Episode

[@josephsaczawa329]

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” ― Heraclitus.

[@CMVMic]

This is only true if the past never repeats

[@amitkumarsingh406]

The best philosophy pod out

[@josefinacarrasco9556]

It's interesting how this video came just when I needed it. I'm going through a very difficult time in my life. Thanks for your work. It's amazing. Greetings from Chile. ♡

[@SocraticMethodGuy]

best of luck to you... from Missouri

[@josefinacarrasco9556]

@@SocraticMethodGuy Thank you!

[@AGENTOFDARWIN]

hold tight.. you got this.

[@elmarievisagie3719]

Wow!!! Love this - love how it makes me think, be, and become!

[@O.G.Rose.Michelle.and.Daniel]

I love the emphasis on laughter and idea that laughter keeps us focused on “becoming” versus “being” (though I couldn’t help but think of Kafka’s “A Little Fable” and David Foster Wallace’s thoughts on it, but this isn’t necessarily bad, because I think irony has similar philosophical merit to laughter). Your reflection also made me think about an essay Reinhold Niebuhr wrote on laughter. A few quotes: Niebuhr, Reinhold. The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr. New Haven, XXX: Yale University Press, 1986: XXX. ‘Laughter is our reaction to immediate incongruities and those which do not affect us essentially.’ -50 ‘We laugh cheerfully at the incongruities on the surface of life; but if we have no other resource but humor to deal with those which reach below the surface, our laughter becomes an expression of our sense of the meaninglessness of life.’ -51 I think a distinction could be made between “thoughtful laughter” and “thoughtless laughter,” or maybe to use a Bonhoeffer distinction, between “cheap laughter” and “costly laughter.” Laughter seems an essential component of “thinking life,” but it seems a dangerous component of “thoughtless life.” Laughter for the thinker makes being becoming, but laughter for the thoughtless might make being nothing. I agree with the idea we need a focus on becoming versus being, but this made me think about sociological “givens’ versus “releases.” Following the thought of Philip Rieff, without “givens” at all, we suffer an existential anxiety in which totalitarianism becomes appealing. I think, Steven West, you could do a great show on Philip Rieff’s “The Triumph of the Therapeutic.” I think his sociology, along with the work of Peter Berger and James Hunter, could be very valuable for today’s conversation. I’m trying to flesh out an argument about Rieff that balances “being” and “becoming,” but admittedly I’m not finished yet. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqfYg4qjfdSDba8 o-g-rose-writing.medium.com/belonging-again-intro-d0be8c70e5b If society doesn’t feel enough “being” and leans too much toward “becoming,” it can be overwhelmed with existential anxiety, but if it leans too far toward “being,” it can become susceptible to “the banality of evil” and oppression. A balance has to be struck, but who’s to say when that balance is indeed struck? Hard to say… Thanks again for an amazing show.

[@touch182]

Love your videos.

[@anzezupanec6753]

I have been following your work for quite some time now. I love the job you do Steven, keep up the great work! 👌

[@spenserkussin-gika2632]

You have consistently helped me throughout my life.

[@hillbillyhippy]

Stephen, love your show and the way you bring these huge ideas to us without being condescending to us or to the subject. I really love how you prioritize the ideas over the philosopher. I really would like to say more but am limited by my own ability to do so rationally. So bravo and keep it up. I think and feel that what you are doing is important.

[@leomilani_gtr]

I sat on my yard to hear this show right now and, as You talked about becoming and the transience of reality, I observed a shadow in a wall moving and disappearing. It was like I've experienced time.

[@brookabebe1067]

Stephen your program is the most underrated on all of the internet. I've been listening to u for almost 4 years now and there ain't even one #episode I wouldn't consider being a masterpiece on its own. Honestly, I am sometimes furious when I see a thumbs down in an episode. The structure of u're program seems to tell a chronological account of philosophy, and I think it's time for the undertaker of philosophy "Slavoj Zizek". or his favorite go to guy Jacques Lacan. And Thank You for your hard work!

[@MarkWCSmith]

I've just discovered the podcast and started at #001. Can't wait to catch up to the present day! Keep doing it man you rock!

[@humphreyoforka]

Sir Steven West. You can be credited as the modern-day thinker comparable to the ones you teach us about. A lot of seasoned listeners like myself can testify to this. But for those that are just curious...just start from #001 and follow through. It is even more enlightening to be saying this in this particular episode. Thank you, Steven.

[@alwayslfg791]

Dude, reach out to Joe Rogan, he's mentioned your show before and if you do a JRE podcast it would help publicise your great and valuable show.

[@lkripppler]

But then you'd have to hear joe butcher Steve's quotes to his friends in future podcasts

[@andrewholmes5392]

When did he mention this podcast?

[@Phoenix-jd5gy]

@@andrewholmes5392 I think like more than a year ago

[@LCpanini]

Ew please don’t

[@matthewroche3827]

Yesssssss

[@matthewroche3827]

I love every one of these, gone over all the episodes almost twice! I listen religiously the every night!

[@yulian8267]

this is absolutely amazing

[@searchforserenity8058]

Love you Stephen West! You are entitled to be "human" and get sick though.

[@okbakhenfer3238]

It seems to be that there is an innate force of change that comes with time, and that works upon everything. and it works against assembling and toward disassembling. Usually, we don't like this force (because change is tiring and scary) and so we don't like to detach from the moment or from our definitions of things, even though change will happen eventually. but to be clear, beautiful things weren't always beautiful, and broken things weren't always broken. and we don't know always the whole story from the beginning !!!.

[@psychobear1290]

Just discovered your lovely channel, I studied philosophy under A.C. Grayling at Birkbeck and you have a similar fluidity and style. It's a pleasure to hear your work and your students are lucky ( I assume you are a teacher as you clearly have the talent for it). Thanks mate, and be lucky

[@andrewholmes5392]

I think a philosophical debate discord server would be cool, especially if that server was hosted by you.

[@SocraticMethodGuy]

please make this happen

[@valeweinmann9907]

Theres a discord already

[@chickenjuice4841]

@@valeweinmann9907 where to find my good friend

[@mikeoxlong7268]

@@valeweinmann9907 where???

[@valeweinmann9907]

@@mikeoxlong7268 @ChickenJuice nvm, it independisiced from the podcast

[@thereignofthezero225]

So... First, they claimed we can't derive an ought from an is, and now we can't derive an is from an is either? Haha

[@stuarthicks2696]

Thank you.

[@elmarievisagie3719]

Your content truly changes my life continuously! No greater gift to me than that of information/knowledge: food for thought. Namaste 🙏🏻😊💗 PS This is my sixth time listening to this episode!

[@sunifernando6307]

I think listening to it 5 times is enough Namaste

[@9thLevelG.byTrenchKeith]

Wow! Joe Rogan is huge right now & such a deep thinker. This show is ringing 🔔s

[@SocraticMethodGuy]

deep thinker lol.... no... just no...

[@9thLevelG.byTrenchKeith]

@@SocraticMethodGuy You're right! They're paying him hundreds of millions to babbel malarkey to millions of loyal viewers 🙄 find a negative someone to pester please 🙏🏽

[@SocraticMethodGuy]

@@9thLevelG.byTrenchKeith appeal to popularity is a logical fallacy... as is legitimacy via cash. you dont know this? he admits hes dumb... im not on thin ice here... he cant even do math in his head...

[@9thLevelG.byTrenchKeith]

@@SocraticMethodGuy Apparently all of the great scholars were wrong & you two trolls are right 😆 trust me you don't know as much as you'd like to believe.. you can sound like the smartest person in the room based on what you're capable of remembering alone. You don't have to agree with me when I say Joe Rogan has a very illuminated & interesting mind.. based on this commentary alone I'd have to say he has you beat 🤣 you know Einstein started out as a funky right?

[@SocraticMethodGuy]

@@9thLevelG.byTrenchKeith check my channel. Rogans a statist. I like him, but politically... philosophy... lol no...

[@adamserrecchia3784]

Lemme tell ya Steve.. love your show.. great narration and I always get a smile ..thanks pal🗡️

[@GoddessStone]

Firstly, I'm really sorry you haven't been feeling well. Hopefully most of the people who listen to you are philosophers, and therefore, would find it quite profane to be impatient with you. As to the point of humor...Terrance McKenna, Manly P Hall, Alan Watts, and many others...are masters in this. I would have been lost on Earth, without humor. It can transcend even the most heart breaking events. It can give us perspective, which can make all the difference.

[@chabiina1]

The materials that makes something is up, are not the entirety that make something is.

[@Vicky-zd4xj]

Love your content and ordered a T shirt 😄

[@tannerhagen774]

Love the channel! I’ll be sure to do holiday shopping through the link.

[@TravelingPhilosopher]

This was very interesting!

[@jaredklein1362]

You have a very great pod cast, Sir!

[@BigBunnyLove]

Hilarious, been reading and writing about this.

[@arman_gokalp]

being is cringe becoming is based

[@Human_Evolution-]

More Stoicism please.

[@projectmalus]

The title immediately awoke the suspicion of the wee homunculus inside me.

[@Phoenix-jd5gy]

I haven’t listened to these videos in ages lol

[@elijaguy]

7:00 etc., semantics. true, unless "being" includes the features of "becoming", that is, that Being INCLUDES Becoming, because Being in itself doesnt make sense, as you explain later, and observed since the early Greeks. So as always, an agreement about semantics is required for a prelude.

[@Anarcath]

“There are no facts. There are only interpretations of interpretations”-Nietzsche

[@sfopera]

One of the most preposterous, and most destructive, ideas ever.

[@Anarcath]

@@sfopera You're misreading Nietzsche.

[@raycosmic9019]

0. Potential = Being 1. Actual = Becoming (actualized)

[@rentrapsoftware7905]

No video running ?

[@Anarcath]

No being, no becoming. Just unadulterated suffering. I don’t believe in heaven but I sure believe in hell.

[@death.noneexistentchannel5797]

69 k subscribers, philosophy is hot!

[@halestorm123]

Some Ancient lady philosophers please

[@SocraticMethodGuy]

they dont exist.

[@halestorm123]

@@SocraticMethodGuy That is very strange I've found at 4 in my studies 🤔

[@halestorm123]

@@SocraticMethodGuy least 4

[@sof553]

Hypatia would be an interesting one. Aspasia of Miletus or Arete of Cyrene also. Surprised by some of the ignorant comments on the videos of such great content.

[@jasonfishmd]

Sir; don't be so hard on yourself.

[@amitkumarsingh406]

Reach out to Joe Rogan or Lex man you're dope

[@amitkumarsingh406]

Lex seems to be interested in philosophy too