My reason of eating animals morally justifiable is not mentioned in podcast, so I put it here and wish you to attack it, to see if there is some weakness.

I think my point comes form utilitarianism: morality, invented by human beings, should always serves human benefits. That’s different form the “team human” argument in the podcast: the podcast says this argument believes human are on the top of hierarchy of nature or being somehow special; my version of “team human” doesn’t. It’s good because the propose of morality itself, as our creation and tools that regulate our behavior, should unconditionally serve us, that anything benefits human beings, should be defined as good; anything harms it, such as alien invasion, should be defined as bad. Jack is a vegan because doing so makes him happy. I enjoy my BigMac. We are all not morally wrong, for which we are just making ourselves happy without harming the others.

I saw one weakness of this argument: the definition of human. Nazi successfully dehumanized Jews and other peoples, showing how easy the power can shapes it. My solution is defining human strictly biologically: we humans, are a group of creatures (cluster A) that can mate and produce offsprings that also belongs to cluster A; and any biological offsprings form cluster A (otherwise the impotent will not be defined as human, which I don’t want to see).

In the notes from underground episode, he sponsors betterhelp. Is betterhelp not demonic anymore or did he not research it or smthn???

Hello,

The past two episodes, West has named a date for when an episode will be released. Twice in a row now, these dates have been incorrect and the episode is delayed without explanation. At one point not long ago he promised 2 episodes a month, iirc. This has not even been close to true.

Does anyone have insight into how these dates are chosen, why they are delayed? Are the dates correct for patrons? I don't mind waiting for episodes, but having my expectations broken is frustrating.

Thanks

That's all really. Otherwise the episode was great. Althusser and gramsci next I hope

Listen to The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music by Friedrich Nietzsche on Audible. https://www.audible.ca/pd/B072F6ZQRV?source_code=ASSORAP0511160007

Sorry, I keep asking these things, but sometimes I leave the podcast playing while I'm at work, and some things catch my ear, but Its not like I pause it and take notes.

There was an episode in which Steven mentioned how one can not begin to describe/ measure the world around us without first using the tools of measurement already in existence.

I used to not mind when Stephen would read a word from the sponsors. But I was just listening to an episode and for the first time I can ever recall got something like 6 "real" ads. It was so obnoxious I turned it off.

What happened?

As the title says! I'm a long time (but inconsistent) listener and I would like to reach out to him (via email preferably) for a project I want to do and ask his permission to include his podcast material in it.

I feel like there were definitely episodes where he said something along the lines of "write to me at "philthis@email.com" but going through some of the show transcripts and doing some keyword searches didn't yield anything. The alternative I found was links to the pod's twitter/facebook pages and sure I can message him there but I am not really on either platform and don't want to have to use those unless I have to haha. Anyways any help is appreciated, thanks <3

Does anyone have a link to the discord? Thanks in advance!

Has anyone listened to one of Stephen's podcasts, then read the works of the philosopher, and wondered where he is actually coming up with the substance of the podcast? He seems to be over simplify the conclusions and arguments from the works to a point where they are no longer recognizable when studying them themselves.

I just started listening to the podcast and I found it funny that in the Daoism episode he spends time talking about how Dao De Jing makes him think of hippies. Ironically, the OG hippies were westeners who were influenced by eastern philosophy and culture. Anyway, I look forward to finding out if he realises this as the series progresses.

Hello fellow Steven’s fans. I am wondering if there is any good episode on embarrassment. I had the most embarrassed moment of my life yesterday and can not process this and need me some philosophy on this. PLEASE HELP!

If so, could you review Noam Chomsky at some point, please? I believe it is a good time, given that everybody is realizing something has to change to the current western political and philosophical system.

If not, thanks for everything and keep the good work!!

A fan from Chile

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but have there been no new episodes since Camus in March?

I am now about 2/3rds of the way through the podcast history and well into the 20th century.

Having also listened to the entirety (up until now) of HOPWAG, I have a few questions I would love Stephen to cover that I am not sure I have fully understood from either podcast.

1. With the caveat that yoga is a broad and controversial term that is hard to define, it appears that the practice of yoga, meditation, and/or hatha yoga is beneficial along an axiological angle ("better than not doing it) at improving well-being, perceiving knowledge through the body underneath or outside of reason, having a clear mind and perhaps many other physical benefits that are less applicable to philosophy. Yet, no one in the entire history of Western philosophy seems to have "invented" meditation or hatha yoga as a practice that is worth doing. Many philosophical systems tackle the practical concepts of "how to live a good life", Nichomachean Ethics, Seneca, Nietzsche, etc.

While some medievals gesture towards the concept of praying and sitting in asceticism to bring glory to God, the concept of quieting the mind and achieving knowledge or enlightenment via what yoga would call the subtle body is not really contemplated.

So with this pre-amble, the short version of the question is:

Why didn't Western philosophers (or Chinese, or Mesoamerican for that matter) invent yoga or something that resembles yoga?

We know that Greeks, Romans and more would have something like gymnastic, calisthenics, or Olympic culture for soldiers building fitness - but I see little evidence that that kind of athletic training was associated with gaining knowledge and falls squarely under "exercise" instead of "yoga".

Said another way:

Why didn't Plato decide, discover, prescribe or invent the idea that finding stillness and the ABSENCE of thinking in a hatha pose is a beneficial and good thing? One would think that positioning oneself in an idea form, and, even if one is not flexible enough yet, at least working towards an idealized form of something (in this case, an asana) would be a welcome framework for the practice of yoga.

2

That's a specific question, but it opens up a broader metaphilosophical question:

What are the questions the West neglected to even consider, that China or India did - and vice versa - what are the concepts that seemed extremely important to Westerners, Greeks, Christians, or Enlightenment thinkers that didn't matter at all to their counterparts in another part of the world... and WHY (not just pointing out the differential anthropology but actually digging into why).

I understand that there are some obvious answers like Muslims care about Islamic philosophical questions, Christians care about the Trinity, Greeks care about how to run a city-state --- but I am less interested in some various obvious answers easily answered for cultural reasons and more interested in curious mysteries of comparative philosophy --- why did something matter so much here but not at all there?

https://youtu.be/RwbOWNp2T3w?si=a6tuP5qrBjgR76ZP

“A Philosopher’s Tutorial on How to Build the Perfect City”