves. If you choose to talk to those people, that is a choice. If you choose to go into work, that is a choice. If you choose to be mean and cruel, then don't be surprised when people stop inviting you to things. As the internet adage goes, 'If you f*** about, you'll find out.' Radical freedom is terrifying, but also liberating. Because if you are the reason for all of this mess, you also have the power to get yourself out of it. And according to Sartre, we all have much more power to fix ourselves than we think.
Jonny Thomson76,000 views • 9 months ago
Shieber: The Nietzsche Thesis. Why few people actually care about the truth.
Jonny Thomson16,173 views • 10 months ago
We all live with certain assumptions about how the world works. For example, most people think that germs cause disease, that reflected light causes colour, and that the world is made up of atoms. These assumptions are what Thomas #Kuhn calls a ‘paradigm.’ Sometimes, in any given paradigm, these strange puzzles will pop up – which are these anomalies which can't easily be made sense of. In the majority of cases, science will eventually solve these puzzles under what Kuhn calls ‘mopping up.’ A theory will adapt and grow. In other cases, an anomaly might not easily be explained, but since it's only a one-off, it's ignored. Very occasionally, though, these puzzles might start to build up and the anomalies can't be ignored. This is when a ‘paradigm shift’ happens – a huge part of our scientific framework will change. The implication of this is whether science can ever be called ‘true’ or just ‘normal.’ Karl #Popper once argued that science is never true, but just ‘not yet proven false.’ But Kuhn wants to go further than this. He argues that one day, science will reach a point of ‘normalcy’ where no human mind can challenge the paradigm any further. But none of this is to undermine what #science is doing. True paradigm shifts are incredibly rare, and the fact that they happen at all tells us only that #scientists are constantly checking themselves to make sure that their answers are the best and most effective. If anything, the existence of #paradigm shifts ought to make us feel more secure in what science is doing. It's not just a matter of faith or assumptions, but everything can be revised in the light of new #evidence #philosophy #epistemology #scientificmethod #history
Jonny Thomson28,000 views • 2 years ago
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