Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy

Jul 23, 2026 10:43 · 49:16 · English · Whisper Turbo · 3 Qof-dheer
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Soo bandhigida oo keliya
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Hello, everyone.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I'm Stephen West,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and this is the Philosophize This podcast.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
The first episode of this show was released on June 6th of 2013,
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and it was the first creative thing I ever uttered into a microphone in my entire life.
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Now,
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needless to say,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
since I started,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I've learned a lot of lessons when it comes to creating a show that brings as much value to people's time as possible.
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Bottom line is this.
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If you listen to the first episode and you like it,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you're golden.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
You have over 100 episodes to listen to.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I hope you love all of them.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But if you listen to the first episode and think it's slow or cringy
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
or,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you know,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it's so talking like this,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it sounds like somebody's Roomba came to life and did a podcast.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Try skipping forward to around episode 90 and see if you enjoy it more.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
You can always go back as far as you can bear after that.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
That said,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I hope to see you all at present day soon.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And thank you for wanting to know more today than you did yesterday.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Hello,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
everyone.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It's me, Stephen West.
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S… Speaker 3 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And boy,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
do we have a lot of great philosophy stuff to talk about today.
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S… Speaker 3 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
You know,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I just learned something,
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
everybody.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It turns out that if you're listening to this podcast right
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
now, if you were to trace back your family's heritage as far
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
as you could go,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
if you were to follow the branches of your family tree all
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
the way up to the canopy of that family tree,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you'd find that you come from the sub -Saharan plains of Africa.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Yeah.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It turns out,
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all humans that are alive today can trace their roots back to those same eastern
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sub -Saharan plains.
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S… Speaker 3 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Now,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I'm not a paleontologist,
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folks. Do I look like a paleontologist to you?
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I'm not trying to attack anyone's beliefs here.
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This idea that we're talking about,
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that at one point all humans lived in Africa,
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it's called the Out of Africa Theory.
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And there's several other reputable arguments against it.
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During my research,
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I realized that...
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How humans colonize the globe is one of the most heavily debated topics
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in all of human history,
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and I'm not attacking anyone.
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If you want my opinion,
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the Out of Africa Theory is probably like most things in history.
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We're probably completely wrong,
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and in 10 years,
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some new evidence is going to turn up that changes how we think about things for the next 10 years,
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and so on and so forth.
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But the reason I'm bringing it up today is because to understand
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early philosophy...
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I think it's important to understand the early human decisions that made philosophy even
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able to exist in the first place.
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So bear with me for a second,
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guys. The story begins here.
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Once upon a time,
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a long,
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long time ago,
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every human lived together in Africa.
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One big happy family,
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right? We were a nomadic,
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tribal people.
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We loved to move around.
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But more importantly,
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we loved to socialize with each other.
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And this desire to socialize with each other is a hallmark of the human species
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no matter how far back you go in history.
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S… Speaker 3 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
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you even see it today,
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right? This is why people love social media.
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This is why we lock a guy in solitary confinement for three months
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and he comes out completely insane.
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There's something inherent in the human brain that wants
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and needs social interaction.
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And even humans 100 ,000 years ago weren't an exception to this.
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The archaeological record shows that we would kind of congregate around these makeshift
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fire pits and caves and,
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S… Speaker 3 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
just basically in places where we had a strategic advantage against predators and were able to
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sit around and just talk.
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Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there probably wasn't much
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
to talk about back then.
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S… Speaker 3 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
we were sitting around a fire,
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so my guess is in between sets of kumbaya we'd start to talk about things that were plaguing
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us.
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Like, I don't know,
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the fact it's 170 degrees outside every day in Africa,
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or the fact there's...
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Absolutely no drinkable water anywhere to be found.
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And that fun little problem probably always leads into the anecdote
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your uncle always likes to tell about that day he went to go drink from one of these stagnant pools of
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dirty water.
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And he got trampled by a hippo like it's Black Friday at Walmart because
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he tried to drink its home.
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Africa wasn't perfect,
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people. That's all I'm saying.
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Africa had its problems.
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So instead of complaining about these problems endlessly,
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we went north to a place called the Fertile Crescent.
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Nice neighborhood.
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You've probably heard of it before.
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If you don't know what the Fertile Crescent is,
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it's right where Europe and Africa meet together by the Mediterranean Sea.
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There's kind of a crescent -shaped temperate land there.
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It's temperate because it was only a mere 110 degrees Fahrenheit during the day,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
so obviously we kept moving.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
If you get a chance,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
take a look at one of these maps that shows the migratory paths of these early humans.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
You can pull it up on Google Images,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
no problem.
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But if for some reason you can't find it or have a boycott against Google,
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check it out on StephenWestShow .net.
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We're going to have it posted up there as well.
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There's a fork in the road there at the Fertile Crescent.
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We obviously decided we weren't going to keep going north,
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but then there was kind of a disagreement.
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Some of these humans went westward over to the area of Greece,
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Italy, and eventually to Western Europe.
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And some of them went east over to India and China,
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north to Russia,
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then across.
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the world -famous intercontinental ice bridge to Alaska.
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Then they stopped by Sarah Palin's house for a few days and eventually made their
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way down to South America where the Incans and Mayans eventually cropped up.
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But try to imagine being one of these early humans for a second,
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people. You have no idea what lies ahead of you.
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I mean, you're just walking.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
When these people started moving,
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they had no idea if the continent of Africa was just
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surrounded by a pool of lava or something.
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They had no idea if something like the Grand Canyon was just over the next hill.
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They had no idea where their next meal was going to come from.
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No idea if,
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while they were trying to navigate all these problems,
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if there was some ruthless predator stalking them and hunting them the entire time.
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Not to mention...
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All of this is uncharted,
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unnavigated terrain where at any point you could just slip,
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fall,
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break a hip,
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something,
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right?
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There was no St.
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Joseph's Medical Center on the corner for these guys back then,
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and even a slightly mangled arm was just a complete death
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sentence.
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The entire thing is just terrifying
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to me.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
if we lived back then you guys would see me down in africa cowering in the corner just working
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really hard on trying to invent the air conditioner as soon as possible making do but
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what these early human settlers did to cope with this adversity that was thrown their way
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was they employed the idea of strength in numbers
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You see a lot of early military conflicts where this concept is used,
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but this greatly precedes any military conflicts.
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This precedes civilization.
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They realized there was a serious threat to their existence,
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and they only had a handful of people to work with,
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and they grouped together,
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always around geographic areas with an abundance of resources.
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And this is the first point I want to touch on.
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If you look back at any progress the human species has made over the course of history,
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If you look back to any group of humans that did well,
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their success can be distilled down not to the fact that
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one race of people or one group of people were more clever than another,
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because we were all really clever,
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right? It can be distilled down to how much of that cleverness needed to
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be used to gather the basic necessities of life.
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And it makes sense,
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right? If you don't need to worry about where your next meal is going to come from or
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whether a pack of wolves is going to steal your baby in the middle of the night,
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you can focus on other things like art,
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science,
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government, and philosophy,
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as it turns out.
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Philosophy really is just one of these extra things made possible by extra human
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brain power.
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Do you know what I'd compare it to?
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I'd compare it to the show The Walking Dead.
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And if you've never seen The Walking Dead,
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I'll make this quick.
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So on one hand,
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you have Rick, the protagonist of the series.
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He has this nice multicultural group of friends he's always trying to protect,
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and their life is terrible.
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They're like the early human settlers.
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They're always on the run.
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I mean, heaven forbid anyone stops to have a five -minute heartfelt conversation
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about their life before the zombies took over,
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because there's zombies in every bush.
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You just hear like...
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And then there's this giant zombie dog pile on top of someone and you never see them on the
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show again.
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S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
They have no idea where their next meal is going to come from.
8:10
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
They're always eating those disgusting cans of Vienna sausages.
8:13
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Their life is just like the early human settlers.
8:16
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
They have no idea what the next day holds for them.
8:18
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But conversely,
8:20
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you have Woodbury,
8:20
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
formerly a residential street.
8:23
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
You got walls,
8:24
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
towers,
8:25
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
armed guards constantly looking out for threats.
8:27
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
The people in that city...
8:30
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Although they live in the same volatile,
8:31
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
unpredictable world as the other people,
8:33
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
their strength in numbers allows them to focus on other things,
8:37
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
like why they're taking orders from the only non -pirate in the history
8:41
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
of the world to ever wear a black eye patch.
8:43
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Now,
8:45
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Western philosophy begins in two geographic areas that are actually
8:49
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
right next to each other.
8:51
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Do you remember that fork in the road we were talking about at the Fertile Crescent?
8:55
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Well, one of those paths goes westward on that fork.
8:58
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And these two geographic regions we're talking about right now lie along
9:02
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
that westward path,
9:03
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Greece and Italy.
9:04
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And both these areas are just groups of these little
9:08
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Woodbury -style cities that are closely knitted together.
9:10
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
All pre -Socratic thought is organized as coming from
9:14
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
one of these two geographic regions.
9:17
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
One is the Italian style of thinking.
9:19
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
As you can probably guess,
9:21
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
that's modern -day Italy and Sicily,
9:23
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
that area over there.
9:24
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And the other one,
9:25
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
the one we're going to talk about today,
9:26
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
that's the Ionian,
9:27
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
or the Greek style of thinking.
9:29
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
That's modern -day Turkey and Greece,
9:31
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and where those two countries meet the Mediterranean Sea,
9:34
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
that whole region right there,
9:36
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
that whole coastline,
9:37
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
is known as the Ionian coast.
9:38
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Now,
9:41
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
both these geographic regions not only knew about each other,
9:45
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
they influenced each other,
9:46
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
they refuted each other.
9:48
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And that little high school rivalry dynamic that existed between them,
9:52
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it turned out to be extremely beneficial for the progress of philosophy in the
9:56
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
long run.
9:56
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But before we talk about them,
9:59
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and I'll...
10:00
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
All their brilliant ideas.
10:00
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I think it's important to address the elephant in the room.
10:04
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Ironically,
10:06
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it's an elephant that I'm sure next to nobody even cares about.
10:09
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But to be fair,
10:11
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
there's got to be at least one 60 -year -old white dude that teaches
10:15
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
philosophy at NYU listening to the podcast right now.
10:18
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And he's going to be really upset if I don't address this.
10:20
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
The term pre -Socratic.
10:23
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Major source of contention in the philosophical world.
10:26
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Countless fights have been started at philosophy -themed bars over the years because of this.
10:30
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But it's something that's interesting to know,
10:33
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and it basically comes down to this.
10:35
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
In 469 BC,
10:37
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
a guy named Socrates was born that was a complete game -changer for the world of
10:41
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
philosophy.
10:41
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
No question about it.
10:43
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
10:45
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
people that don't know anything about philosophy have heard his name before.
10:48
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He had such a profound influence on which
10:52
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
philosophical questions were asked and who could ask them.
10:56
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Because, I mean,
10:56
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
before him,
10:58
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
philosophy was something reserved for the rich and the elite to study.
11:01
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And he kind of made it so that pretty much everyone was a philosopher.
11:05
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It was huge.
11:06
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It was a big day in philosophy,
11:08
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
actually.
11:08
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
So big that in the early 1900s,
11:12
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
some guy was writing a book on ancient Greek philosophy,
11:14
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and he just decided to refer to everyone that came before him as a
11:18
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
pre -Socratic thinker.
11:20
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Like pre -Socratic.
11:21
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Like before Socrates.
11:24
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And the term kind of just stuck,
11:26
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I guess.
11:26
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Now,
11:28
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
there's really good arguments on both sides,
11:30
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
but some people don't like the term pre -Socratic.
11:33
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
They say it undermines just how brilliant all of them were,
11:36
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and it even kind of insinuates they were inferior to Socrates in some way.
11:40
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Personally,
11:42
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I can kind of see where they're coming from.
11:44
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean, try to imagine if you had a sister named Jessica,
11:48
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
for example.
11:49
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Let's say Jessica got all straight A's through high school,
11:52
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
head cheerleader,
11:54
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
valedictorian,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
got accepted to Cambridge,
11:57
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
was knighted.
11:58
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Basically,
11:59
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
she's an accomplished person for all intents and purposes,
12:01
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and you're back in downtown Cleveland working at some pickle factory.
12:06
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
12:07
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I don't judge you.
12:08
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It's got good benefits,
12:09
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
right? But imagine if your parents,
12:11
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
every time they were talking to their friends,
12:13
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
was like, hey,
12:14
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
yes,
12:14
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you're a pre -Jessica child.
12:16
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Yes, pre -Jessica.
12:19
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Wow.
12:19
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I have no idea why your parents are related to the monopoly guy
12:23
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
in that example,
12:24
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
but you can definitely see how it would be condescending,
12:26
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
right? I'm not,
12:27
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
wow. Now,
12:29
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
if you do any basic research online,
12:31
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you're going to find a ton of people that say it's appropriate to label them something
12:35
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
different because pre -Socratics dealt with strictly metaphysical claims.
12:39
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Metaphysics is the study of what everything around us is made of and how did it get here.
12:44
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
where Socrates didn't deal with stuff like that.
12:46
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He dealt with issues surrounding epistemology.
12:48
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Epistemology is the study of knowledge.
12:50
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
How do we know what we know?
12:52
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And,
12:53
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean, I guess if you read that online,
12:55
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it's like most things on the internet.
12:57
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It's not entirely true?
12:59
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Yes,
13:00
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it is true they dealt with less issues of epistemology than Socrates,
13:04
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
but they definitely did address them.
13:06
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
So to use that as your only validation to cast them into exile on
13:10
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
this island of misfit philosophers before Socrates is just,
13:15
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Dishonest.
13:15
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But that said,
13:17
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
we're still going to call them pre -Socratics,
13:19
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
because pretty much everyone else does.
13:21
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And it actually works in coalition nicely with our purposes here today.
13:25
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
13:27
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
at least whenever I'm learning anything,
13:28
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it really helps to be able to categorize things into different groups.
13:31
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It helps me remember it better.
13:34
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Like, when I think of early Western philosophy,
13:36
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I think of it in terms of three chunks.
13:38
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
There's the pre -Socratics,
13:40
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
then the next chunk is Socrates,
13:43
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Plato, Aristotle,
13:44
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and then the next chunk would be post -Aristotle to the medieval period,
13:48
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
etc. I mean,
13:50
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it just makes it a lot easier.
13:51
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But just as long as we keep in mind that we're categorizing them,
13:55
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
not because they're inferior to Socrates in any way,
13:57
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
but just to identify them for their own unique characteristics.
14:00
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
14:01
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you have to keep in mind that...
14:03
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
When these first pre -Socratic started popping up,
14:06
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
which is right around 620 BC,
14:08
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
2 ,000 years ago,
14:10
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
the breaking scientific news at the time was that magnets
14:14
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
were alive and had souls.
14:16
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
14:17
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it made sense,
14:18
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
right? I mean, you held a piece of metal up to it and it created its own movement,
14:22
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
right?
14:23
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
So it's basically alive.
14:24
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
That's how they saw it.
14:26
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And the guy that came up with that theory...
14:28
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
was an amazing guy.
14:30
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And he's not only the guy that we're going to talk about first
14:34
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
here today, but he was the first philosopher of all time.
14:38
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And his name was Thales.
14:41
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Thales
14:50
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
was the OG of philosophy.
14:53
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
14:54
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
nobody came before this guy,
14:56
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you guys.
14:56
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Nobody.
14:57
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He had nothing to pull from.
15:00
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
to go off of,
15:00
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
he was it.
15:01
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He really was the first person to look around
15:05
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
him at all of the amazing nature,
15:07
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
all the rocks,
15:08
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
the trees,
15:09
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
the birds,
15:10
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and say, maybe all this wasn't put here by some supernatural god.
15:14
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Maybe there's a rational explanation for everything.
15:18
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But the way I always think about him is,
15:20
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
if TV existed back when Thales was alive,
15:23
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
this guy would have been the bachelor.
15:25
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He would be the perfect bachelor.
15:27
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
For a number of reasons.
15:28
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
First, have you ever seen one of those Greek likeness statues of the guy?
15:32
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
The man could be mistaken for a Greek god.
15:34
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
If you glanced at him out of the corner of your eye,
15:36
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you might think that the gods actually exist.
15:38
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He was a strapping,
15:39
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
attractive man.
15:40
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Chiseled features.
15:42
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Full -bodied,
15:43
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
voluminous,
15:44
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
curly hair.
15:45
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He was like a guy on an Herbal Essences commercial.
15:48
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Strong jawline.
15:49
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I can't say much about his eyes,
15:52
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
because as you know,
15:52
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
these Greek likeness statues don't have pupils.
15:55
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I guess we hadn't evolved them yet.
15:56
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But if he had pupils,
15:58
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
there's no question they'd be deep,
16:01
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
generous,
16:02
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
battle -hardened eyes.
16:03
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But that's not all.
16:06
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
No.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean, just being a pretty face doesn't get you on The Bachelor.
16:09
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
You've got to be the whole package.
16:10
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He was very highly educated for his time.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Really well -versed in geometry and astronomy,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
two subjects that historians think he picked up during his travels to Egypt earlier
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
on in life.
16:22
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
16:23
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
this guy just goes on vacation and,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you know, learns two complete areas of study that nobody else around him knows.
16:30
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
16:31
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
no big deal.
16:31
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
So there's no question he had an extremely high intellect,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
but the main quality that makes him a shoo -in to play The Bachelor was that...
16:38
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He was incredibly rich,
16:39
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and not to mention a genius businessman.
16:42
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
There's this infamous story about him making a ton of money
16:46
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
in the olive industry during one particular harvest season.
16:49
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And the story generally goes like this.
16:53
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Back then, everyone thought there was a direct relationship between
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
how pleased the harvest gods were and how many crops were
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
yielded at harvest time.
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Thales didn't buy that.
17:05
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He looked around and noticed that...
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Whenever there was a significant amount of rainfall in a particular year,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
that would therefore be transmuted into a significant amount of crops
17:15
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
come harvest time.
17:15
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
So on one of these years when it was raining more than usual,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
he just went out and bought up all of the olive presses in town,
17:22
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
knowing that everybody was going to need them.
17:25
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Essentially, he got a full monopoly on the entire olive industry.
17:29
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And then when that significant harvest of olives inevitably came,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
he just sat back and cleaned up.
17:36
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
17:36
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
he just cashed checks while people rented equipment from him all season long.
17:40
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And to make it even worse,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
he said the only reason why he even did it was to show everyone how easy it
17:46
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
was to get rich.
17:47
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean, he didn't even need the money.
17:49
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And if you look at this story in a weird way,
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S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
you get a pretty good idea of who Thales was on the whole.
17:56
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It kind of encompasses what his entire life was.
17:59
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
18:00
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
put yourself in his position for a second.
18:02
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
He was a philosopher dedicated to finding rational
18:06
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
explanations for everything around him,
18:08
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
during a time when all the people around him just kind of mindlessly
18:12
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
attributed everything that happened as divine intervention from some god.
18:16
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
18:17
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
basically, he lived in modern -day Alabama.
18:20
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Yeah.
18:21
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Now do you feel bad for this guy?
18:23
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
But by knowing the sorts of things everyone
18:27
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
was reading back then,
18:28
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
we can really understand just how outside the box he was thinking.
18:31
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I mean,
18:32
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
it really speaks to how amazing it is that he even came up with the theories that he did hearing this
18:36
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
stuff. Just for some context,
18:39
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
I'm going to read an excerpt from something called Theogony by a guy named Hesiod.
18:43
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And this was written in the 7th century BC.
18:47
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And for all intents and purposes,
18:49
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
this was the Bible of everyone living at the time.
18:52
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It explained the origins of the gods,
18:55
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
the origins of man.
18:57
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
It gave explanations for tons of everyday things like earthquakes,
19:01
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
thunder,
19:01
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
lightning.
19:02
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
Apparently,
19:04
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
all of these were just a result of some god doing something in the god realm.
19:07
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And this whole book,
19:09
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
this story would have definitely been required reading for anyone living back then.
19:15
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
More importantly,
19:16
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
as far as explanations for the world around him are concerned,
19:18
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
this is all Thales had.
19:20
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
This is it.
19:22
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
And this particular passage explains
19:26
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
why some boats that are out at sea experience high winds.
19:29
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
This is their god explanation of high winds
19:33
S… Speaker 1 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
at sea.
19:35
S… Speaker 2 (Episode_001_Ionian_PreSocratic_Philosophy)
and from typhoeus come boisterous winds which blow damply fitfully

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