Bergson's Elan Vital and Vitalism

You can find Bergson's work here amzn.to/3dtPVuO
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Dr. Michael Sugrue earned his BA at the University of Chicago and PhD at Columbia University.

[@Redfox1hq]

Professor Sugrue I am not sure if you will read this and I am sure you must get this a lot, but I would just like to say thank you. Your lectures are interesting, engaging, well-spoken and a far far cry from the usual lazy PowerPoint presentations I saw when I was in university. I know it's quite the thing to say, but your lecture on Marcus Aurelius helped my life for the better, and the more of the lectures you post on youtube the more complete I feel I am becoming as a person. Your lectures make me excited to learn. Thank you.

[@jon_______]

💯

[@Xenaisthebusiness]

May I ask what his lectures on Marcus Aurelius did to help your life for the better?

[@BboyKeny]

Marcus truly is like a good wise friend

[@Readytogogo]

@@Xenaisthebusiness The disciplin and moral compas is just on a super human level.

[@anthenehbeze.]

Unfortunately he is not with us anymore. God rest his soul.

[@nontology]

would be impossible to earn my KZbin PhD in philosophy without this titan of a man teaching me

[@amyscott9496]

What does a degree in KZbin get someone? Been wondering this.

[@nontology]

@@amyscott9496 clinical depression mostly

[@withnail-and-i]

​@@nontologythat sounds like graduating from philosophy, but without paying.

[@andytaylor2737]

Dr. Sugrue’s channel is the new “Agora”... seriously what a gift 🎁 these lectures are. And for free! I almost feel guilty at times 😂😂 happy new year professor 👨‍🏫 we wish you all the best 👏🏻😊❤️

[@bostonboybob]

This series of lectures is so accessible. Thanks for posting

[@starhaze3593]

It's always a good day when Dr. Sugrue drops pearls of wisdom for us.

[@sebastiaankampers6651]

I have to say Michael Sugrue is a genius. This lecture actually gave me goosebumps.

[@HeronMarkBlade]

utterly fantastic lecture, feel truly privileged to be able to enjoy this. thank you to all involved.

[@alang.846]

When the most replayed part of a video is on the beginning, you know it will be a good video.

[@kucirulz]

I cannot get enough of this channel. I'm now doing reruns :D Corny as it may sound, I would love to hear Dr. Sugrue's top 5 or 10 greatest thinkers or books.

[@thattimestampguy]

1:17 A Dynamic 1:48 Greater Complexity, More Activity 3:07 Interiority of Self 3:41 Hard to speak about The Internal 4:50 _Introduction to Metaphysics_ 5:22 The Science claims to dispense with Symbols 6:10 Creative Evolution with *Elan Vital* 6:52 A Book on Laughter 7:46 _Two Sources of Morality and Religion_ 8:55 The Changeable, The Becoming, Plotinus 10:01 Descartes, Darwin, 10:25 Openness Intelleci 11:05 William James, Alfred Lord Whitehead 12:16 Zeno's Paradox 12:56 Space and Time are lived experiences, we find Science falsifys the reality of Space and Time conception Time - Heterogenous Space - Homogeneous 14:13 Spatialization concept of time is not time 15:40 Space and Time are different 19:33 Intuition, 28:28 Terror, Pain, Misery, Anxiety, Problems 33:06 Laughter is a function of intelligence 34:15 Tragedy is about Individuals [Hamlet, Othello, King Lear] 35:46 Comedy Connects, Tragedy Isolates Acting Stupid Inversion of Roles Reciprocity Written and Expressive 40:48 Meanings transposition Comic Words, Whitty Words 41:46 Person --> Object Comedy reminds of Soul Not to turn back into an object

[@davidlee9870]

Ty so much

[@akazlev]

Thanks!

[@Snarflelocker]

I checked how far into this I was. Time stamp said 20 mins, but it either feels like 120 minutes from the content or five minutes from the delivery. Amazing stuff, thanks for the video, thanks to the professor, thanks to the thinkers.

[@StoicFlame]

This channel is a blessing from god

[@Nexility_]

Free r

[@ericslusarz]

I’ve never heard of this guy or his philosophy. Always nice to learn something new. Thank you so much!

[@fukcg00gle95]

I can just imagine hanging out with this guy at a bar or something. Holy hell I love it

[@thomassmith5639]

Dr Sugrue is charisma on a stick! Brilliant lecturer!

[@calvinmondrago7397]

This was an amazing and fascinating lecture. Came here from Isiah Berlin's counter-enlightenment lectures and Alec Ryrie's reformation lectures. Dr Sugrue is quite brilliant in his scope and clarity. Many thanks!

[@liamblackshaw3164]

Excellent taste in lectures!

[@esoterico7750]

Berlin’s romanticism lectures are amazing

[@1995yuda]

Bergson was an utterly remarkable philosopher and this lecture is equally remarkable, thank you Dr. Sugrue!

[@josephyoung6749]

Agreed, I discovered Bergson by picking up a book at random in the college library, opening it to the first page and reading. Revolutionarily enough, that book was Creative Evolution! There must have been thousands of books in that library too. I was immediately hooked, without ever having had an interest in philosophy before. Bergson is the kind of writer who really speaks to you. You get sucked into his world very easily. Of all the thinkers of the 20th century, he is the most memorable to me. Him and Proust are right up there at the top in terms of subtlety and strength of fierce, concentrated intelligence.

[@1995yuda]

@@josephyoung6749 It sounds like Bergson hit you on the head and helped you discover "gravity"😁 I really couldn't agree more about his competence both as a writer and thinker, truly spellbinding. Thank you for your comment, Joseph.

[@individuationportal]

hello dr. sugrue. big fan of your work

[@Anabsurdsuggestion]

Thanks again, and great podcast with Genevieve too. Keep it up, we love it out here!

[@maddietober7981]

These lectures have helped make my life better. Thank you :)

[@judithm.2399]

What a relief to find out my experience of reading Bergson is to be expected! It feels like I’m paddling about in a sea of metaphors and other intangible clusters of words then once in a while I grab on to something of substance like - he’s trying to use words to explain Tao, flow, - those elements that cannot be explained only experienced-but the grasping proves to be an illusion because as soon as I feel like I’ve “arrived” somewhere solid, his next words send me back to sea. It reminds me of a statement commonly made by people who have had near death experiences before they proceed to share their story. They say, I have no words to describe what the experience was like. Then they proceed to use words to describe their experience!

[@judithm.2399]

It seems that unlike the near death experiencers Bergson stays true to the dynamism of interiority precisely by how he stays away from sssigning it to a particular space.

[@sanfordsanford295]

This may be my favorite lecture so far

[@BenJehovah6969]

I think its important to note that the best reason for comedy to exist in us is so that we get a rest from taking the self too seriously. It reminds us how foolish we really are no matter how much knowledge we have attained. It's becomes an escape from self without having to lose the self altogether.

[@jason8434]

The philosopher Georg Lukacs wrote a book in the 1950s called "The Destruction of Reason." It was an attempt to come to terms with irrational philosophy and the role it played in the rise of Nazism. It's a devastating critique of figures like Bergson, Nietzsche, James, etc. for diverting the rational project of philosophy to irrational speculation (Romanticism, Nietzsche's ubermensch, Bergson's vitalism, Sorelianism, etc.)

[@temitope6830]

Happy new year Dr Sugrue

[@eyob----7433]

Happy 2021 Thank you

[@culturalforensicsprofessor7990]

Excellent lecturer.

[@gypsygypsy7185]

Your a great teacher

[@marcobrambilla2439]

Absolutely brilliant

[@sajidahmed4332]

For your kind information Heidegger was aware of Bergson and his philosophy. He clearly mentioned Bergson in Being and time.

[@stuarthicks2696]

The foundational certainty of the self. I like that line.

[@bambosvoutourides3720]

The role the coffee cup played was a great metaphor for where the internal and external meet. I.e. where intuition precedes analysis and how analysis frustrates. 😊

[@danieloliveros4743]

Thanks!

[@4zero1k]

Thank you.

[@ryans3001]

Thank You!

[@ronalddwyer2002]

I subscribe to the philosophic movement, of which Bergson is a great representative, called process philosophy. The only constant is change, as Heraclitus says.

[@exlauslegale8534]

2:28 Bergson, in _Matter and Memory,_ which professor Sugrue strangely omits from his lecture, advocates exactly against dualism and idealism.

[@BethennyBreyelle]

Bergson and vertical time has provided so many keys for doors locked long ago and deemed inaccessible by my subconscious mind. Thank you Dr. Sugrue for this exquisite lecture.

[@optimusprimum]

Everytime I have a thought the next video destroys it.

[@abriellh]

i need like another entire class on this one idea

[@cowgomoo444]

I have not finished the lecture yet. I also listen to these lectures while im jogging, so they’re semi-absorbed at best. But I have to say this is one of the most interesting lectures I have heard in a while. All your lectures are great Dr. Sugrue, don’t get me wrong. But as a physics student I found this to be one of the deepest, most interesting set of ideas about space and time that I have heard. I wonder if Bergson knew about Einstein’s ideas about space and time. And about how we actually see them as one continuous entity now, not just as part of a unified whole, but actually bending into one another - intermingling - in the presence of gravity. edit: I finished it and his treatment on comedy was also superb. This is definitely a thinker I have to read for myself. I hope he is somewhat accessible as I have a pea-brain.

[@le2380]

Michael Sugrue, will Staloff's lecture on Coolingwood be uploaded? mentioned at 18:07

[@M_K171]

I wish Bergson gave us a deeper understanding of what elan vital is. Any book suggestions on that idea would be greatly appreciated.

[@batranelwadie6294]

re: Zenos arrow long as light if visible and time is spinning, regardless whether "it" is, motion is

[@benjaminseng4271]

i can only hope this channel helps fund your retirement.!

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

Bergson's _Introduction to Metaphysics_ is the place to start. _Creative Evolution_ reads as a biology book. Not my favorite. This is an outstanding philosopher.

[@OnerousEthic]

Love Sugrue!! 5:17 Bergson: “…Metaphysics is the science which claims to dispense with symbols.” 11:34 “Now…”

[@davidfost5777]

I'm always looking for new interesting lectures on Psychology/Philosophy, please let me know if you guys have any recommendations, would be highly appreciated

[@jakubeden]

kzbin.info/aero/PLND1JCRq8Vuh3f0P5qjrSdb5eC1ZfZwWJ This was a life changing experience for me

[@BenjiBeatsOBrecords]

This Sounds Phenomenal Over Some Benji Beats.

[@ARIZJOE]

Chateaubriand created a nexus between poetry and Romantic philosophy. He also invented steak-for-two.

[@lsdc1]

We see what you did there …

[@alexandre789fly]

Would it be fair to say then that symbols are metaphors we make to understand nature? Since we use a different source (symbols and language) to understand what is directly aprehended by intuition (our experience of the world), we make those "mistakes" like using and linking "space" to understand "time"

[@mentalitydesignvideo]

33:50 that is the most ...urm ... perverse (this is the kindest adjective I could come up with) retelling of Hamlet. Let me recapitulate for those addled with psychoanalysis: Hamlet carefully tests and proves a hunch ("a vision of the ghost") that his father was murdered by his brother, he rightly accuses his mother of being a whore and rejects her attempts to soothe him, he sets out on a course of meteing out justice at great peril to himself, he catches Polonius kneeling in prayer (and for all appearances about to confess and repent) and so stays his hand, he deliberates and broods at the prospect of extreme deeds and mortal danger facing him - as any modern man would, - later he uses his extraordinary cunning and courage to evade the trap Polonius set for him, and eventually metes out justice at a cost of his life. An immaculate tragic hero. And if you disagree, %username%, tell me what you would do if your uncle murdered your father and your mother immediately jumped into bed with him? Go into therapy?

[@xaviorjimenez2227]

What an elaborate way to say "science is a model, not reality itself"

[@NormanOBrown-yz8qb]

Might I ask- when was this lecture delivered? Regards, NB

[@dr.michaelsugrue]

1993

[@joekopsick1540]

What is the word he keeps using in his lectures? "Ur-stuff"? "Ur-staft"?

[@dr.michaelsugrue]

Urstoff = primary matter in German

[@user-jb8gy6ud2f]

I wonder if western culture is particularly open to self deprecating humour. I've noticed while living in asia that it doesn't go down as well.

[@dacedebeer2697]

Showing weakness is taboo in some cultures.

[@santasangre996]

The Asian culture more than any other strives for "honor" so self depreciation seems counterintuitive. This is of course a gross generalization but I agree with your observation

[@benquinneyiii7941]

A good hypothesis?

[@firetrine1758]

I love your course, I'm surprised Bregson doesn't mention timing and rythm in comedy, or did I miss that? Which is exactly why people didn't laugh at the take my wife joke, for it to be funny you have to say, take my wife... then pause for an uncomfortable time and utter please... as well as intonation... then it works.

[@drbonesshow1]

Laughter is a function of intelligence, which explains a lot these days - when you consider all those who aren’t laughing - feeling the pressure from social media morons.

[@chasemorello60]

✨

[@cubeincubes]

Now that we are in a laughless 2022 all worshiping science this lecture gave me chills. We really need all the social correction we can get.

[@michaelzutis9118]

Bill Murray 10 years before the events of Ghostbusters

[@batranelwadie6294]

Dr.Sugrue, du ich bin meine Vader, Sein Mitzeit

[@Charmagh110]

16:33

[@thesnowybanana2971]

*moisturizes mouth*

[@themattkellyshow]

nyyeeoowww...

[@jakecarlo9950]

Awesome, thank you. Bergson > Einstein!

[@drbonesshow1]

Had Bergson been around in the 1990s the popular TV comedy would have been Bergson - not Seinfeld. A show about something - not nothing.

[@MrJamesdryable]

Isn't this basically Schopenhauers Will?

[@halwag]

Henri Poincare, Frenchie guy.

[@ilovepavement1]

so basically Baudrilliard owes his whole career to Bergson...

[@optimusprimum]

Was God our first social invention? The first ideal?

[@Agaporis12]

First, who are we? Did any one person start believing in God? As far as we know people have always believed in gods and it’s only a strange little culture that recently emerged among certain small groups in the west that has any different idea, though it might be argued they also believe in gods. No ever one heard of gods or any ideal for that matter being invented. They are discovered. Even obviously false religions only exploit people’s devotion, they don’t invent it.

[@Agaporis12]

Bergson’s idea of comedy seems to me to be wildly off. Consider a man cross dressing to seduce the boyfriend of a girl he likes and break them up. It’s hard to see anything objectifying about that. Or if there is that’s not what makes us laugh. I may not have a comprehensive view but I’m quite sure unexpectedness is more central than objectification is to comedy.

[@dustinhourihan6201]

Sounds fun

[@LouTubed1]

Thanks!