Kant, Marx, and Media Theory

[@MattAngiono]

I end up watching these videos several times because I'm constantly having to replay parts as my mind drifts off into deep contemplation on the various points and I realize I'm completely missing the next point... I consider this a good thing though, because it means I'm constantly being stimulated in a meaningful way and truly expanding my knowledge and ability to reason. This is one of the few channels where I avidly watch all the content rather than just putting it on in the background while I paint or drive.... Thanks for the mental stimulation professor Moeller!

[@shahlabadel8628]

I rewatch it several times too, to fully understand the content.

[@luszczi]

I wonder what Kant's theory of media would be if he saw all of it, including social media. Specifically, how his views on the "public use of reason" would change. I don't know that, but I know that Kant would write a single tweet every day, at exactly the same hour.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

Most likely he would be deeply disappointed, even infuriated. What he'd do after that is anyone's guess. I'd especially be curious as to what he'd make of the findings in science itself - specifically psychology, neurology and behavioral economics - that we're nowhere near as 'reasonable' as he wanted to believe, including him. That would just cave in his entire worldview. What he might rebuild from the ashes might be interesting, to say the least.

[@WhichDoctor1]

he would probably be horrified by the uneducated, irrational, women, black people, and the poor being given soo much access to communication instead of it being held sacrosanct for intellectual men

[@JingleJangleJam]

I read Kant dedicated much of his earlier life to a passionate interest in astronomy, maybe it's why he thought himself a Copernican revolutionary in general metaphysics. I'd think the first science he'd look at might have been astronomy, and since he wrote his treatise on the planetary gravitational orbits. I think his friend Jacobi, who thought Kant didn't leave open the space enough for faith in his system of ruthless critique of ontologically sacred ideas, warned of the nihilism of Kantian revolution would cause in the human culture afterward as its mark. Antinomies of pure reason sabotage from within the potential for reason to have a non-contradictory ontology of the world, so every ontology we based our traditions on in the past has in some way or other in the 21st century no longer become grounded as a certain knowledge or ontology shared among the public as infallible. The ontology of nationalism, the ontology of religion, history, society, is at some transcendental level no longer as sure to modern societies as it was to past societies, and credence payed to those ideas lost conviction. Nothing was a priori to Kant that had been treated with dogma, even human biology, so inasmuch as Kant payed rigid attention to the role of women in his day, in his philosophy as such feminine and masculine ''auras'' can't have metaphysical certainty enough to form a non-contradictory ontology around them and metaphysically neither is our transcendental category to define us.

[@NickPavlenko]

I would add "the attention span" and "populistic narratives" to the question of Kant's perception of "public use of reason" as you pointed out. At the time of Kant and Marx there were only books (as media carriers), therefore, one shall have had a noticeably long attention span to be able to read the entire message or the concept (1), and reasonably digest it (2). In my observation, social media in most cases used the format of punchy, catchy lines against humans themselves, promoting populist-style communication methods, i.e. short, emotionally loaded, 'screaming' headlines beyond which almost nobody is reading. Hell, I might even conclude that the modern social media abandoned the concept of reason altogether, devaluing critical thinking and thoughtfulness in significant number of cases.

[@timmy-wj2hc]

Workers of the World, Unite!💪

[@zainmudassir2964]

I see Marx in thumbnail,I click. Good video again sir

[@TylerRein]

Quoting Marley?! Love that! Much respect!

[@joeleckert5856]

I was contemplating this, your concept of profilicity, and how it could be applied to Bert is Evil, and how Bert is Evil impacted the construct of profilicity.

[@CEOofGameDev]

"we have intercourse in every direction", damn, I didn't expected to be flexed on by Marx like that.

[@freetrader58]

Great lecture.

[@ShrimpBarbarian]

Lifetimes aren’t what they used to be.

[@meschneb]

No sure what you meant by that but it's an awesome, punchy little thought.

[@5driedgrams]

Great video! Love both thinkers.

[@Barklord]

Plato's Cave analogy wasn't a self-imposed limitation, and Plato didn't say it would be one saviour. The Cave Analogy is about inherited beliefs and personal transcendence through self-reflection -- even by exploration of dreams to become more aware of individual subjectivity. Rep. Book 9 (571d5) gives a clear exercise for approaching sleep for health and meditation. First, contemplation of high thought/problems; second, moderation of appetites before sleep; then last, soothing any anger in one's (Thymos). 'Socrates' says that this type of sleep helps people orient themselves towards Truth and reduces lawlessness (approach to Justice) in one's dreams. It's no coincidence that dream incubation is linked to Apollo as a lawgiver and to Asclepius as healer. This shows that Plato's views of Justice are intimately linked to health and mutual respect, i.e. Justice can never come at the harm or expense of others.

[@Normal-u5w]

Who ever is up stream from your news dribble owns your cave or echo chamber

[@Normal-u5w]

Freedom of speech allows for a multiplicity of chambers to move between.. Its quite exhausting

[@Barklord]

*"When anyone, being healthfully and temperately disposed towards oneself turns to sleep, having stirred the reasonable part of himself with a feast of fair thoughts and high problems, being come to full consciousness, himself with himself, and on the other hand has committed the element of desire neither to abstinence, nor to overindulgence, to the end that this may slumber well, and by its pain or pleasure cause no trouble to that which is best in him, but abide in its pure essence, to behold and aspire toward some object and apprehend what it knows not; something of the past it may be, or something that now is, or will come to be; and in like manner has soothed the hostile impulse, so that falling to no angry thoughts against any, he goes not to rest with a troubled spirit, but with those two parts at peace within, and with that third part, wherein reason is engendered, on the move -- you know, I think that in sleep of this sort, a man lays a special hold on truth, and then, least of all, is there lawlessness in the visions of his dreams." Plato, Republic, book 9, 571d5, Walter Pater translation.*

[@ffnovice7]

I prefer the paraphrase that uses independent clauses punctuated by full stops.

[@IvoNeto1949]

it would be nice to see fanon and gramsci in these series too

[@tylermilsop]

Reading the "Gutenberg Galaxy" and this parallels wonderfully!

[@williamfrost3554]

Autonomy starts with direct control over vital recourses. Anyone that cannot directly access vital recourses will have to assume a sympathetic position toward those that control vital recourses. A religious missionary feeds hungry people and the hungry become believers, and votes are bought with food. This sets up a situation for anyone to be unreasonable as a survival mechanism.

[@markkulahtinen1343]

HG noted that during The Enlightenment, following Kant's philosophy, mass media was regarded as a forum for learned and rational individuals to engage in public discourse on significant social and philosophical issues. However, this premise seems to falter in modern times. All those dominating the mass media landscape today cannot be deemed 'reasonable.' Instead, they often come across as promoters of populist ideas, driven by self-promotion, profit, and political agendas. Consequently, the ideal of informed and rational public discourse in mass media has been undermined. The internet, once envisioned as an information superhighway, has unfortunately morphed into a conduit for mostly populist and trivial content. This reflects a reality where, contrary to idealistic intellectual pursuits, people prioritize power, wealth, and nowadays profilicity. Turning to the material world, the communist movement sought to establish a superior social system by abolishing private ownership. This system aimed to place the working class above the capitalist bourgeoisie, envisioning a community where material property was collectively owned and individuals contributed and benefited according to their abilities and needs. However, communism required a degree of coordination, necessitating leaders to manage the production of goods in a system where the means of production were collectively owned. It was predicated on the belief that individuals would work for the collective good. Communism's failure stemmed from neither leaders nor individuals adhering to these ideals. Instead, like in mass media, people prioritize power, wealth, and nowadays profilicity. This pattern suggests that in practice humans are more defined by their flaws than their ideals. I do eagerly await HG's next video, great stuff : ) Regarding the debate on AI-generated imagery: If artists consider banning AI in image creation, should philosophers call for a total ban on AI? Is it reasonable to feel envious of AI if it generates superior ideas? In my perspective, AI is the way to go. Photography didn't render portrait painters obsolete, nor did LP records eliminate live dance bands. Chess remains popular even though AI can outplay human competitors. AI cannot be contained any more, it will transform our world, and we must adapt accordingly.

[@rossawilson01]

I agree with your perspective on what has happened to the internet but I think with ai you're conflating medium with 'work'. Photography is in itself a medium which is why it didn't put painters out of a job, same with LPs and live music. These are all mediums. Ai however is more like inventing the steam engine, it produces work. And that would be a more appropriate comparison. And when you make that comparison it doesn't look good. We're already in a techno feudal landscape where value is being extracted from populations via massive social media players, to the point where governments don't have the same incomes from their populations as it now goes to super wealthy elites in the US and the Chinese government. Who seem to enjoy setting fire to it to get into space. When you add the potential for AI to take work from people on top of that there is a real chance that not only will many of us need to work online posting content for our new feudal lords, and in real life for traditional capitalists, there will be much less work left, and many more workers will become dependent on the state. Save they be forced to take extremely harsh jobs the government will have to allow to bring in enough tax. Basically Ai could well be poised to make yet more of us over worked, underpaid, amazon employees. But probably worse. In the mean time those in better situations will likely end up looking on like hapless Victorian gents and ladies passing a slum.

[@Opposite271]

To me it seems strange that we have to adapt to technology instead of the other way around. It seems that humanity and technology have entered a master-slave-relationship and humanity is certainly not the master.

[@sulismies]

​@@rossawilson01Yep, Yanis Varoufakis and Technofeudalism. That's also good stuff. Modern feudal lords have installed new age digital salt mines in our pockets in the form of mobile phones.

[@leonho1450]

wonderful video, as always

[@farzanamughal5933]

NICE VIDEO!!

[@muhammadalaraby7027]

Welcome back ya Hajj.

[@mimimimimi..]

You're one day early. But thank you for the Nikolaus gift

[@okwaleedpoetry]

nice kant/bob comparison

[@Dayglodaydreams]

Wasn’t Kant a pietist??

[@gilbertoribeiro2586]

Great 👍

[@TheJayman213]

Nice.

[@johnshaplin]

Seems like there is always the see-saw phenomena: Enlightenment and counter-enlightenment

[@ich901000]

thank you very very much for this excellent series! Freundschaft.

[@lostsoul2184]

How can I be your student pleaaaaaaaaaasssse?

[@generischgesichtslosgeneri3781]

Reason should have told you, to not use any music that is owned by big music companys. That's freedom...

[@ffnovice7]

Freedom from transgressive humanism?

[@Opposite271]

The prophets of technology always foresee our liberation if we only embrace this new pice of technology. But the only thing that progresses so far is technologies destructive potential. One of those days, technology will bring about its own undoing and with its collapse, a age of misery begins.

[@mschell8022]

No mention of how Kant's personal opinions on women as a particular group do not logically fit into his philosophy itself?

[@Dayglodaydreams]

I think an officer should quibble with his superior, if he does not see the order as rational or ethical.

[@rwed13]

in the cave, the deceivers ultimately deceive bc of bigger deception, bigger cave they are in. and so forth. one never escapes the cave. it's turtles all the way down.

[@hans-georgmoeller7027]

Good point. A kind of pessimist Hegelianism.

[@rwed13]

@@hans-georgmoeller7027 combination of existentialism's inability to fully comprehend the universe, plus cyclical and fractal nature of the universe: universe that's infinite in every direction and dimension. add to this ability of human mind to learn and we get: a tiny larva inside the onion of infinite layers. and it don't matter if you don't move. eat past a layer or 2 then stop, or keep eating till u die.each layer in the onion is the growth of the larva

[@alexanderleuchte5132]

Reddit Atheism is the transition of mankind from a long stage of immaturity to maturity

[@1stBroly]

then christianity was the stage of childhood

[@hwithumlaut8288]

Astrology girls are the realizing that the maturity is uptight and neurotic. Have fun and whimsymaxx!

[@alexanderleuchte5132]

@solomongrundy145 After tenthousands of years of belief systems that were at least as far contributing or not hindering the surviving and thriving of our species that we made it this fa, to become stuck in rationalistic hybris while recovering from the subsequentt phase of monotheistic death cult psychosis maybe isn't the "great awakening" it is still portrayed as

[@enesutkuozdemir7335]

​@@alexanderleuchte5132Western atheism builts upon secularized Christianity...

[@tsp1999]

The unfortunate thing is, the middle east today is what Europe was pre-Enlightenment, unable to move past religious fundamentalism

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

Did you not get the sarcasm in his description of Kant? All the times he pointed out how Kant was basically praising men like himself, himself as a model for humanity and how 'enlightenment' was basically his way of saying everyone should aspire to become 'reasonable' men of learning like him? He was subtly pointing out how elitist and narcissistic Kant was. He looked down on the unenlightened common folk of Europe, just as you're looking down on the folk of the middle east (and likely elsewhere).

[@tsp1999]

@@ArawnOfAnnwn i hadn’t finished the video when I said that. I apologize for what I said. For what it’s worth I am a Tolstoyan

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@tsp1999 No issues. Sorry if I sounded hostile. A video on Tolstoy here would actually be amazing. Cheers! :)

[@tsp1999]

@@ArawnOfAnnwnBoth he and I were champaigne socialists, and both he and I were Christo-anarchists

[@selensarikaya]

Hi, I really like your channel but the thumbnail caught me by suprise. AI generated images are hurting artists; and the generators are built unethically. I hope you take this into consideration.

[@LolGamesTeam]

This instance of AI generated thumbnail fits the topic of a video

[@gh0s1wav]

I bet you also think the idea of copyright is bs 😂

[@MichalDziubicki]

@@LolGamesTeampretty ironically yeah

[@ffnovice7]

Complaints about AI images are from bots

[@MichalDziubicki]

@@ffnovice7 comments defending ai are from simply uninteresting people

[@gh0s1wav]

Using AI art as ur thumbnail is stealing from artist just as much as a person who listens to a Bob Marley song and starts making reggae🎵

[@mapleandsteel]

Ah, so political correctness is also like the Žižekian analysis of toilets! To the conservative MAGA-ite it is normative and acceptable to speak certain things that liberals, and leftists deem unacceptable, bigoted, or strange. Just as much as the liberal’s, or leftist’s toilet is similarly bizarre to the MAGA-ite.

[@luamartinsmagalhaes]

I really enjoy your content, but please respect the work of artists and don’t use AI “art” on your thumbnails. AI is stealing from human artists and undervaluing our work. Keep that in mind. You wouldn’t want to see the same being done to your field.

[@williampan29]

>tracing portrait >stealing lol this is nothing dude. Don't be too dense.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

Considering he's literally putting his content out for free...you sure about that?

[@jtfernandes]

​@@ArawnOfAnnwnunlike the artists, he can make some money from his content if he wants.

[@hwithumlaut8288]

The day when robot philosophy tells us to kill ourselves. (See existential comics)

[@SacredAmbulance]

😂

[@archiethebold2000]

Please don't compare Kant to a Jamaican pot-heat

[@mschell8022]

Too late, you should try getting over it