I teach all ages of students (as a teacher of English as a foreign language) from adults to young children and my absolute favourite group are about seven years old. They study English, maths and science with me but I always include philosophy in our lessons, at least once a week. It's so important that they begin to question the world around them and to really think about things from different perspectives. Thanks for posting this video!
philosophy is an optional class at my school (IB student) I took it because i was interested in not having much work and i thought itd be an easy class. After a year of it, i now love it and feel it has had the most impact on my life. I can't believe it is not a compulsory class.
Sophie's world is my all time favourite book!!! I studied fine art at university and there was a bit philosophy and critical thinking involved in that - I just fell completely in love with it and have now made it a part of my daily life. I would LOVE to go back to university and study it in more depth though but sadly lack of funds prevents that, but I hope to be writing articles for periodicals someday! by the way Sophie is my real name, it made reading sophie's world extra dizzying!! :)
that awesome moment when you realise this channel exists, and that its probably Brady xD this guy man... so glad hes made all these channels, thanks duuude
I've just done the phylosophical part of my leving sertificate this week(I'm french), and and I think that we should learn about it in the verry firt class of secondary school like chemistry and all that.
One practical reason to introduce philosophy to primary education students is because philosophy is the true "Mother of the Sciences". Every subject in school is nothing more than a branch of philosophy. It was philosophers that started every major branch of the sciences and humanities (Aristotle in particular). And to understand WHAT a subject is, is more fundamental than (and arguably a prerequisite for) DOING a subject e.g. one must understand what science IS before one attempts to DO science
Hello Brady. I don't know if you read these comments, but i just want to tell you that i knew this channel was by you the second i heard the -by now- very familier background noice. I hope you're doing a good job on this channel too, cause I subscribed before the video ended! Thank you for all your different channels!! more universities should have people like you! -one of your danish fans.
I wish that I had been taught philosophy as a young student, I hated school and I think it would have helped immensely to show me that learning needn't solely be an act of repetitious drudgery. One of my main complaints with education was the lack of interaction with the material and opportunity to work things out and discover answers (and indeed questions) on your own in a more natural way. Elementary school teaching methods are far too focused on memorise and regurgitate styles of instruction.
As for the images, I'm putting the power station at the top. They're just the coolest things ever, and since I'm a student of EE I started to appreciate them a lot more.
Beauty isn't too hard to factor, it depends mostly on 3 things: symmetry, meaning/symbolism, and personal connection. If you have 2 images with the same meaning, and no personal connection, then the one with most symmetry will be more beautiful. If you have 2 pictures, one with more meaning/symbolism which can be understood by the viewer, then that will be more beautiful. If you have a picture of a friend or a lover, then that will be more beautiful.
i wish that school taught philosophy, they could talk about all religions and everyone's beliefs and i really think that it would bring people together under a better understanding of each other
At my primary school, the 11-year-olds had to do a talk about something they liked. When it was my turn I had just been given a book about philosophy, so my talk consisted of trying to get a bunch of 7-11 year-olds to understand things like Occham's Razor. (didn't do a great job of that)
i love thinking about the nature of randomness. the pi video hints at the "perfect chaos" of that irrational number, but i'd also love to see a video on randomness.
This is very true.... philosophy or logic is not introduces in schools because 'elite', or call it how you will, does not want children early on to understand truth and to understand themselves, for obvious reasons. But yes, children+philosophy is the future. So please, let's make it happen!
Just because your teacher sucks at teaching, doesn't mean philosophy is uninteresting or boring. If you get a chance, take a undergraduate philosophy course... they're amazing (from my experience).
My choices involve the idea that beauty stems from the intricacy or development of mankind. From trash you can extract certain ideas of the past, same with powerstation and car. They embody what we have accomplished as humans and that to me is beautiful
Hi, Brady, just found this channel, and it's amazing, as usual. It's really all in the editing, so props to you. How do I find out more about this Future Philospher's program, specifically, the curriculum? I teach in California, and would be interested in doing something similar here with my students. Thanks.
interesting that people rank the power station very low. I myself find it quite beautiful - maybe the nicest of the pictures. I guess it has to do with what it symbolizes (being that nuclear power often is considered "bad"). I'd say that beauty has something to do with symmetry and order, and the power station exhibits this quite nicely. The beatiful curves of the cooling tower, the way the grey, white and light blue colours interact and the simplicity of the design is really striking to me.
Honestly, philosophy should be taught from kindergarten. It is essential to understanding the world around you, the nature of everything, and most importantly it help you to understand yourself. It will leave you forever enlightened with an open mind, in pursuit of greater knowledge. (It is one subject that should be mandatory in schools)
The kitten is honestly the only thing I find beautiful in these pictures. I'd have the kitten at the top and then 5 ranks below, the rest of the pictures.
As I said it happens to others too. I don't know anyone who it has not happened too. Finding a philosophy teacher who knows what he's doing is probably hard.
Brady, I think you should make videos about famous philosophers and their most influential theories. It's very hard to get any sort of overview thourh these little dashes of videos mainly independent from each other.
That's what I was thinking as well - the video was very much concerned with ranking the subjects of the photos and the notion of beauty one associates with those subjects. A popular image people often enjoy is a photo of an old rusty car parked in a field, or a rotting fishing boat beached on the rocks - the images themselves are often quite beautiful, but the idea of a broken, neglected piece of machinery isn't really that appealing in itself.
But it might open up their minds too much. Me, as a highschool student, find the concepts hard to grasp, just imagine what they would think. It's like waiting until your junior/senior years to learn calculus
beauty is clearly a human question, and from human point of view it seems that we judge beauty on the basis of order, construction and cohesion. the first and most fundamental aspect of philosophy, i believe, is the 'question'. so long as we enquire, are we rendered 'philosopher'. Thus, as implied in the video, the best 'potential philosopher is the child; whilst the worst 'potential' philosopher the adult- as man ages his mind becomes more hardened, more conservative and more certain.
I think kids should be taught philosophy (or academic philosophy, at least) from a very young age, in complement with science and mathematics. The worry is that children often ask important philosophical questions but these are dismissed because they don't fall strictly within the categories of science or mathematics. For example, I remember being in a maths lesson when I was quite young, and the teacher asked me what fractions were, and after answering, I asked, "but what are numbers?".
The most philosophical movie of all time is, of course, The Matrix. And the point is obviously to "Free Your Mind". And that's what philosophy is all about, at least for me. And younger you get that done better you are equiped to observe the world and live your life, as open-minded as possible.
Unfortunately the institutions are ruining education. You are absolutely right that it is absolutely essential for the development of a 'human being', instead of a 'zombie' (see Chalmers).
Again, I didn't want to get into the quality, I just mentioned sales as an indication that a great number of people choose American entertainment (however, Bieber is Canadian and the most viewed artist on YT is Korean). In terms of science it's a bit easier to say who is great or not if we look at results. In terms of results and publications US ranks number 1 in the world, but EU combined ranks higher. So I agree with you, Europe as a whole is another question.
There is some evidence that teaching philosophy to young children makes a positive difference to them. See Topping, K., and Trickey, S. (2007), ‘Collaborative philosophical inquiry for school children: cognitive gains at 2-year followup' British Journal for Educational Psychology
It's a shame I watched this so much later than it was made, because I'd be interested in what age the professor first experiences a comment such as "that's a very ordinary (or ugly) picture of something beautiful", or the reverse, "that's a very beautiful picture of something ugly".
Much of our education still harks back to a pre-1950 world-view (in part supported by philosophers) that philosophy plays at best a minor supporting role in everyday life. This stepping back from relevance has been immensely damaging to education, every little we can do to claw that back is a good thing.
Hi Brady can we have a Bibledex on the Pope retiring? why is it so rarely happened? or can we have a Periodicvideo on how Mendeleev coming with the current periodic table? or can we have an interview with Matt like the one you did with James on Numberphile?
A majority of the greatest scientists are in fact born in the US, and not immigrants from the rest of the world, so I would argue that American society (why is a different matter) creates the conditions where ideas can flourish. In terms of entertainment, what is good is subjective, so I won't argue on those grounds. However, American entertainment has an overwhelming share of the global market in terms of sales and exposure.
what they are really asking for people who are not familiar with the beauty subject is if beauty is subjective or objective meaning are things beautiful by them selves or we as intelligent being put the value of beauty on them. Personally I think we will never find the answer unless we can find other intelligent beings who were not influenced by the same things we are to, on earth (aliens) than we might find the answer or at least get close to it. Personally I think its completely subjective.
Well, I'm a bit disappointed about this video, since it didn't really live up to the main title: Beauty. The title should be something like "Why not learn philosophy in an early age?". I'm really interested in the philosophy of beauty (an overview of the philosophical approaches to aesthetics). Please do a video really discussing this topic :)
I think we should teach phylosophy to young students... Also, Brady I would like to see a video on "randomness", I've been asked a lot: "Does true randomness exist?", and very often I say "no". But, then again, I might not be right... What is true randomness, really?
I wish these people would come to my schools. The USA school systems seem to be really scared of challenging a child's ideas, for fear of angry, lawyer-infested parents.
I believe that in a moral sense, many parents are failures. It should be a crime to constrain a child's thinking by arbitrary doctrine. Questions should be encouraged and correct, thoughtful answers given. Critical thinking skills should be developed to a high level. If the result is thinking that contradicts parents' beliefs, so be it. Religious figures and politicians may suffer, but society will ultimately benefit. The children themselves will one day be far better parents than their own.
How much 15-16 yo teenagers these days do you see that are actively involved in Philosophy? I know my friends and I were pretty philosophical from time to time, but still I don't know any other. I think from an early age people need to teach their children to it is okay to question other peoples methods from time to time, even if its only about really trivial things...
You speak about everything, but not about the actual understanding of what beauty is? The absolute beauty like Plato say, what about Hegel's view? Or maybe some aesthetics questions? What makes art part of that question? Is there any difference between this cat this car and Mona Lisa? etc... Can you make new video about some depth?
I think that depends on your definition of feminism, and who get to define what feminism is. In my definition it is a movement for equal rights, and it has been somewhat successful. Like any movement there are fringe groups, like for instance SCUM, but these have always been fringe movements that the media have given more attention than they deserve (in terms of how many people actually support them). But to say that feminism as a whole is wrong is in my opinion wrong.
i think we dont do philosophy to schooling kids because they are still learing how to do higher level cognitions named by the Bloom's taxolomy. and it makes not much sense to expose kids to varies philosophies when they cant evaluate or synthesize or analyze an elaborated and sophisticated ideas very effectively and critically.
Sunset > Power plant > Kitten > Model > Joconda > Car > Garbage I didn't like the particular model, but I suppose the idea was to show a beautiful woman. A beautiful woman (my idea of a beautiful woman) would have scored between sunset and power plant.
As nice as philosophy can be my education on philosophy was very uninteresting and boring. I hated the way it was organised and (I hate saying things like this but) my teacher didn't understand the concepts very well. We even had to give wrong answers in tests to get the answer "correct". And I see this things with happening to others too.
I know that YT and Bieber are not American, but that was not my point. Just to point out that entertainment sells well while it is often tacky and plebby. Commercial success and its hierarchy can be used to qualify and rank cultural products, but then you get stuff like Justin Bieber, Nickelback, Tinty Shades of Grey as big winners....
Great suggestion for a topic! We'll have to see what we can do. Some companies employ philosophers. I do some writing and consultancy work for Time.ly -- do check them out!
