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One of the best things about the Internet today is that, you can use it as a great source of knowledge. In fact, the web is virtually the storehouse of the collective knowledge we humans have gathered over the last few millenia, and yes, it's generously free most of the time. In this way, the analogy that often comes to my mind is that of a fountain of knowledge, that tirelessly pours its elixir of wisdom for us all to benefit from.
Yes, there are dark corners of the web – ranging from porn to racism, from the online Jihad to superstitions to the stupidest possible extent. But then again, it is up to us, the users, how we utilize the web. As Lord Ramkrishna, the great 19th century Indian socio-religious reformer and saint (and philosopher, as I see it) beautifully said, all resources in life are like flowers. A bee collects honey from the flowers, while a spider amasses poison. Similarly, good people cultivate good things, hile bad ones will always go for evil doings. This is what the web is, as I see it.
Recently, I discovered Philosophize This!, a one-man show on philosophical doctrines and their practical relevance in today's world, together with witty jokes, salacious gossip and just soothing, friendly pieces of advice that Stephen West, the host, realizes in the flow of his life. I have been a long time podcast fan, and indeed I can boast of having listened to a variety of different programmes, such as BBC's Documentaries, IndiCast and How Stuff Works, but Philosophize This!, in my opinion, has a unique charm of its known. And obviously, I am not advertising the show in any way, it's just self-justification, spiced up with the motto of my online presence, sharing good content with you guys.
What's the show about?
Ok, so I'm using the term Show here, because Mr. West himself calls it a Show, and I like the term. It's entirely audio, though. As evident from its name, the programme is about philosophy – but not the boring part of it, mind you. It started in June, 2013 (as I read) and continues to produce nice episodes each week (or every two weeks). We get 2-4 episodes each month, and there's a neat Subscribe feature that notifies you whenever a new episode is released.
Philosophy, mind you, is really more important than most of us think it is. For example, I have never heard my teachers describe the philosophy of science to us, although they routinely teach us physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and what not? If you've read my article-series titled How Science Works, you might have seen that the 3rd episode focuses solely on the philosophy of science (link: http://techtravelandtalks.blogspot.in/2014/02/how-science-works-iii-philosophy-of_22.html).
Stephen West, the witty and cheerful host of the programme (your personal researcher, as he calls himself), originally began the programme as a series parallel to his day-time job. It originally started out as an experiment, I'd say, to test the relevance of ancient philosophy in modern times. And being a student of science, but an ardent admirer of western analytical philosophy myself, I would say “Indeed, ancient philosophy is more relevant than ever in today's world, because it has the potential to rid you of much of the self-generated suffering that you (and everyone else) inflict upon yourself”.
The series is chronological. The first 2 episodes beautifully summarize the teachings of the pre-Socratic philosphers of the Ionian and Italian branches of philosphy respectively – covering the views and teachings of Thales, Aneximenes, Pythagorus, Heraclitus, Permenides and others. In those 2 episodes (in my opinion, the best ones), Stephen also brilliantly suammarizes the theories on the origins of philosophy – as a by-product of the society's unused, additional brainpower, and our collective need to socialize.
Following that, the series takes us to the turning point in the history of philosophy, the arrival of Socrates. Plato and Aristotle follow next. And then we turn to the east, discovering the teachings of Lao Tzu and Confucius of China, and Siddhartha Gautama Buddha of my homeland (well, technically it's still Nepal though). It would have been great had Stephen released a few more episodes on Indian philosophy, but well, I can't complain. And then begins my favourite part – the Hellenistic period that is full of practical philosophies.
The 5 episodes of the Hellenistic age are neatly summarized into 44 minutes episodes each, and I really love them – so much so that I happen to listen to them again and again. First, we have Epicureanism,followed by 2 episodes on Stoicism (my present philosophy of life). The 4th one focuses on Scepticism, and the fifth discusses Philo of Alexandria. And this is the best thing! Despite being a science student, I had read a few introductory texts on philosophy, very general ones that discuss what philosophy is, how it can aid us and so on. And I began to consider myself omniscient, when it comes to philosophical matters. But the podcast helped me realize the truth, I happen to know virtually nothing about it. For example, I had never even heard of Philo or Plotinus before listening to the episodes. And the doctrines I knew about, like Epicureanism or Stoicism, well, my understanding of them really improved after listening to the relevant episodes.
Currently, the programme is thankfully LIVE, and nearly every week, we get quality content from Mr. West. I just listened to Baruch Spinoza, Part II yesterday, and truly it was amazing! It resonated with my personal understanding of God, as well as the ancient Indian Vedantic description of the Brahman (perhaps the highest theory of theosophy in the ancient world).
I once submitted a poetic piece I wrote, for review, and an American poet had told me “No matter how beautifully you write, I can always be critical of that”. And similarly, I must say that there are a few things which the show can improve. But otherwise, it's better than okay, if you ask me. Some of its uniquely neat features are:
1. Absolutely lively and jolly discussion, despite being a one-man show. This is what makes me listen and re-listen to it. Alongside IndiCast and Ubuntu UK LoCo podcast, this is the best thing I've listened to in the world of podcasts.
2. Packed with useful and relevant information, complete with real-life examples and modern analogies. This is something teachers of philosophy should benefit from. For example, my mother who studied philosophy as an additional paper in her school years, decided to forget everything about it since she believed that philosophy is not at all relevant. But if only she could hear Mr. West, she would see how wrong she was. I don't know about other places, but here in India at least, teachers hardly know how to teach philosophy.
About the cons, however, there might be a few of them. But nothing we can't do away with.
1. Focus is mostly on western philosophy. But I do understand the reason, the programme is mostly for the western audience. In any case, less than 1% people here in India actually know enough English to make head or tail of what the show discusses, and they'll always blame the American accent of the host for that, not even thinking once that the host IS American.
2. The Aryan issue. Now, this is where most Americans, Europeans and Indians and virtually everyone else, usually have a misconception. The episode on Buddha states that the Aryans were conquering fair-skinned warriors who defeated the original Indians, and imposed their religion, language, culture, rituals etc on them. This is really wrong. The Indian nationalists would say that all Indians are Aryans, Sanskrit-speaking civilized race of the ancient world, which is illogical. The European/American would stick to their original beliefs. But recent findings clearly indicate that both sides are wrong. Most north-Indians at least are Aryans. I am, I can proudly say that. And this is not any Nazi stuff, just history. All our north-Indian languages are of the Indo-Aryan family. My native language Bengali is a language derived from the Sanskrit-inspired Prakit, and there is overwhelming evidence that Sanskrit was the ancestral tongue of our people. Siddhartha Gautama, if anything, was an Aryan himself.
However, we can't blame Mr. West on it. There is so much confusion on the matter anyway.
Overall, Philosophize This is a refreshingly new change from most podcasts, and it's truly helpful to us modern humans. We have sophisticated technology at our disposal, and yet we lack the mental peace and satisfaction that our ancients so valuably treasured above all things, at least here in India. And Philosophize This can serve as a nice stepping stone on the way to that mental tranquility, the escalated level of acceptance, tolerance and understanding.
I highly recommend you all to subscribe to the show, and give it a try. I'm sure you'll benefit from it.
It's available on iTunes, for all you lovers of the forbidden fruit. For us, worshippers of Googles green robo, and users of the divine realm called Linux Box, the RSS links can do the trick.
The website: http://www.philosophizethis.org/
And yes, if you like the programme, you can always help in the following ways. I realized this, in the hard way, one should always do something for the things they like. This helps to keep those things alive. Seriously, I realized it after my somewhat private love affair with Zite, perhaps the best Android magazine that was out there, but now it's discontinued thanks to Flipboard. I reviewed Zite and tried to give it some exposure, but I didn't try too hard. This is not going to be the case with Philosophize This. That is what motivated me to write this somewhat promotional review.
Stephen West, the witty and cheerful host of the programme (your personal researcher, as he calls himself), originally began the programme as a series parallel to his day-time job. It originally started out as an experiment, I'd say, to test the relevance of ancient philosophy in modern times. And being a student of science, but an ardent admirer of western analytical philosophy myself, I would say “Indeed, ancient philosophy is more relevant than ever in today's world, because it has the potential to rid you of much of the self-generated suffering that you (and everyone else) inflict upon yourself”.
 |
| Philosophy is important, even science benefits from it, as evident from the Black Swan argument |
Following that, the series takes us to the turning point in the history of philosophy, the arrival of Socrates. Plato and Aristotle follow next. And then we turn to the east, discovering the teachings of Lao Tzu and Confucius of China, and Siddhartha Gautama Buddha of my homeland (well, technically it's still Nepal though). It would have been great had Stephen released a few more episodes on Indian philosophy, but well, I can't complain. And then begins my favourite part – the Hellenistic period that is full of practical philosophies.
The 5 episodes of the Hellenistic age are neatly summarized into 44 minutes episodes each, and I really love them – so much so that I happen to listen to them again and again. First, we have Epicureanism,followed by 2 episodes on Stoicism (my present philosophy of life). The 4th one focuses on Scepticism, and the fifth discusses Philo of Alexandria. And this is the best thing! Despite being a science student, I had read a few introductory texts on philosophy, very general ones that discuss what philosophy is, how it can aid us and so on. And I began to consider myself omniscient, when it comes to philosophical matters. But the podcast helped me realize the truth, I happen to know virtually nothing about it. For example, I had never even heard of Philo or Plotinus before listening to the episodes. And the doctrines I knew about, like Epicureanism or Stoicism, well, my understanding of them really improved after listening to the relevant episodes.
Currently, the programme is thankfully LIVE, and nearly every week, we get quality content from Mr. West. I just listened to Baruch Spinoza, Part II yesterday, and truly it was amazing! It resonated with my personal understanding of God, as well as the ancient Indian Vedantic description of the Brahman (perhaps the highest theory of theosophy in the ancient world).
Pros & Cons
I once submitted a poetic piece I wrote, for review, and an American poet had told me “No matter how beautifully you write, I can always be critical of that”. And similarly, I must say that there are a few things which the show can improve. But otherwise, it's better than okay, if you ask me. Some of its uniquely neat features are:
1. Absolutely lively and jolly discussion, despite being a one-man show. This is what makes me listen and re-listen to it. Alongside IndiCast and Ubuntu UK LoCo podcast, this is the best thing I've listened to in the world of podcasts.
 |
| Descartes, one of my many heroes! |
2. Packed with useful and relevant information, complete with real-life examples and modern analogies. This is something teachers of philosophy should benefit from. For example, my mother who studied philosophy as an additional paper in her school years, decided to forget everything about it since she believed that philosophy is not at all relevant. But if only she could hear Mr. West, she would see how wrong she was. I don't know about other places, but here in India at least, teachers hardly know how to teach philosophy.
About the cons, however, there might be a few of them. But nothing we can't do away with.
1. Focus is mostly on western philosophy. But I do understand the reason, the programme is mostly for the western audience. In any case, less than 1% people here in India actually know enough English to make head or tail of what the show discusses, and they'll always blame the American accent of the host for that, not even thinking once that the host IS American.
2. The Aryan issue. Now, this is where most Americans, Europeans and Indians and virtually everyone else, usually have a misconception. The episode on Buddha states that the Aryans were conquering fair-skinned warriors who defeated the original Indians, and imposed their religion, language, culture, rituals etc on them. This is really wrong. The Indian nationalists would say that all Indians are Aryans, Sanskrit-speaking civilized race of the ancient world, which is illogical. The European/American would stick to their original beliefs. But recent findings clearly indicate that both sides are wrong. Most north-Indians at least are Aryans. I am, I can proudly say that. And this is not any Nazi stuff, just history. All our north-Indian languages are of the Indo-Aryan family. My native language Bengali is a language derived from the Sanskrit-inspired Prakit, and there is overwhelming evidence that Sanskrit was the ancestral tongue of our people. Siddhartha Gautama, if anything, was an Aryan himself.
However, we can't blame Mr. West on it. There is so much confusion on the matter anyway.
Wrapping it up
Overall, Philosophize This is a refreshingly new change from most podcasts, and it's truly helpful to us modern humans. We have sophisticated technology at our disposal, and yet we lack the mental peace and satisfaction that our ancients so valuably treasured above all things, at least here in India. And Philosophize This can serve as a nice stepping stone on the way to that mental tranquility, the escalated level of acceptance, tolerance and understanding.
I highly recommend you all to subscribe to the show, and give it a try. I'm sure you'll benefit from it.
It's available on iTunes, for all you lovers of the forbidden fruit. For us, worshippers of Googles green robo, and users of the divine realm called Linux Box, the RSS links can do the trick.
The website: http://www.philosophizethis.org/
And yes, if you like the programme, you can always help in the following ways. I realized this, in the hard way, one should always do something for the things they like. This helps to keep those things alive. Seriously, I realized it after my somewhat private love affair with Zite, perhaps the best Android magazine that was out there, but now it's discontinued thanks to Flipboard. I reviewed Zite and tried to give it some exposure, but I didn't try too hard. This is not going to be the case with Philosophize This. That is what motivated me to write this somewhat promotional review.
You can help keep the show alive by:
1. Freely subscribing to Audible or any of the partners of the programme, as is detailed in most of the episodes. And yes, the benefit it mutual. For example, subscribing to Audible with Mr. West's referral can get you your first audiobook for free, from there.
2. Spreading the word, yes, it really helps.
3. Sending your feedback to Mr. West. I'm going to do that now.
1. Freely subscribing to Audible or any of the partners of the programme, as is detailed in most of the episodes. And yes, the benefit it mutual. For example, subscribing to Audible with Mr. West's referral can get you your first audiobook for free, from there.
2. Spreading the word, yes, it really helps.
3. Sending your feedback to Mr. West. I'm going to do that now.
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