When I choose a new theme for a project, I always have a general overview of the content and some guidelines, but never in detail.
The details only come when I prepare the individual lectures and consult the literature. This means that I sometimes come across new and surprising insights and facts.
In this respect, our current project is a good example and it also has a personal character. Who is not occupied with the question "Why am I here?"
The idea is: it must have meaning otherwise I will leave because it is pointless anyway. However, so far we have seen that it is anything but pointless to be here.
In fact, it turns out that you can give multiple answers to this question at the same time. There is no unique correct answer and that's it! We will discover this successively, including me.
It can be different for everyone. Let me give you a personal example. You can give your life meaning by leaving something behind, something special, that reminds others of you.
You can live on beyond death in the memory of others by leaving behind works of art, paintings, or in glassware, or in poetry collections. After all, you are dead ps when you are forgotten.
You can do it by helping others. In SL I have helped dozens of people with scripting their objects and I was always asked: how much does it cost? Nothing, I just enjoy helping you in a creative way.
Many of us have spent a lot of time helping new residents of SL, for example. A virtual life can also give you meaning.
And now another personal point is added: education. For thirty years I was a college professor. "I am the teacher of all teachers", is written on the frieze of the ancient Confucius Temple in Beijing.
Confucius (551-479 BC) has the reputation of being one of the most passionate teachers in history. He not only taught his thousands of students philosophy,
he also trained them to become new teachers so that they could spread the Confucian ideology further.
Confucius understood that without education all acquired knowledge would be lost within a few generations. Transferring knowledge and inspiring others were extremely important forms of meaning for him.
An interesting detail: in the history of education, the aim of having students do their own research was absent for centuries.
The ideal student should not have very original ideas. For a long time, the goal was not to "get the best out of students", but to "put the best in students". The intention was not to contradict the master.
The aversion to developing new knowledge is a recurring theme in history. New knowledge was suspect because it could contradict the prevailing doctrine and the prevailing authority.
New knowledge could cast doubt on or even overturn an entire worldview. And yet there is hardly a single culture in which old knowledge has not been called into question sooner or later.
But the teaching of new knowledge, and the way in which this is achieved, only really got going with the introduction of the research university in the nineteenth century, when criticism was introduced as a method in the Prussian educational system.
The German linguist, philosopher and statesman Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) is the founder of this university. Von Humboldt contributed more than anyone else to
the institutionalization of criticism, not only in education but also in research. Research without criticism is a dead end. Thanks to him, a unity between education and research was forged that has endured for more than two centuries.
According to Von Humboldt, the mere transfer of knowledge was not enough. In order to obtain a university degree, students must also be able to develop new knowledge themselves and critically examine it,
for example by testing it against new experiments, for example in the natural sciences, or by comparing it with new sources in the humanities.
This did not happen in the lecture hall but in laboratories, seminars and workgroups where students came into contact with the practice of research.
Nowadays this form of research-driven education is the academic standard but at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was a revolutionary innovation.
So you see that you can answer the question "Why am I here?" by focusing on the transfer of knowledge and a critical attitude.
Thank you for your attention again....
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
25 - Historical Materialism 5 Oct 2023 / 1088
26 - The Bonobo and the Atheist 9 Jan 2024 / 1102
27 - Artificial Intelligence 9 Feb 2024 / 1108
28 - Why Am I Here 6 Sept 2024 / 1139
[13:25] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you, Herman
[13:25] Max Chatnoir: Thank you, Herman.
[13:25] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:25] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): aren't we all teachers?....to begin with our children?
[13:25] herman Bergson: The activity of von Humbolt happens to coincide with the Industrial Revolution.
[13:26] herman Bergson: As an educator you are Beertje, yes
[13:26] Max Chatnoir whispers: I think that our superpower as humans is that we write down what we have learned so that each generation doesn't have to start from scratch and can build on past discoveries>
[13:27] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): what is the difference?
[13:27] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): ツ
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): simply put, don't reinvent the wheel
[13:28] herman Bergson: Yes, Max, the invention of script was a milestone.
[13:28] Max Chatnoir: Yes.
[13:28] herman Bergson: PArent or teacher...both are called educators, Beertje
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well it depends, as one said in a pod, we maybe SHOULD reinvent the wheel cause then we might finally get one that is around
[13:28] Max Chatnoir: Other species can leave simple messages, but we can leave books.
[13:29] herman Bergson: They just differ in subject and method :-)
[13:29] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes
[13:29] Max Chatnoir: I don't know if there are the equivalent of libraries in any other species.
[13:30] herman Bergson: I don't think so Max
[13:30] herman Bergson: Library is a very complex concept....
[13:30] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): true
[13:30] herman Bergson: It is not just a collection of books
[13:30] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): only we can build something like that
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): a library is like a large collection
[13:31] herman Bergson: You need registers, organization, and so on.
[13:31] Max Chatnoir: No, it's organized.
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ofinformation
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes searchable
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): in one way or another
[13:31] herman Bergson: Some animals are collectors... but you hardly can call that their library :-)
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): like u can have a music library on your computer or phone
[13:32] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but the base concept is the one for books
[13:32] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): where the term originated
[13:32] Max Chatnoir: :-)
[13:32] herman Bergson: But what I find the most interesting is this ïnvention"of the research university....and this moment in history.
[13:32] Max Chatnoir: What would it have been called if we had started with music?
[13:33] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): Critical thinking is a super important skill.
[13:33] Max Chatnoir: Yes, the organized questioning of current knowledge.
[13:33] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[13:33] herman Bergson: Yes, but it hasn't been appreciated for centuries
[13:34] herman Bergson: So, we have to look at the historical landscape around 1800 in Europe
[13:34] herman Bergson: Political emancipation???
[13:35] Max Chatnoir: Yes, permission to question authority!
[13:35] herman Bergson: Increasing influence of democratic tendencies?
[13:35] herman Bergson whispers: Need for new ideas and methods of production?
[13:35] Max Chatnoir: Which can be socially disruptive!
[13:36] herman Bergson: ne inventions, like electricity, telegraphy, steam engine...etc.
[13:36] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): the computer
[13:36] herman Bergson: It was socially disruptive, Max....
[13:36] herman Bergson: The gap between the poor and the rich increased
[13:37] Max Chatnoir: Electricity must have been hard on candlemakers, etc.
[13:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i guess
[13:37] herman Bergson: 1789.....the French Revolution...!
[13:37] herman Bergson: Several revolutions in German states.....
[13:37] herman Bergson: A storm over Europe, you could say
[13:37] Max Chatnoir: You need to value our work, not just collect the profit from it.
[13:38] Max Chatnoir: Another social disrupter.
[13:38] herman Bergson: 1848...the Communist Manifesto!
[13:38] herman Bergson: Marx, Engels....
[13:39] herman Bergson: So, this change in the educational system fits in quite well in the Zeitgeist.
[13:39] Max Chatnoir: Zeitgeist?
[13:39] Max Chatnoir: Sorry, just checking.
[13:40] herman Bergson: the way of thinking at that time
[13:40] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[13:40] herman Bergson: the general social/political atmosphere
[13:41] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): The decline of religion and the rise of science
[13:41] herman Bergson: Right Sooki!
[13:41] Max Chatnoir: Another disrupter!
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): for sure
[13:42] herman Bergson: Formerly they more or less could keep Galilei under the lid :-)
[13:42] Max Chatnoir: And religion had its own disruptors, like Martin Luther.
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa yes
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): that's true
[13:42] herman Bergson: I'd call Luther not a disruptor, but just a reorganizer :-)
[13:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): the creator of the protestant church right? if I remember it correctly
[13:43] herman Bergson: He maintained the religious suppression, like the Catholic church did,
[13:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): how that began
[13:44] herman Bergson: Yes bejiita
[13:44] Max Chatnoir: 95 things for us to discuss...
[13:45] herman Bergson: Just imagine that this whole revolution happened less than 300 years ago, while homo sapiens is already around for a 30.000 years
[13:45] Max Chatnoir: Hard to keep up with cultural evolution.
[13:46] Max Chatnoir: Sort of an intellectual speciation.
[13:46] herman Bergson: yes Max, the revolutions follow eachother is an creasing speed.....
[13:46] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): maybe an evolution from sane to insane
[13:46] Max Chatnoir: Which is kind of what is going on in the US.
[13:47] herman Bergson: telecommunication....radio...television....motorization.....computer...AI.....and maybe I forgot one :-)
[13:47] Max Chatnoir: We've created two cultural environments
[13:48] herman Bergson: Well... you could say that social media are a source of an information/disinformation revolution
[13:48] herman Bergson: It is a disruptive development at least
[13:48] Max Chatnoir: misinformation is a kind of mutation.
[13:49] herman Bergson: It is people willing to create it......
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes
[13:49] herman Bergson: the revolution is in such people....what are their interests....?
[13:49] Max Chatnoir: And it's hard to converse across that boundary, as it's hard to crossbreed across species barriers.
[13:50] herman Bergson: Oh you are so right, Max.....
[13:50] herman Bergson: based on what I have seen....
[13:50] Max Chatnoir: But we have to figure it out!
[13:50] herman Bergson: We have....
[13:51] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ops don't multitask while drowsy
[13:51] herman Bergson: So we keep The Philosophy Class up and running :-)
[13:51] herman Bergson: lol
[13:51] Max Chatnoir: yay
[13:51] bergfrau Apfelbaum: lol
[13:51] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well interesting again and very true
[13:51] herman Bergson: with the support of Bergie
[13:52] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): our marathon runner
[13:52] bergfrau Apfelbaum: *** haa hahaha ha ***
[13:52] herman Bergson: OK,,,before you all r,,, thank you again for your interest
[13:52] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): loool
[13:52] Max Chatnoir: Herman, every time I come to this class, my brain gets reorganized!
[13:52] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah ㋡
[13:52] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): so it runs free Max?
[13:52] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed, u have the power to do that Herman!
[13:52] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:53] herman Bergson: ohh...and what does that mean for you Max?
[13:53] Max Chatnoir: I have never, before today, thought about our political divide in terms of speciation.
[13:53] herman Bergson: speciation?
[13:53] Max Chatnoir: The emergence of new species.
[13:53] herman Bergson: Not familiar with that word...sorry
[13:54] herman Bergson: Well the only bew species that emerged was homo sapiens some 40.000 years ago
[13:55] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): and now criminals are taking over the world
[13:55] herman Bergson: and that while Earth existed already for a four billion years
[13:55] herman Bergson: nonsense Beertje...
[13:56] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Un, P and T
[13:56] Max Chatnoir: Yes, I have to think about the implications.
[13:56] herman Bergson: Ohhh those.....we'll know more about that in 21 days
[13:56] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm
[13:57] herman Bergson: Before we start all over again...:-)
[13:57] herman Bergson: Class dismissed...:-)
[13:57] Max Chatnoir: The question is, have we gone beyond our ability to reconnect?
[13:57] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): oki
[13:57] Max Chatnoir: Yes, wait for Thursday!
[13:58] Max Chatnoir: Thanks Herman and all of you.
[13:58] herman Bergson: Good question, Max...and I am still inclined the say...NO.....EDUCATION is the key....Truthful information....reliable information...
[13:58] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aah
[13:59] Max Chatnoir: Yes, we need to evaluate the intellectual genome!
[13:59] herman Bergson: We just have to figure out a way to make clear what is reliable and what is misinformation...
[13:59] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): true
[13:59] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): that can be hard to do
[13:59] herman Bergson: And I believe, eventually we'll figure that out....
[13:59] herman Bergson: Oh yes Beertje....
[14:00] Max Chatnoir: I have to believe it too, because the alternative is too terrible to contemplate!
[14:00] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa
[14:00] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed
[14:00] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well
[14:00] herman Bergson: But the reality is that in the end, all misinformation leads to nothing....
[14:00] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): I hope for the best outcome
[14:00] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed Herman
[14:00] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): And that brings us back around to the importance of critical thinking.
[14:00] herman Bergson: Like manipulated scientific data eventually are demasked too.
[14:00] Max Chatnoir: Yes, indeed!
[14:00] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): let's enjoy wednesday...thinking over this lecture.
[14:00] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[14:01] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[14:01] Max Chatnoir: We have to commit to that seriously!
[14:01] herman Bergson: Yes Sooki....EDUCATION....Learn to think critically...learn to ask the right questions....stay independent....
[14:01] Max Chatnoir: OK, I am getting out here before it gets to be Thursday!
[14:02] herman Bergson smiles
[14:02] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): :))
[14:02] Max Chatnoir: Bye all. Have a lovely evening.
[14:02] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Goodnight Max
[14:02] herman Bergson: I guess you forgot your lunchbox Max?
[14:02] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): bye max
[14:02] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): cu ㋡
[14:02] bergfrau Apfelbaum: thank you Herman and Class
