Episode

Philosophize This! Clips: / @philosophizethisclips
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Thank you for making the show possible. 🙂

[@fatemeebrahimi8999]

Your podcast is saving my life. Sometimes I listen to your take on books before I read a book to prepare for the reading, and sometimes when a book is Greek to me your podcast makes everything make sense! Thank you🌸🙏🏼

[@ThuyTran-ci2et]

Excellent explanation of Fromm's work. Thanks so much!

[@JoviBootlegs90]

Fromm is underrated and somehow was left in shadow. I read his books and he approaches social problems with such an excellent scientific view

[@AG-ni8jm]

It helps that unlike most of his Frankfurt School colleagues, you can understand him

[@wojtekgrzegorczyk7212]

Greetings from Poland. You're doing great job!

[@tomekgut5263]

You are not the only one from Poland :)

[@kevindaniel3786]

Hey Stephen, I started to listen to your podcast on Spotify two weeks ago and I have only listened to the first 4 episodes but I gotta tell you that I really enjoy the way you're telling stories and explaining the thoughts of these philosophers. In my opinion, you found a perfect balance between serious content and entertainment. I think it's great what you're doing and I'm looking forward to listen to all your episodes which certainly help me to improve my English....

[@MakeshiftHuman]

Feel this, "Oh I have off work for a couple days, what to do.... hmm guess I'll sleep so I don't have to worry about doing something with this freedom".

[@alenbacco7613]

Thank you for all that you do Mr West

[@BriarLeaf00]

This book was highly influential to me in my late teens and early 20s and remains an interesting insight into the psychology of freedom and how we in capitalist nations conceive of ourselves, our society and our place in it. And unfortunately yes, I'd say the worldwide rise of fascist/far-right ideology makes his work that much more valuable.

[@rrobak6477]

Xd

[@lfluna4392]

Thank you for the hard work on each episode, it´s really inspiring. I´ve learned a lot from your podcast over the years. Greetings Fromm Argentina.

[@SK-le1gm]

I am going to hypnotize you to agree with what I am saying here. Hypnosis as a phenomenon works because it liberates the subject from freedom. It lets the subject relax and obey. This includes the hypnosis of television news or of unfair sexual seduction. Thanks for an amazing podcast here 👍🏾

[@christinemartin63]

A thought-provoking episode on the paradox of power-seeking. Made me think a long time.

[@thomasrobert9743]

Thank you for the new episode! I love you

[@mjd1258]

Amazing subject today!

[@NeoArch]

beautiful episode. I hope you all well!

[@SuperKashiyuka]

An amazing book. Great commentary

[@surajchaudhary613]

Excellent!

[@plsarguewithme2665]

wasn't able to listen to my favorite podcast because I was busy with online school THEN I HAD TO STUDY FROMM FOR PHILOSOPHY CLASS AND I CAN FINALLY LISTEN!!

[@01FNG]

Thank you Steven West for democratizing philosophy You're doing God's work and If there ever was an afterlife, you will be among the winners.

[@aarni4819]

Would love to get more episodes about freedom

[@projectmalus]

Thanks for the show! How about freedom of thought, like thought itself is a positive action leading to a negative freedom. This is a freedom from say 'everything moving' where nothing makes sense, it provides a nice stable place. There should be also a positive freedom. Philosophy, the open mind in which the thought can happen.

[@benjamindover4337]

There is an anxiety in freedom. I like the Kierkagard quote. I think some people really dont enjoy freedom. Perhaps most people. Its a matter worth considering as society is being reshaped.

[@Kryptic712]

We don’t ever experience freedom, we can’t fly if we wanted to, we can’t be a fish if we wanted or fly in space. So what is free? Not being bullied? The human suffering will always exist. So having more structure rather than less, allows us to have reasons and consistent states of mind

[@benjamindover4337]

@@Kryptic712 thats an interesting thought. In some ways "freedom" is a kind of bondage through the responsibility it entails. For example; I'm free to do any work I like. But I'm also then responsible to make it pay enough to survive off that work.

[@aarni4819]

​@@Kryptic712 I believe freedom is more about having freedom to choose between the things that you can do like what you're going to eat for breakfast. Being able to fly etc is more about ability then about freedom.

[@aarni4819]

@@Kryptic712 still an interesting idea though.

[@05deeps]

Freedom is relative. We always have it to some degree. There’s no absolute freedom

[@maryjanemccarthy2907]

Awesome!

[@RedRosa]

More Fromm? Yes please!

[@eliajahrenteria322]

"Trade thy gifts. For the gift is not for keeping, but forgiving."

[@andarted]

Erich Fromm: _"In a normal healthy relationship, you strife for the integrity of the other person, you preserve the equality between the both of you, and you streife for your mutual independence because it protects your individuality and freedom."_ Jordan Peterson: _"... bUt CoNsiDeR tHe LoBsTeR!"_

[@a.duncan2216]

So, I appreciate your work and had developed a similar comparison of individual human development mapping onto macro-social development based on patterns I see in my work as an international educator abroad. And while I agree with Fromm on the three common ways people and cultures “escape” from freedom, I have a few questions or rebuttals I would love others opinions on. 1. We need to explore and understand how an individual’s trauma or a society’s generational traumas not only encourage but, I would say, drive the person or group to one or more of the individuality-escape mechanisms. If people are physically and ecologically first driven to avoid suffering and and then seek “pleasure,” if person or their family/ community experiences enough volume or intensity of trauma, they will retrograde into singularly pursuing conservatism and security, abandoning goals of self-actualization or creative individuality. 2. Is this valuation/perspective of placing individuality as the “peak” or “maturation” of individual and society Euro-centric and not accurate for most peoples? I work in East Asia and Confucian thought still influences all daily activities and speech. Conformity and optimization of one’s role is seen as positive and how to sustain the group through generations. I don’t foresee Fromm’s perspective ever emerging from philosophers here as individuality is seen as a destabilizing social force. There’s more a balance that favors social stability over or individual autonomy which sounds like Fromm would criticize it as the third escape from individuality. But, how does one reconcile Fromm’s ideas while also not dismissing philosophy and culture from some of the oldest continuous civilizations/ largest populations on Earth? How do you extract validity of Fromm’s ideas from his Western context? Would he hypothesize the same if he were Korean or African? Unlikely.

[@saosintheyperch]

1. I think Gabor Mate's theories on addiction and trauma might be helpful here (to save time, I will assume you knpw his work, if not, just ask and I will explain or simply just KZbin his name, there's a lot of his stuff out there). Anyways, I believe Mate has very similar views to Fromm's pathology of normalcy; Fromm believed that what was 'normal' in society was indeed pathological (i.e., the social acceptance of different escapes). Although it comes from a different angle, Mate sort of has a similar view: he argues that addiction is essentially a coping mechanism for dealing with the pain of trauma, and that personality is the result of coping mechanisms learnt in childhood; addiction is the extreme. Mate argues that the levels of trauma that preclude healthy self-development do not just have to be vividly obvious (e.g., childhood abuse and the result of severe addiction), but more often than not, they are subtle and insidious. For example: proximal separation, which is the phenomenon of close physical parental contact with the infant, or child, but simultaneous emotional distance. There are many reasons why parents do this, once again I will not go into detail, but simply put: just look at our hectic fast-paced society and think about what that does to the capability of parents giving attention to their kids needs. The point is, Mate sees this as normal (normal as in how common it is, not 'good') in our society, and the result of 'emotionally neglected' children is a poor sense of self. This poor sense of self is due to lack of emotional security, and ultimately results in a lost sense of self-reliance/independence. Fromm also argued that if children do not develop a sense of self, or identity, it is probably because of a pathogenic parenting environment that discouraged children to feel safe to explore identity (i.e., through effectivity). Thus, self-reliance is undermined and independence does not grow. The question is: is this traumatising? Most likely yes. So, Mate's notion of emotional attunement precluded by proximal separation can explain the underlying trauma that drives mechanisms of escape seen so prevalent today. In other words, most people are traumatised by their lack of self-reliance because they didn't feel safe to develop it in childhood, thus they replace their own need for identity for what society expects of him/her. My response is highly truncated, but I hope I've added some helpful insight. I was going to respond to question 2, but maybe another time!

[@LunaLu-00]

"Anxiety is dizziness of freedom" Kirkegaard

[@sushma2876]

Sir How will I be able to sign-up for notifications in my inbox.

[@Mollymomo10]

Can you do one on Karl Polanyi the great transformation?

[@gregoryfrank418]

Write a book asap pleaaaaase!

[@youzitea-sweet4788]

Hi, could I upload your videos to the Chinese internet？Because it is hard to get such wise cogitation your channel is presenting. I will highlight the origin links and author in the description. Thank you so much.

[@youzitea-sweet4788]

And I will not make a profit from sharing your videos on the Chinese internet.

[@LunaLu-00]

There is only one meaning to life and that is the act of living it.

[@polarshift7711]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@Lk-km4ie]

I'm waiting for your take on nietzsche, please!

[@tiagoborlidogmail]

He has done several episodes on Nietzsche. They're on the channel. Have you seen those? :)

[@Lk-km4ie]

@@tiagoborlidogmail thank you so much for the reply, I did😁 I meant this comment to a different channel 😄

[@blackbird1320]

Who are you? I can’t find a bio for you or lists of citations for your podcasts. Do you have a bio on the web somewhere? Who is helping you create these podcasts and their bios? It would be helpful to be able to have trust in your work and words.

[@blackbird1320]

@papa winluk Maybe decide to get your information from cited sources instead of anonymous people afraid to have a public profile. I’ve listened to the podcasts, and tried to research this person- there is no background on them. How and why they hide themselves is my concern.

[@blackbird1320]

@papa winluk I think it’s impossible to know if they are representing or misrepresenting the information. The podcast listener is often NOT reading the Actual texts as deeply as the podcaster- since this person has not identified their credentials there is no CREDIBLE source of verification for their knowledge. I find it troubling and suspect. Spotify, Wikipedia, other internet biographies HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTOGRAPHS, CONTACT INFORMATION, college degrees, letters of reference legitimizing their information as accurate. He simply exists and puts his information out there like a Scientologist without accountability. Prove me wrong. I will happily concede. Truly.

[@Graeberwave]

Almost finished reading Pathology of Normalcy. Then this showed up? OK ALGORITHM

[@tannerhagen774]

Great book, great podcast. Are there other methods people try to escape freedom rather than sadism or masochism? I agree with most of the book but is there other nuances that anybody has to not make this not entirely reductionist? Perhaps it is just the focus Fromm is narrowed to and where his interest lies due to his own living experience.

[@BriarLeaf00]

His work is approached from a psychoanalytical framework so it makes sense for its time. Its an old book.

[@greenlevi]

This is why I hate blank canvas. I have to take the responsibility of the stroke I would make.

[@AnbusKi]

I like West but its hard to distinguish his personal opinions from the actual concepts and ideas he speaks on.(For example when he talks about "multicuturalism" he fails to clarify why it is or isnt a good thing.) Philosophy is powerful and must be handled with care because the wrong person can get the wrong idea and run with it. Also remember that this guy mostly focuses on American and European philosophy which can give a slight echo chamber effect depending on whats being discussed.

[@gamer-ff6mh]

You are quite right. But using common sense to apply philosophy in real life, quickly exposes the dangerous part of philosophy. Instances like the Valladolid debate are prime examples of how the same philosopher can be interpreted in starkly different ways. Since, I am from India, I do enjoy the take on Western philosophy on this channel. It is, I agree somewhat pre digested. But always good to read some digests to broaden one's own perspectives towards known philosophy.

[@4centhotdog]

Hey have you ever done any stand up comedy? I think you'd be really great at it.