Hey all. We got messages that this video was having issues being viewed. We're working on fixing it but it's a bit of a mystery. Thanks for your patience. - Nick J.
Since the video is not playing for us does it stop being a video? Does the content within or our acknowledgement of it's existence become merely a dream or a false fact within our brains since we do not have it available to prove to anyone that it did indeed ever exist? Will the video one day be released from the cave and gaze upon the fields of grass basking in the sun's warmth?
Not so fast. Much of what the pre-Socratics held, while on the right track, was not Socratic, including their 'atoms'. 'Things are composed of tiny atoms. Sounds good. Time for tea!' Imagine Socrates confronting one of these sophists (perhaps he did): 'tell me something about these atoms' who when for details would leave in disgrace. It took Western Civilization 2,200 years before it could begin to come up with answers that would begin satisfy Socrates. Conversely Aristotle idea, that things are mixtures of elements, actually anticipates Dalton and molecular theory.
Aristotle was pretty smart, but it’s crazy that it took 2000 years for someone (Galileo) to actually test his laws of Physics to see if they really worked.
This idea of the atoms (and molecules) having different shapes is remarkably accurate, as we can see in crystallization. The ice crystal for example, is shaped that way because of the shape of the H2O molecule and the way they fit/bond together.
Here’s a book recommendation to accompany this lesson: “The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization” by Arthur L. Herman. The book discusses the differences in the thinking of the two philosophers, and then traces their respective schools of thought through the ensuing history. Sometimes it’s tempting to think disciplines like philosophy, science, and history exist in separate silos, but they all influence each other. In other news: The plush Hanklerfish I ordered (like the one in the background set, only purple) arrived in the mail today, much to the confusion of my cat. DFTBA!
Aristotle, a philosopher so great that during the Middle Ages they only needed to say the Philosopher and everyone knew about which one they were talking, Thomas Aquinas called him the great teacher.
I don't know I think of Aristotle as that guy who was pretty much wrong about like everything from his idea that some people are weary of enslavement to his belief that woman were inferior he was wrong much more then he was right from, astrology, biology because you know any guy who thinks that women have less teeth then men must really be bad at biology though he did get the theory of Optics right so you know hey good for him.
@@michaellangan4450 Aristotle also thought women had less teeth then for someone teeth then men basic autonomy which which is a fundamental part of biology and actually I've never Russel that was my own personal opinion
I’ve read that most of Aristotle’s surviving works were not actually written down by him. Instead they’re lecture notes taken by his students and organized by topic.
and also from other countries including Africa ( Alexandria library) where Alenxander conquered. So basically, he plagiarized and stole alot of work and ideas.
You are half right; they are lecture notes, but they were written by Aristotle himself. Most of them are probably his own notes for what he was going to talk about for his lectures, not notes that his students wrote down after listening to his lectures. He did not originally intend for these writings to be published, which is why they are unpolished and lack deliberate literary appeal. Aristotle also wrote dialogues like Plato, which were intended for publication. These were finely-crafted literary masterpieces; ironically, none of Aristotle's dialogues have survived and all we have are his lecture notes.
Considering everything about Platonism and Aristotlism -- and even the Socrates' work -- I like Plato's brutal definition of all life and that everything changes so you can't trust your preconcieved ideas about the world , and I also like Aristotles confidence in the senses and experience in learning and understand the universe -- But I really can't decide who I like the most...
"Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed; Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed" ~Monty Python
"After Alexander died young, Aristotle went back to Athens..." This is incorrect. Aristotle had founded the Lyceum in Athens over a decade prior to Alexander dying in 323 BC. In fact, Alexander dying caused Aristotle to flee Athens due to growing anti-Macedonian sentiment.
Don't you kinda need both? There are kinda 2 tracks to a good theory. A) Math it then check against reality B) Notice something, Math it, then check it against reality. You kinda need both to truly understand.
@@williamlowry3131 you can make observations detached from the physical e.g, noting prime numbers and their weirdness. Also we have our imagination, making assumptions, projecting, extrapolating, scenario-building, and other ingenious tools of the mind. A point could be made, though, that an observation, even if abstract, is still physical as in "there is a human engendering it and, even if it happens within their mind, it's still the physical realm".
I think there is a fourth answer. (The Mongol Answer XP) As a consciousness we can only perceive (senses/Aristotle) and rationalize (mathematics/Plato) but we know that both are fallible and "inperceivable". Our senses can hallucinate, be deceived, and sometimes we just can't comprehend what it is we are seeing (or mis-comprehend). As for mathematics, while it is purely logical, it is also a human construct, there is no actual object that is one since all objects are atoms bouncing off each other, and it is just the coincidence that it takes a long time for atoms of similar densities to separate that causes the illusion of "oneness", on top of which all humans flaws are baked into our comprehension of mathematics, for example we "know" that there is at least another dimension of mathematics that we are currently only see the ripples of (hence we have "imaginary" number units (i)) So rather than going with either having our mathematics reflect our senses, or our senses reflect our mathematics, or even worse do what Socrates was quasi suggesting and debate about a perfect universe not perceivable and inconceivable, but rather recognize the symbiotic reality of our senses and rationality that both are influenced and influence the other and construct an evolving resource of experiments and conjecture to try and correlate our entire senses and rationalizations.
It's interesting that Hank seems to think Aristotle was more of a common sense philosopher, even though anyone who has read Plato and Aristotle knows that Plato's dialogues are much better written and more easily digestible because Plato often writes in the guise of the Socratic style and because Aristotle only intended his works to be read as lecture notes to his students. However, if one considers Platonic idealism in the context of the Pareminedian and Pythagorean trends in Greek philosophy, particularly with regard to mathematics and the concept of "the one," then one can easily argue that while Aristotle's empirical observations on natural philosophy are now out of touch with reality, Plato's theories are much more relevant to, let's say, binary systems by which computer programs classify and distinguish things by a series of zeros and ones that express something within the context of a programming language. If we agree with Plato and Parmenides that reality is essentially an expression of being that is one, and can be expressed as one, whereas some form of non-reality or absence is something that is-not, and therefore can be represented with a zero, even though zero simply signifies the concept of nothingness or privation, then when we think about binary systems that attempt to represents real things through a code of zeros and ones in a particular order that has meaning, we will realize that anything could theoretically be represented in binary code depending on how its zeros and ones are arranged in a code that expresses the being of that thing accurately. People try to dismiss Plato's idealism, often because they have not comprehensively read Plato's works, and thus have not had the opportunity to experience how Plato's work was not merely idealistic in the sense of anti-pragmatism, but often expressed a desire for systematic knowledge of things so that people can have more knowledge about good and bad and be able to justify themselves to others. When one reads Plato's work and appreciates it, one sees how comprehensive his work actually was, and can get beyond the charge of idealism that is used by materialists to ad-hominem attack opponents who don't accept their harsh reduction of reality to physical matter. If we overcome this conceited materialism, we will be better able to do what was at the heart of Socratic and Platonic philosophy; inquiry into one's self, one's being, and concious examination of one's life.
Alex, I agree pretty well totally with this. Plato was not an Idealist in the modern sense of the term. Altogether this is a pretty uninformed introduction.
The notion of binary goes well beyond the Platonic, and is even reflected in Aristotle's Laws of Thought as The Law of Contradiction and The Law of Excluded Middle. Basically the void excluded by Aristotelian physics is that 'no nonexistent thing exists', which is a bit different from a vacuum, which, through the predicate of space, must exist. Perhaps the reason Aristotle's works are so dense and unreadable is due to his caution regarding Sophistical Elenchi, the false knowledge acquired through the equivalence of truth with beauty. Plato went to great lengths to make his work beautiful, even as it derided the Sophists. His form of beneficent dictatorship described so eloquently in The Republic was no doubt a rousing success as a justification for aristocracy, but it was not a scientific success. Science is, at its heart, a dense and unreadable truth. It wasn't quite clear in the video, but Aristotle didn't deny there are things in the universe outside of our material understanding, he just suggests that it's probably a good idea not to guess what they are based on what the observer themself wants to be true.
It's actually pretty good for a quick video, the real mistake would be to expect the entire difference between the Platonic and Aristotelian theories of forms could be conveyed in 12 minutes. If all you're looking for is a working education in History of Science, or if you need a refresher, I'd rate this segment as meeting that goal thus far.
If Plato was able to visit modern world, and learned that Tensor Calculus builds Relativity which explains how planets and stars behave, and that Schroedinger’s equation explains matter behavior, he would have shouted A-HA!!!
Thank you to Crash Course for saving my butt again before an exam. This stage manager who hasn’t had hardly an hour to study for the past two weeks thanks you!
Amazing, the best in a nutshell summary of classic western philosophy/science I've ever come across. Two points you good folks might find interesting/infuriating:
*Note Aristotle describes our reality via our natural senses best of all (really least worst of all). Current hard-science describes our reality via our modern measurement instruments. Thus our reality is highly dependent on what/how we measure it with (ex: einstein's relativity & quantum mechanics). *Note hard-science works most independent of our state-of-mind (ex: most independent of our beliefs-of, disbeliefs-of, indifference-to, & ignorance-of our state-of-mind ; aka empiric). Wise folks value our states-of-mind (ex: desires, dreads, bliss, agony, etc) much more than any hard-science. Thus hard-science is best used as no-more than another means/tool towards our desires or away-from our dreads whether than vice versa (counter ex: nazi scientism).
*Interesting Fact* Aristotle's relationship with Alexander the Great served him well as he would eventually have Alexander use his influence to gather tons of plant and animal species for Aristotle to examine. If it weren't for this aid, he wouldn't have made nearly as many important observations as he did, although maybe he would have had more time to strengthen his moral writings :P
I love how John says Aristotle was a 100 % wrong a 100% of the time and refers to him as his old nemesis in his literature course on Oedipus , while hank tho recognising his faults does sorta love him.
Aristotle wore 3 layers of clothes to look bigger. Only cared for materialistic reality. Plato cared more for answers to things that could not be seen heard or felt. Those answers would also transcend into physical reality. Socrates was a hardcore badass.
4:16 "Ruled over an area more than anybody until the mongol empire" I'm sorry but WHAT!? Abbasid Caliphate, Umayyad Caliphate, Rashidon Caliphate, esteren han, western han, Tang dynasty.
i agree a lot more with aristotle. he actually made sense. although his thoughts and ideas were very raw but that is understandable. plato makes no sense (he does but not nearly as much as aristotle)
This is awesome! Keep them coming please :-) As a high school philosophy teacher with a Masters in the History and Philosophy of Science, I find these accurate, informative, and entertaining...not to mention vitally important to the education of future STEM types. Thanks!!
Coal Dust XIII I think what he meant by eurocentric is that until now, this series has ignored contributions to science made by people in Asia and Africa (an Egyptian scientist discovered gravity WAY before Newton), which by default implies European ideas are more important, which is wrong.
Coal Dust XIII Come on, dude. I don't think OP was launching an attack. Eurocetricism (I hope the spelling is correct) _is_ a reality for the history of education for many socieities and countries, especially former colonies. I'd know, I'm Indian. And our textbooks had heart-eyes for everything Western. It still makes me angry. So I do not see anything negative about someone hoping and expecting that the achievements in science of other societies is captured well in this Crash Course series.
Not to take anything away from the fascinating and impressive story of Western science and innovation. Plato and Aristotle are indeed rockstars. Tho I know them through political science, not science-science. Lol. Humanities students, represent! ✊
@Arunima Tiwari +1. That's Eurocetrizine(Pun intended, no offence) it seems. Both philosophers are indeed great. We could think upon the Peripatetic school type envisioned by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan, could have been inspired from Aristotle and Gurukul system. Anyways, due to lack of Nation-States during ancient times, ideas could just transfer in convection throughout civilizations.
Yes I agree with you that this is rather "Eurocentric", but what can you really do? There wasn't much that was recorded from other cultures about their intellectuals and ideas. You can just google about all the philosophers and intellectuals that were recorded from other cultures (particularly Indian and Chinese) and you won't find much.This type of tradition of philosophy was actually a Greek idea, but it actually wasn't "Europeans" (Celto-Germanics) that adopted the tradition first. It was actually the Arabs and Persians that adopted it first and than it was transferred to the "Europeans" by them.
Aristotle was not from Macedonia. His home place, Stagira, is part of the modern area of Macadamia. Although, when Aristotle was born, it was an independent city state, relatively close to the ancient Kingdom of Macedon. Stagira was occupied by Macedonians when Aristotle was already 36 years old, living in Athens and being a faculty member in the Academy.
Have been way out of the loop with Crash Course for a while and just stumbled onto this little gem of a video. Loved it, time to start catching up on some stuff. Keep up the great work guys!
Socrates forwarded the SOCRATIC METHOD. Plato was Socrates' student while Aristorle was Plato's student. Yet, their lines of thinking seem to diverge from each other....
Plato and Aristotle are both geniuses. Even though they had different philosophies, they made big impacts on scholars, other philosophers and scientists. They actually contributed a lot to our knowledge about the world including Socrates making them more well known than other philosophers. Brilliant individuals!
I am PLATONIST? or an ARISTOTLELIAN? I like Plato's academy but I love Aristotle's ideas and common sense and wait... there is more, I admire Socrates's ideas on how he attract his students. Before flexing my brothers Plato and Aristotle, I want to glorify Socrates's elenchus, the art of questioning, his socratic method. In order to acquired knowledge, you will just constantly ask questions so that you can break down a big problem into smaller parts. I realized that I should ask you ma'am more often regarding in class in order for me to break down the problems that ramble in my mind. I am really inspired from what Socrates said that it is good if I find my hypothesis wrong, it means that I am moving away from false hood. If I am the other student of Socrates, I think that there is no reason for me not to attend class everyday. This inspired student Plato had made a big impact to Aristotle. Without Plato, Aristotle could not think more of it since Plato serves as his reference. I like Aristotle more since he gave more sensible ideas unlike Plato (IDEALISM). Aristotle ideas are based on empirical evidence. He observe the world and then came up with a theory. All your observations must be the reason why you have theory, unlike Plato, you do not need to push your observations in order to fit on your theory. All in all, I know that Plato and Aristotle are very essential to us in our understanding stuffs but Aristotle is a star. And one more thing, let's all remember how Socrates inspired his student's student.
Yes, Aristotle was student by Plato. However, their philosophies is kind of contradicted to each other, well they are both genius and they contributes a lot in science, History and other fields that even today is exist.
Plato and Aristotle are both wise with a great contribution to history but have diffent beliefs. Their studies are of great help to people in understanding the universe.
Its interesting how these people who has a big contribution to our world but has different views. I think they were both right and everything should be balance. I admire Aristotle for the courage to stand on his own ideology and don't follow the usual way.
Aristotle went back to Athens when Alexander was still alive. Alexander died in Babylon one year before Aristotle did in exile on a nearby island outside Athens. After Alexander died, Aristotle apparently left Athens, suggesting, that they turned their back on philosophy once (with Socrates) and he wouldn't take it a second time!*
I wonder if someone like Aristotle were born today, and had a decently high level of opportunity, whether they would still be brilliant and discover new things. Or whether if they were born today they would just be average. Part of what makes me wonder this is that I have had original thoughts, that at certain points in history would be considered brilliant. I suspect everyone has. But would I ever have had those thoughts if I didn't have some elements of foundational knowledge that exist now because of these greats? The answer is probably no. Weird thing to think about though. I can't think of an objective way to test this sort of thing.
Aristotle is still brilliant today even though everyone else has 2,000 years of human progress on him. Obviously not his scientific theories, but metaphysics, poetics, rhetoric, people developing those fields today still find inspiration and rediscover deeper meaning in Aristotle. That he wrote what he did when he did is a miracle.
La academia de platón y el liceo de aristóteles. Amobos construyeron sus propios modelos de fucionanmiento a partir de 4 elementos. Una hoja de papel cae más lento que una piedra porque tiene menos "tierra". Un árbol está hecho de varios elementos los cuales tienden a volver a su lugar original. Para aristóteles todo conocimiento procede de los sentidos. También tiene una teoría de las almas (escalera de perfección hacia dios). "Aristotle has an answer for everything". Plato ideas about the cosmos inspired the scholars to think about the universe to have underlying laws that are beyond our senses.
"Alexander the maybe not so Great" - sensing some latent hostility in the multiple references. Find it a bit biased. Never judge the people of the past by the moral standards of the present. It distorts your perception and does them (their memory) an injustice.
Or perhaps the hostility you’re sensing is a projection of your own hostility at the idea of someone not thinking Alexander was in fact not great. Just a theory.
I thought the finger quotations were quite feminine as well. Plato has no space in the Republic for men like that. That young folks may see this and think this guy knows what he's talking about is a shame. To relegate Aristotelian vs Platonist thought to such a rudimentary distinction would be laughable if the cultural foundations these great men helped construct weren't crumbling beneath our heels, thus, it's contemptable indeed...
I'm sure this was pointed out already but Aristotle actually fled Athens after Alexander's death, wryly remarking 'lest Athens sin against philosophy twice'. He was to be brought up on trumped-up impiety charges do to his association with Athen's Macedonian overlords, who they never really considered true Greeks. He followed Alexander in death a year later.
You talk about Alexander and Aristotle as if they were the ones responsible for all wars in Europe in their period. One can not ignore that tyrannical violent leaders always rise when something resembling what we know as a blind Justice system isn't at work. That's why Napoleon and Alexander are so controversial as strong leaders, while Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Khan and Mao are a consensus on the evil side. Winston Churchil was a strong leader supporting violence AGAINST neighboring tyrannical leaders! And long live Aristotle!
Aristotle's model is perfect and true for the prisoners held in bondage only knowing shadows on the cave wall as reality. If you have turned your head and only caught a glimpse of light from beyond the cave, you would know Plato's model is a lot closer to the true nature of reality.
Hey all. We got messages that this video was having issues being viewed. We're working on fixing it but it's a bit of a mystery. Thanks for your patience.
- Nick J.
please fix it soon
Since the video is not playing for us does it stop being a video?
Does the content within or our acknowledgement of it's existence become merely a dream or a false fact within our brains since we do not have it available to prove to anyone that it did indeed ever exist?
Will the video one day be released from the cave and gaze upon the fields of grass basking in the sun's warmth?
Fixed for me, thanks.
Is the subtitles ok ?
@@theNadeFace i recently played ac odyssey. Please stop.. my head hurts.
"Only Aristotle wrote more than Plato"
Euclid: *laughs in the Elements*
Not so fast. Much of what the pre-Socratics held, while on the right track, was not Socratic, including their 'atoms'. 'Things are composed of tiny atoms. Sounds good. Time for tea!' Imagine Socrates confronting one of these sophists (perhaps he did): 'tell me something about these atoms' who when for details would leave in disgrace. It took Western Civilization 2,200 years before it could begin to come up with answers that would begin satisfy Socrates.
Conversely Aristotle idea, that things are mixtures of elements, actually anticipates Dalton and molecular theory.
@@TroglodyteDiner dude I made a joke a about Euclid. I didn't say anything about sophists and what not.
Aristotle was pretty smart, but it’s crazy that it took 2000 years for someone (Galileo) to actually test his laws of Physics to see if they really worked.
This idea of the atoms (and molecules) having different shapes is remarkably accurate, as we can see in crystallization. The ice crystal for example, is shaped that way because of the shape of the H2O molecule and the way they fit/bond together.
Here’s a book recommendation to accompany this lesson: “The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization” by Arthur L. Herman. The book discusses the differences in the thinking of the two philosophers, and then traces their respective schools of thought through the ensuing history. Sometimes it’s tempting to think disciplines like philosophy, science, and history exist in separate silos, but they all influence each other.
In other news: The plush Hanklerfish I ordered (like the one in the background set, only purple) arrived in the mail today, much to the confusion of my cat. DFTBA!
One thing is for certain: The ancient Greek philosophers had way too much time on their hands...
Looks like Plato’s giving Aristotle a haircut in the thumbnail. Probably using Occam’s razor.
No long hair is allowed in the Academy, but as a loving teacher, instead of punishing Aristotle, Plato personally gives him a haircut.
Thumbs up for your very specific niche joke.
Nice dad joke.
I read that all the students walked into the Academy backwards.
"Like a giant set of D&D dice."
NERD!
Seriously, that made my day.
Thankyou for talking about Socrates, that dude needs way more recognition among common people
Aristotle, a philosopher so great that during the Middle Ages they only needed to say the Philosopher and everyone knew about which one they were talking, Thomas Aquinas called him the great teacher.
I don't know I think of Aristotle as that guy who was pretty much wrong about like everything from his idea that some people are weary of enslavement to his belief that woman were inferior he was wrong much more then he was right from, astrology, biology because you know any guy who thinks that women have less teeth then men must really be bad at biology though he did get the theory of Optics right so you know hey good for him.
easy to say that 2000+ years into the future, if you were alive by then you would statistically be a simple farmer that can barely count past a 100
@@allykat5899 Aristotle invented biology. And someone has been reading Russell without given him credit.
@@michaellangan4450 Aristotle also thought women had less teeth then for someone teeth then men basic autonomy which which is a fundamental part of biology and actually I've never Russel that was my own personal opinion
Arab philosophers and scholars also called him the first teacher.
I’ve read that most of Aristotle’s surviving works were not actually written down by him. Instead they’re lecture notes taken by his students and organized by topic.
and also from other countries including Africa ( Alexandria library) where Alenxander conquered. So basically, he plagiarized and stole alot of work and ideas.
You are half right; they are lecture notes, but they were written by Aristotle himself. Most of them are probably his own notes for what he was going to talk about for his lectures, not notes that his students wrote down after listening to his lectures. He did not originally intend for these writings to be published, which is why they are unpolished and lack deliberate literary appeal. Aristotle also wrote dialogues like Plato, which were intended for publication. These were finely-crafted literary masterpieces; ironically, none of Aristotle's dialogues have survived and all we have are his lecture notes.
I too have a vegitative soul
i am the most soulful
5:43 so Plato created the Infinity Stones?
😭😭😭
These graphics and animations are so cute! I appreciate all the work that must go into these videos
Considering everything about Platonism and Aristotlism -- and even the Socrates' work -- I like Plato's brutal definition of all life and that everything changes so you can't trust your preconcieved ideas about the world , and I also like Aristotles confidence in the senses and experience in learning and understand the universe -- But I really can't decide who I like the most...
"Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed; Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed"
~Monty Python
I am both a Platonist and an Aristotlean, they both were great thinkers.
"After Alexander died young, Aristotle went back to Athens..." This is incorrect. Aristotle had founded the Lyceum in Athens over a decade prior to Alexander dying in 323 BC. In fact, Alexander dying caused Aristotle to flee Athens due to growing anti-Macedonian sentiment.
NERD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@cesardachimp8172 What are you doing here? Go watch corporate music videos.
@@kingcamilo just a joke im also a pretty big nerd
Cesar DaChimp me too and next time we don’t justify
Don't you kinda need both? There are kinda 2 tracks to a good theory. A) Math it then check against reality B) Notice something, Math it, then check it against reality.
You kinda need both to truly understand.
Correct, this is how it works now days (e.g. theoretical physics and experimental physics). But this conflict was the beginning.
@@williamlowry3131 you can make observations detached from the physical e.g, noting prime numbers and their weirdness. Also we have our imagination, making assumptions, projecting, extrapolating, scenario-building, and other ingenious tools of the mind. A point could be made, though, that an observation, even if abstract, is still physical as in "there is a human engendering it and, even if it happens within their mind, it's still the physical realm".
Yes correct exactly what I was thinking
I've been watching your channel for years. The fact that ya'll are dropping DnD references makes me love you all sooo much more.
This series is literally the course I took last semester, and I wish i had it back then..
enjoying them so far . Thank you to the animators. I absolutely love their work. And of course thank you for the availability to study outside school.
HEY! YOU GOT YOUR SCIENCE IN MY PHILOSOPHY!
Taste great
I'm not a platist, I use bowls
I like mugs. I guess I'm a mugger.
Good one
You're clearly not a follower of diogenes work then.
🤣
@@masvindu nice
I see the message “This video is unavailable on this device” on both iPhone and Apple TV. Could you please lift that restriction?
same. is it an apple thing?!
Me too! I thought something was wrong with my laptop until I saw this
Booooo
It worked for me when I opened it on Chrome instead of Safari, maybe you could try that? ^^
@@NowAndZen1734 i8n
Shrek is my favourite anime
ok
It's Tigger . . . and?
Sorry but cory in the house is way better.
Plato and Aristotle contributed immensely to the development of philosophy
I think there is a fourth answer. (The Mongol Answer XP)
As a consciousness we can only perceive (senses/Aristotle) and rationalize (mathematics/Plato) but we know that both are fallible and "inperceivable".
Our senses can hallucinate, be deceived, and sometimes we just can't comprehend what it is we are seeing (or mis-comprehend).
As for mathematics, while it is purely logical, it is also a human construct, there is no actual object that is one since all objects are atoms bouncing off each other, and it is just the coincidence that it takes a long time for atoms of similar densities to separate that causes the illusion of "oneness", on top of which all humans flaws are baked into our comprehension of mathematics, for example we "know" that there is at least another dimension of mathematics that we are currently only see the ripples of (hence we have "imaginary" number units (i))
So rather than going with either having our mathematics reflect our senses, or our senses reflect our mathematics, or even worse do what Socrates was quasi suggesting and debate about a perfect universe not perceivable and inconceivable, but rather recognize the symbiotic reality of our senses and rationality that both are influenced and influence the other and construct an evolving resource of experiments and conjecture to try and correlate our entire senses and rationalizations.
It's interesting that Hank seems to think Aristotle was more of a common sense philosopher, even though anyone who has read Plato and Aristotle knows that Plato's dialogues are much better written and more easily digestible because Plato often writes in the guise of the Socratic style and because Aristotle only intended his works to be read as lecture notes to his students. However, if one considers Platonic idealism in the context of the Pareminedian and Pythagorean trends in Greek philosophy, particularly with regard to mathematics and the concept of "the one," then one can easily argue that while Aristotle's empirical observations on natural philosophy are now out of touch with reality, Plato's theories are much more relevant to, let's say, binary systems by which computer programs classify and distinguish things by a series of zeros and ones that express something within the context of a programming language. If we agree with Plato and Parmenides that reality is essentially an expression of being that is one, and can be expressed as one, whereas some form of non-reality or absence is something that is-not, and therefore can be represented with a zero, even though zero simply signifies the concept of nothingness or privation, then when we think about binary systems that attempt to represents real things through a code of zeros and ones in a particular order that has meaning, we will realize that anything could theoretically be represented in binary code depending on how its zeros and ones are arranged in a code that expresses the being of that thing accurately.
People try to dismiss Plato's idealism, often because they have not comprehensively read Plato's works, and thus have not had the opportunity to experience how Plato's work was not merely idealistic in the sense of anti-pragmatism, but often expressed a desire for systematic knowledge of things so that people can have more knowledge about good and bad and be able to justify themselves to others. When one reads Plato's work and appreciates it, one sees how comprehensive his work actually was, and can get beyond the charge of idealism that is used by materialists to ad-hominem attack opponents who don't accept their harsh reduction of reality to physical matter. If we overcome this conceited materialism, we will be better able to do what was at the heart of Socratic and Platonic philosophy; inquiry into one's self, one's being, and concious examination of one's life.
Alex, I agree pretty well totally with this. Plato was not an Idealist in the modern sense of the term. Altogether this is a pretty uninformed introduction.
The notion of binary goes well beyond the Platonic, and is even reflected in Aristotle's Laws of Thought as The Law of Contradiction and The Law of Excluded Middle. Basically the void excluded by Aristotelian physics is that 'no nonexistent thing exists', which is a bit different from a vacuum, which, through the predicate of space, must exist.
Perhaps the reason Aristotle's works are so dense and unreadable is due to his caution regarding Sophistical Elenchi, the false knowledge acquired through the equivalence of truth with beauty. Plato went to great lengths to make his work beautiful, even as it derided the Sophists. His form of beneficent dictatorship described so eloquently in The Republic was no doubt a rousing success as a justification for aristocracy, but it was not a scientific success. Science is, at its heart, a dense and unreadable truth.
It wasn't quite clear in the video, but Aristotle didn't deny there are things in the universe outside of our material understanding, he just suggests that it's probably a good idea not to guess what they are based on what the observer themself wants to be true.
You give further good reasons not to rate this 'crash course' video very highly. Your last paragraph delivers the real killer blow to its authority.
It's actually pretty good for a quick video, the real mistake would be to expect the entire difference between the Platonic and Aristotelian theories of forms could be conveyed in 12 minutes. If all you're looking for is a working education in History of Science, or if you need a refresher, I'd rate this segment as meeting that goal thus far.
Plato was more of a mystic.
If Plato was able to visit modern world, and learned that Tensor Calculus builds Relativity which explains how planets and stars behave, and that Schroedinger’s equation explains matter behavior, he would have shouted A-HA!!!
I am a Socratic. I believe that both should be balanced like Popper said. I believe the unexamined life is not worth living.
Thank you to Crash Course for saving my butt again before an exam. This stage manager who hasn’t had hardly an hour to study for the past two weeks thanks you!
I got distracted at the beginning by the fact that Hank has WALL-E on his desk.
Amazing, the best in a nutshell summary of classic western philosophy/science I've ever come across. Two points you good folks might find interesting/infuriating:
*Note Aristotle describes our reality via our natural senses best of all (really least worst of all). Current hard-science describes our reality via our modern measurement instruments. Thus our reality is highly dependent on what/how we measure it with (ex: einstein's relativity & quantum mechanics).
*Note hard-science works most independent of our state-of-mind (ex: most independent of our beliefs-of, disbeliefs-of, indifference-to, & ignorance-of our state-of-mind ; aka empiric). Wise folks value our states-of-mind (ex: desires, dreads, bliss, agony, etc) much more than any hard-science. Thus hard-science is best used as no-more than another means/tool towards our desires or away-from our dreads whether than vice versa (counter ex: nazi scientism).
*Interesting Fact*
Aristotle's relationship with Alexander the Great served him well as he would eventually have Alexander use his influence to gather tons of plant and animal species for Aristotle to examine. If it weren't for this aid, he wouldn't have made nearly as many important observations as he did, although maybe he would have had more time to strengthen his moral writings :P
Meh. Why choose when you can have it all? I'm an Aristotlean-Socrato-Platonist :P
They are mostly on the same page.
Or a Socratic-Platist-Aristotelian
I love how John says Aristotle was a 100 % wrong a 100% of the time and refers to him as his old nemesis in his literature course on Oedipus , while hank tho recognising his faults does sorta love him.
4:14 .You mean: "Ruling over more area than anyone... Except of cause the Mongols"
wow i love hank green
Aristotle wore 3 layers of clothes to look bigger. Only cared for materialistic reality. Plato cared more for answers to things that could not be seen heard or felt. Those answers would also transcend into physical reality. Socrates was a hardcore badass.
My new favorite crash course.
Plato for me, Aristotle for the hedonists.
Aristotle and Plato will do what good teachers do, they'll educate your heart and your mind and wake you up from that dream of sloth
I'd say I'm more of a Diogenetic. My favorite form of genetics!
His student playdough. Huh?
Dammit brain.
4:16 "Ruled over an area more than anybody until the mongol empire"
I'm sorry but WHAT!?
Abbasid Caliphate, Umayyad Caliphate, Rashidon Caliphate, esteren han, western han, Tang dynasty.
napolien 1 people don’t like to acknowledge Muslims accomplishments
One can be both an idealist and empiricist. George Berkeley would be a famous example.
Plato for sure!
He dude, u alive?
I learned that Aristotle’s “writings” come from his students’ notes, not directly from him.
Almost, they aren't his students notes, they're his notes to his students. Most believe they were used at his school for teaching/lectures
It would be cool to have some book recommendations for every video or series
i agree a lot more with aristotle. he actually made sense. although his thoughts and ideas were very raw but that is understandable. plato makes no sense (he does but not nearly as much as aristotle)
This guy has saved my GPA!!!
I actually laughed out loud when he said 'warm and wet BABIES'
Learning a lot of history through this series
This is awesome! Keep them coming please :-) As a high school philosophy teacher with a Masters in the History and Philosophy of Science, I find these accurate, informative, and entertaining...not to mention vitally important to the education of future STEM types. Thanks!!
Im so glad you are looking at india as well. I was worried this was going to be reeeeeally eurocentric. Im excited 😊
Coal Dust XIII I think what he meant by eurocentric is that until now, this series has ignored contributions to science made by people in Asia and Africa (an Egyptian scientist discovered gravity WAY before Newton), which by default implies European ideas are more important, which is wrong.
Coal Dust XIII Come on, dude. I don't think OP was launching an attack. Eurocetricism (I hope the spelling is correct) _is_ a reality for the history of education for many socieities and countries, especially former colonies. I'd know, I'm Indian. And our textbooks had heart-eyes for everything Western. It still makes me angry. So I do not see anything negative about someone hoping and expecting that the achievements in science of other societies is captured well in this Crash Course series.
Not to take anything away from the fascinating and impressive story of Western science and innovation. Plato and Aristotle are indeed rockstars. Tho I know them through political science, not science-science. Lol. Humanities students, represent! ✊
@Arunima Tiwari +1. That's Eurocetrizine(Pun intended, no offence) it seems. Both philosophers are indeed great. We could think upon the Peripatetic school type envisioned by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan, could have been inspired from Aristotle and Gurukul system. Anyways, due to lack of Nation-States during ancient times, ideas could just transfer in convection throughout civilizations.
Yes I agree with you that this is rather "Eurocentric", but what can you really do? There wasn't much that was recorded from other cultures about their intellectuals and ideas. You can just google about all the philosophers and intellectuals that were recorded from other cultures (particularly Indian and Chinese) and you won't find much.This type of tradition of philosophy was actually a Greek idea, but it actually wasn't "Europeans" (Celto-Germanics) that adopted the tradition first. It was actually the Arabs and Persians that adopted it first and than it was transferred to the "Europeans" by them.
This is the best Crash Course series in a while!
* Realising the word 'Socratic Seminar' comes from Socrates and asking questions *
My mind: *Blown*
Aristotle was not from Macedonia. His home place, Stagira, is part of the modern area of Macadamia. Although, when Aristotle was born, it was an independent city state, relatively close to the ancient Kingdom of Macedon. Stagira was occupied by Macedonians when Aristotle was already 36 years old, living in Athens and being a faculty member in the Academy.
Ur such a great lecturer. U made difficult things easier to understand
I really appreciate the incorporation of Thought Bubble in these videos.
Have been way out of the loop with Crash Course for a while and just stumbled onto this little gem of a video. Loved it, time to start catching up on some stuff. Keep up the great work guys!
Socrates forwarded the SOCRATIC METHOD. Plato was Socrates' student while Aristorle was Plato's student. Yet, their lines of thinking seem to diverge from each other....
Plato and Aristotle are both geniuses. Even though they had different philosophies, they made big impacts on scholars, other philosophers and scientists. They actually contributed a lot to our knowledge about the world including Socrates making them more well known than other philosophers. Brilliant individuals!
I am PLATONIST? or an ARISTOTLELIAN? I like Plato's academy but I love Aristotle's ideas and common sense and wait... there is more, I admire Socrates's ideas on how he attract his students. Before flexing my brothers Plato and Aristotle, I want to glorify Socrates's elenchus, the art of questioning, his socratic method. In order to acquired knowledge, you will just constantly ask questions so that you can break down a big problem into smaller parts. I realized that I should ask you ma'am more often regarding in class in order for me to break down the problems that ramble in my mind. I am really inspired from what Socrates said that it is good if I find my hypothesis wrong, it means that I am moving away from false hood. If I am the other student of Socrates, I think that there is no reason for me not to attend class everyday.
This inspired student Plato had made a big impact to Aristotle. Without Plato, Aristotle could not think more of it since Plato serves as his reference. I like Aristotle more since he gave more sensible ideas unlike Plato (IDEALISM). Aristotle ideas are based on empirical evidence. He observe the world and then came up with a theory. All your observations must be the reason why you have theory, unlike Plato, you do not need to push your observations in order to fit on your theory.
All in all, I know that Plato and Aristotle are very essential to us in our understanding stuffs but Aristotle is a star. And one more thing, let's all remember how Socrates inspired his student's student.
Yes, Aristotle was student by Plato. However, their philosophies is kind of contradicted to each other, well they are both genius and they contributes a lot in science, History and other fields that even today is exist.
Plato and Aristotle are both wise with a great contribution to history but have diffent beliefs. Their studies are of great help to people in understanding the universe.
Its interesting how these people who has a big contribution to our world but has different views. I think they were both right and everything should be balance. I admire Aristotle for the courage to stand on his own ideology and don't follow the usual way.
Aristotle went back to Athens when Alexander was still alive. Alexander died in Babylon one year before Aristotle did in exile on a nearby island outside Athens. After Alexander died, Aristotle apparently left Athens, suggesting, that they turned their back on philosophy once (with Socrates) and he wouldn't take it a second time!*
amazing combo of great info and beautiful visuals
Really great episode, thanks !
Can’t they have something like geology? I love to see Hank talk Science and history but let’s get some rocks up in here
I wonder if someone like Aristotle were born today, and had a decently high level of opportunity, whether they would still be brilliant and discover new things. Or whether if they were born today they would just be average. Part of what makes me wonder this is that I have had original thoughts, that at certain points in history would be considered brilliant. I suspect everyone has. But would I ever have had those thoughts if I didn't have some elements of foundational knowledge that exist now because of these greats? The answer is probably no. Weird thing to think about though. I can't think of an objective way to test this sort of thing.
Aristotle is still brilliant today even though everyone else has 2,000 years of human progress on him. Obviously not his scientific theories, but metaphysics, poetics, rhetoric, people developing those fields today still find inspiration and rediscover deeper meaning in Aristotle. That he wrote what he did when he did is a miracle.
I love this channel. Thank you.
I legit thought you were saying Play-Doh instead of Plato, so it sounded like "Play-Doh has a big impact on thinking of thinking"
It did! it empowered creativity, a power of the mind.
I love this theme, tanks
Please someone make those D&D dice for me!
Plato for the win.
we need crash course astrophysics!!
What happened to John Green? I miss his rants about the mongols
*Cue Mongoltage*
*WE'RE THE EXCEPTION*
John is no fun
@@fhemfjsj23able John was cool. How wasn't he cool?
@@CuriousBiscuit ikr i love his bks
these men were on one long trip
Down to the essential place, it's called[ put dramatic drumroll here] ENTROPY!
La academia de platón y el liceo de aristóteles. Amobos construyeron sus propios modelos de fucionanmiento a partir de 4 elementos. Una hoja de papel cae más lento que una piedra porque tiene menos "tierra". Un árbol está hecho de varios elementos los cuales tienden a volver a su lugar original. Para aristóteles todo conocimiento procede de los sentidos. También tiene una teoría de las almas (escalera de perfección hacia dios). "Aristotle has an answer for everything". Plato ideas about the cosmos inspired the scholars to think about the universe to have underlying laws that are beyond our senses.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Shair this video with flatearthers
They need to learn this
Fire on top of Air, the Coronosphere...
This is extremely helpful
"Alexander the maybe not so Great" - sensing some latent hostility in the multiple references. Find it a bit biased. Never judge the people of the past by the moral standards of the present. It distorts your perception and does them (their memory) an injustice.
lmao stfu
@@levybenethen98 Amazing retort towards constructive criticism.
Totally agree with you
Or perhaps the hostility you’re sensing is a projection of your own hostility at the idea of someone not thinking Alexander was in fact not great. Just a theory.
I thought the finger quotations were quite feminine as well. Plato has no space in the Republic for men like that. That young folks may see this and think this guy knows what he's talking about is a shame. To relegate Aristotelian vs Platonist thought to such a rudimentary distinction would be laughable if the cultural foundations these great men helped construct weren't crumbling beneath our heels, thus, it's contemptable indeed...
My faith follows them all, it isn’t always one or the other...
9:34 TRIPARTIDE SOUL!!!! From your philosophy course!
I love Plato
Now I want a "five elements" dice set...
"Alexander Maybe Not So Great" I ooof-
I'm sure this was pointed out already but Aristotle actually fled Athens after Alexander's death, wryly remarking 'lest Athens sin against philosophy twice'. He was to be brought up on trumped-up impiety charges do to his association with Athen's Macedonian overlords, who they never really considered true Greeks. He followed Alexander in death a year later.
You talk about Alexander and Aristotle as if they were the ones responsible for all wars in Europe in their period. One can not ignore that tyrannical violent leaders always rise when something resembling what we know as a blind Justice system isn't at work. That's why Napoleon and Alexander are so controversial as strong leaders, while Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Khan and Mao are a consensus on the evil side. Winston Churchil was a strong leader supporting violence AGAINST neighboring tyrannical leaders! And long live Aristotle!
..and Churchill supported plenty of violence against the Irish (especially in leading the Black & Tans).
You forgot to mention that Plato taught the Earth was a ball suspended by nothing.
i have a test on these two philosopher's alone and it just so happened crash course uploaded a video on it 12 hrs earlier, papa bless
This is my absolute favorite CrashCourse series, and I have watched most of them.
Aristotle's model is perfect and true for the prisoners held in bondage only knowing shadows on the cave wall as reality. If you have turned your head and only caught a glimpse of light from beyond the cave, you would know Plato's model is a lot closer to the true nature of reality.
This video isn’t working for me on any device right now!
Oy thank you my Arabian scholars!
Crash course Philosophy 2.0. Yeah!
Philosophy!!!!!
A E Van Vogt wrote 3 books about null-A, meaning a non Aristotelian logic / world view.
What a genius each of these!every one should learn their thoughtd