Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, meditations 1-2 - Introduction to Philosophy

[@KnowledgeVariable]

This teacher is fantastic. Viva la Gregory B. Sadler. I love his classes.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks! Glad you enjoy the classes

[@lindokuhleemmanuel2031]

I'm a south African student. and I've passed many of my tests through watching these lectures thank you very much

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad to read it - you're very welcome!

[@socceresque16]

I haven't reached the end of this series but... I sincerely hope the students opened up a bit more. Exchange of ideas across a classroom is always enjoyable from a teaching standpoint.

[@GregoryBSadler]

+Heather Correll Yes, it is. It's tough with some of these freshman students "right off the bus", when their K-12 education hasn't emphasized not only discussion, but serious, sustained discussion. . .

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep -- and so much more. Descartes is always a fun thinker to teach

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad to rent the space in your head for a while

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're very welcome -- glad that the videos were helpful

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, that can work, provided there aren't too many students in the class. Another thing to keep in mind: many of these students, when they first come to my class, have been given years of "be quiet and let the teacher tell you the answers". As to Descartes and videos, I'm planning down the line on doing a whole set of videos, going through each Meditation, and each of the objections and replies -- but that would be later this summer or this fall

[@GregoryBSadler]

Not a problem -- and that's a good question for me to address in one of my upcoming Dr. Sadler Chalk and Talk videos. I'm hoping to shoot that one later this week

[@NapoleonDynamite69]

This teacher is the most amazing teacher ever I hope your students enjoy your work as much as i do! I am watching all you videos!!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, thanks for the compliment -- I wouldn't call them a bad class, though, so I do have to stick up for my students a bit . These are kids right out of high school, first semester in college, no real clue about how to get much out of their classes by discussion. And, Descartes is tough stuff for them.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome. Good luck with the exam

[@FMasamune]

I seriously love your teaching style. You aren't intimidating like most professors and you help your students make connections between the topic being discussed and their lives. I learn a lot more from these videos then sitting in on a lecture at my university. Keep up the good work!

[@CaptainJasa]

A nice intro lecture on Descartes. I find Rene Descartes works to be quite accessible and easy to follow and that's what he had in mind when he wrote that he wanted his readers to read his work like a novel from start to finish. In a way he also the first existentialist philosopher as well in dealing with the whole topic of existence.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you enjoyed the lecture. I wouldn't call him the "first existentialist". Oftentimes, if one is reading existentialism back into history, it's his contemporary, Pascal, who is construed as an proto-existentialist. And, Descartes was far from the first person to thematically examine existence -- for one, Thomas Aquinas focused on that (in terms of the distinction between essence and existence)

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you like them. I don't think you can get much mileage out of etymology when it comes to developing a theory of human nature as such. Again, if we're talking Descartes, he thought the human being is not simply confined to the three spatial dimensions

[@puertoriconnect4611]

This teacher's pretty awesome. I wish I could be in this class. Like, most commenters here, I do wish the students were more engaged. It sounds like there's only 2 who actually participate. To be fair to them, I've been in classes before where my mind just goes blank any time the teacher asks a question, or I'm afraid of saying something stupid, or I don't wanna speak for the whole class. All that aside this teacher is great at making these ideas feel more personal.

[@GregoryBSadler]

+Absurdi TV Thanks!

[@GregoryBSadler]

No worries -- and it's quite all right to call them what you like, to express the impression you get about them. And, it's equally all right for me to stick up for them. It doesn't seem particularly harsh given the sorts of things I see in plenty of other KZbin comments, trust me! I have to admit to a bit of disappointment on my own part when I can't get students interested and engaged. The older I get, and the longer I teach, though, the less it gets to me.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome! Glad to hear they're helpful

[@GregoryBSadler]

I haven't seen that one -- will have to give it a watch. Thanks!

[@farhanpatel715]

Thanks saved my life this video... i got an exam tomorrow and this is great help :D

[@urbansamurai79]

Total Recall is another film that absolutely captures the notion of being deceived through implanted memories. I've just started getting into philosophy, so this lecture was helpful. Thanks for posting!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, it's pretty introductory stuff -- for an intro course entirely for Freshmen. So, it might not have the more advanced stuff you'd like. I'll eventually be producing some more intermediate and advanced videos on Descartes (and other moderns), but right now, those are just in the planning stage

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks -- and I'll keep on shooting and posting them. It probably helps having taught non-philosophy majors in the majority of my classes for most of my career -- you learn that you have to make those connections, if your students are to get anything out of the classes

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad the lecture videos were helpful for you

[@browneyedS]

Oh god.. i hope i can have a teacher like him he knows how to pull the students attention and keep them away from falling asleep and he is really fun to learn with

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well. . . there's not as many good teachers in Philosophy as one might hope -- I'd say talk with fellow students whose opinions you respect, and ask them who they think are good profs to take classes with.

[@Txfpf4all]

This video has help me with this course! Thanks Mr. Sadler!!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad it was useful for you

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep, like the title says, it's Intro to Philosophy -- not a class on Descartes or even the Early Moderns (I should be so lucky!) -- and they are indeed first semester Freshmen, not straight off the bus, since it's mid-semester, but certainly not seasoned yet!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Not yet. I'll be recording two on Hume's Dialogues on Natural Religion later this semester, though

[@GregoryBSadler]

Great! Good subject to minor in -- it complements just about any other field that you're studying. What you find, actually, is that, with any discipline you might major in, as you start to get into higher level discussions of the subject, you end up doing more and more philosophy, like it or not

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes, I've had the experience on both sides of teaching-learning. I still remember some of my high school teachers for lessons I learned from them. And, I've had students come to me years later and say "you know when you said. .. . that had this effect on me" -- usually a big surprise on my part

[@wakalaprego]

your videos will get me through my intro to Philosophy. SO grateful!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you liked it -- yes, classes are luck of the draw. Sometimes, you get a batch of very engaged students, sometimes not so much

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're very welcome!

[@danellebreo]

You sir are a great great great teacher, your analogies makes it so easy to relate, and understand the material.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome!

[@FireTex1]

I agree with you on the 2and and 3rd. My kids felt the same. I am reading a biogrophy on Descartes. He was different in his thinking, but the times were different as well. He saw what what happened to Galileo. I think that would make anyone act a bit different. All of these things are fascinating.I am older now and I really love to learn. I have more time to devout to reading and listening to things like your lectures. Thank you

[@urbansamurai79]

Philosophy is one of the few areas that encourages the challenging of established ideas, which is totally backwards from standard education and what I find most appealing. Too many people are programmed with loads of information but really struggle to think critically.

[@ColeHomeVideo]

Currently studying Philosophy in Scotland. Your lectures are EXTREMELY helpful.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you're finding it useful!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, that one I've used in Intro classes, but more when we get to material on Locke, Berkeley, Hume, dealing with memory and personal identity.

[@MrAngryman69]

I like how this Prof. put these videos up so that we can have crash courses to philosophy! :-D

[@Lucky9_9]

I watched this wonderful lecture last night and it's been swimming around my head all morning. Coincidentally, I just stumbled into the song Lamps and Palm Trees by Sleeping til Summer. This just might be your alarm? Classic.

[@GregoryBSadler]

I seem to get that quite a bit -- but I certainly don't mind, because it's not a bad association.

[@GregoryBSadler]

that sounds like something you could research. Try starting with the Discourse

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're very welcome

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep. If you watch my videos, you'll hear me many times admit to my students that I have trouble spelling certain words. Occasionally, I even get them wrong.

[@mitchlavender6391]

Great lecture... But frustrating how little the class participates...

[@GregoryBSadler]

Some days are like that. . .

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks! Glad they are helpful

[@4BobMarley20]

Thanks so much for posting your lectures, your an amazing prof. You've helped me through a lot of my philosophy classes!

[@GregoryBSadler]

If you like these -- from some time back -- I've got more recent ones in some of the other playlists

[@stevosvideos1351]

I enjoyed and benefited from your lecture. Thanks. When I have a dream I might think the dream experience is real while I'm dreaming, but after I wake up I realise that it was only a dream. In my woken state, I know that I am not dreaming (as in having literally the exact same kind of dream at night when I am in bed asleep). While I'm awake I can question whether I am dreaming or whether I'm awake, but I seem to know I am not asleep in bed an dreaming in the exact literal way I was last night (for example). So there is a difference in my perceptual experience between my dream state and my woken state - although this perceptual distinction is generally more available to me while I'm awake than when I'm asleep and dreaming. (Although with the likes of lucid dreaming the level of awareness seems to be raised while still dreaming.) However, it is still possible that the reality I experience in my woken state may actually be some other type of dream state/virtual reality world that differs literally somewhat from my 'in bed asleep and dreaming' but is somewhat comparable. P.S. Gregory - another movie is Vanilla Sky. Have you seen it. It's several years old now, and was a bit of a flop, but I actually really liked it. That too was about a virtual reality computer program thing.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes, I saw Vanilla Sky some time ago. Not bad at all. . . Glad you enjoyed the video

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep, that happens sometimes

[@christiannarvaes7857]

Found out about your channel recently and Im really enjoying everything! Thanks for going through all the strain to put this online! Greeting from Curitiba - Brazil.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're very welcome!

[@0lAllan]

I'm taking Continental Rationalism in the fall. I hope this makes for a useful preview of Descartes.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, Descartes was already "different" well before the Galileo matter -- brilliant guy, and very ambitious to set philosophy upon an entirely new basis

[@skyace47053]

Thank you so much you were very helpful, your a very good professor, I was hating my philosophy class did not understand what the hell was going on, you changed my views on this subject in a positive way.

[@csidorf]

Thank you very much for sharing Dr. Sadler :)

[@GregoryBSadler]

Perhaps down the line, I'll do a series on Philosophy as it shows up in movies

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, perhaps more unresponsive in these Descartes (also the Kant) videos than some of the other thinkers we studied that semester. Glad the video was helpful!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Ok, I see where you're going. Yep, the first movie was spectacular. We -- me and my daughter, who'd read the books -- were more and more disappointed with the second and third, and may not go see any further ones, because there's a bit too little fidelity to Lewis' narrative in those -- some of the meaning, we felt, had gotten lost. Precisely what it was, though, I can't remember offhand -- Descartes himself will write of something like that -- remembering a conclusion, but not the argument

[@FireTex1]

The children step through the closet into what is very much a paralell universe. I thought the first movie was excellent and listening to your lecture, which I really enjoy, the first thing that came to my mind was this movie. Thanks

[@GregoryBSadler]

About 3:18, you mean? Perhaps. I shot this two years ago, so I'm not sure precisely which term I'd had in mind at the time

[@GregoryBSadler]

hahahaha! If you knew my academic colleagues as I do, you might not think they have a good reason to act "holier than thou"! You know, if Philosophy is worth reading and studying, it ought to remain relatable to just about any generation. There can be some prerequisites required, but Plato, Aristotle, Anselm, Descartes, etc. are worth teaching because they do raise and address perennial concerns -- put another way, you don't have to do much selling when you've got a great product

[@shint8160]

Hearing one of the students cough so violently and remembering that this is in 2011 is funny to me. Thanks for the upload!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes, they're probably well along in their career now

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad it was helpful for you

[@GregoryBSadler]

Now, that is something I like to read: 1) Your class/prof isn't helping you understand -- I don't like that 2) My videos do help -- I like that 3) You now are more interested in studying philosophy -- that's what I really like

[@Brakermaker21]

You're like a super-chill cross between Jeff Bridges and John Goodman, love the lecture.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks!

[@wisco_simple]

Thanks for another great lecture on our philosopher of the month

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome - but whose philosopher of the month?

[@wisco_simple]

@@GregoryBSadler Descartes this month

[@wisco_simple]

@@GregoryBSadler I'm trying to teach a group of my friends to think by introducing them to a new philosopher every month

[@GregoryBSadler]

Wisco Simple well that’s cool!

[@wisco_simple]

@@GregoryBSadler thank you Dr. Sadler

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

In regards to the students, I am reminded that "Great learning does not make a person wise, or else it would have taught Hesiod, who did not even know that day and night are the same thing."

[@mjdbreezy]

Big thank you from me in New Zealand! I have my final exam next week so I'm listening to any and all extra explanations I can find about the topics. Your lecture was awesome, I would have loved to be in your class! :)

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep. Movies apparently don't remain in the public mind too long

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, you work with what you've got

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks! Nice to read that

[@GregoryBSadler]

Not sure what you mean. Can you explain in a bit more detail what you're asking about -- and whether your asking about my views or Descartes' views?

[@arajo0423]

That's great! My senior paper should be done by next Spring, so I have already been reading them, trying to figure out as much as I can. It would be really great to see your new videos on objections and replies!!! Thanks!!!!!

[@devongiguere3721]

I feel bad for you, you're students weren't really involved, regardless of your efforts too. I really like your introduction to this topic. Simple to understand.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, I'll take the compliment. . .

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, funny you should ask -- so the whole idea behind the worry about a "cartesian circle" is that Descartes (and anyone following him) is successful in calling everything into doubt, and then needs to reconstruct everything rationally. The problem is that he relies on the idea of God in the 4th and 5th Med to justify clear and distinct ideas being truthful, but he used those back in the 3rd to prove God's existence. I don't buy the key premise: that Descartes successfully doubted everything

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, a bit hard to tell from a single classroom vid, or even from the series. If I were to turn the camera around -- which I won't do, since that raises all sorts of other issues -- you'd see a mix of students. Some of them admittedly, are not engaged, but relatively few. Some are just puzzled, unsure about what even to think -- and they have gotten very little practice from their K-12 Some, you can see, actually want to say something, but have to struggle against K-12 conditioning

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks! So you like the Cogito shuffle, eh?

[@arajo0423]

I personally always try to answer the questions my professors ask. I think it creates a good atmosphere for a class to be less dense :) My senior paper is about Descartes' the proof of God and your lectures have been a big help.. I have been reading 'the philosophical writing of Descartes Volume 2'.. I am pretty much comfortable with his thought but now I am struggling with the objections and the replies.. I wish you had a video about that too!! haha

[@hassanb.5585]

I was hoping that you would talk about The Vanilla Sky in more details, which is pretty related to the subject you had been discussing. You're appreciated!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, that does sound like a good thing then. You're right -- he has a kind of ready for anything presence. Again, so long as its not Buscemi...

[@GankNoobsEveryday]

Interesting Lecture. I enjoyed it.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, that's unfortunate. I sympathize with you, having had more than a few bad teachers in my own college years

[@GregoryBSadler]

Are you sure I never drink it? Given how addicted I am to coffee, and the fact that it's a 5PM class, I find it hard to believe I don't drink it!

[@GregoryBSadler]

I see. Descartes was a thoroughgoing dualist. So, we are, sofar as material, extended beings, 3d -- but so far as thinking beings, spiritual substances, we've no dimension. We're simply something other than spatial.

[@GregoryBSadler]

True -- and you know who the author is whose work it based off, right? A guy who did many a philosophical experiment

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're quite welcome

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks! Unfortunately, no -- though it's in my queue

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks! Jeff Bridges, that's good. John Goodman, I'm not so sure. But at least it's not Steve Buscemi

[@arajo0423]

Really good lecture it helps me understand the meditations better, but it would be better to see students' more active class participation such as giving their thoughts or comments on your questions...

[@timmmyyb]

What a great video. I hope you've seen Inception by now!

[@veromarlon]

Thank you from El Salvador

[@GregoryBSadler]

Quite true

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, that class was a year and a half ago, 5 PM

[@FireTex1]

I think another good example that would go well with this perhaps might be The Chronicles of Narnia either the movie or the book by CS Lewis.

[@LadyRara90sKid]

Such an unresponsive class! Great help for my revision on Descartes though.

[@thinkbigg1]

Lol...I like how he picks up his cup of coffee but never takes a drink out of it. Great lecture though...really helpful

[@GregoryBSadler]

I get that quite a bit