Cultivating Virtue: Hans Landa vs Paddington
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7 ай бұрынOnly a virtuous person is able to achieve happiness but not many of us deserve to be called virtuous, as per Aristotle. In his book "A Short Treatise On The Great Virtues", Andre Comte-Sponville shows us how politeness can aid in our moral development and point us towards a virtuous and fulfilling life.
The video includes a quick run-through on ideas relating to virtue ethics, the virtues and normative ethics.
@tarvoc746 6 ай бұрын
The problem with politeness is that it's extremely culture-dependent. Paddington lifting his hat to greet people is cute and polite because he's British, but in other cultural contexts, lifting your headdress at all might be considered extremely impolite. Now you might say that that doesn't matter, because the point is just to train some kind of prereflective behavior in the first place. But this notion of politeness can be used to instill all kinds of cultural ideas that are deeply immoral, like always obeying your superiors without question, or discriminating against certain kinds of people. That's how you get people like Hans Landa or Adolf Eichmann. It's what Hannah Arendt calls the banality of evil.
@practicable 6 ай бұрын
That's a great point! To add on, the virtues are often discussed as a "golden mean". This concept places every virtue as a point between two extremes. Eg the virtue of courage falls between the extremes of cowardice and recklessness. Your idea made me think of politeness in this way. Even though it may not be a virtue, on either end of it are the extremes of boorishness and servility. I think servility hits closer to home on that point of the banality of evil. Also, your point is spot on - a lot of this is culturally dependent
@nickchavez720 6 ай бұрын
The problem with politeness is that anyone can be polite. It's the most shallow form of the good. Even the devil can be extremely polite. But being sincerely good doesn't require being polite.
@antiprismatic 6 ай бұрын
Devil wont say please, thank you or you're welcome.
@rorymatthews 7 ай бұрын
Maybe this doesn't need to be said, but taking right action despite the wrong internal emotional state, that is being good while in some fundamental emotional sense wanting to be bad, is virtuous if the ultimate end is becoming more virtuous. Reminds me of the Buddhist stance on magnanimity which basically says "If you don't give from a place of utter spiritual generosity, it doesn't count", which is nonsense to me. It's absolutely the goal to have, but sometimes you have to act in the right way a thousand times before it feels like the right way. Merry Christmas
@practicable 6 ай бұрын
Great comment! I'm not sure if I 100% understand so I'll just clarify a couple things. Doing the right action while not having the "right" internal state doesn't necessarily mean a part of you wants to be bad. It just means you're not in line with the ideal of a virtuous person (as Aristotle classified them). A useful way to think of this virtuous ideal is only one in a million of us reach this (maybe not even that many). This isn't meant to discourage us, just explain what the end-goal is. So if this sentiment is transferred onto that stance on magnanimity you bought up, is might sound more like: "If you don't give from a place of utter spiritual generosity, it is not ideal." That being said it would still be worthwhile. And like you said, after enough practice in virtue your giving will eventually come from a place of true generosity (aka the right internal state)
@cookingwithnectar5533 7 ай бұрын
Brilliant to see you back, I've missed your excellent videos very much.
@practicable 7 ай бұрын
Thanks :) You'll just have to wait another 4 years for the next vid
@vaishnavimuralidhar5731 3 ай бұрын
Absolutely love your videos too. Can't wait for more!
@hobirch 7 ай бұрын
Surely the greatest philosophy channel on KZfaq
@ashxin7833 7 ай бұрын
Love it when youtube recommend these type of videos ❤
@practicable 7 ай бұрын
Glad you like it :)
@gasparalvesgoncalo5798 7 ай бұрын
Commenting to increase exposure. Great channel, great content
@practicable 7 ай бұрын
Legend!
@HowardGeoff 7 ай бұрын
Great and interesting video, well done.
@practicable 7 ай бұрын
Thanks!
@masscreationbroadcasts 7 ай бұрын
22:03 What is the difference between a civilian and a citizen? A citizen returns his shopping cart after emptying it of its purchased contents, a civilian does not.
@scoon2117 7 ай бұрын
Politeness will have people suspicious of you where i come from.
@CagetheOnion 7 ай бұрын
Good. Let them look as carefully as they like. It will only serve to further prove the virtuous man virtuous.
@themanwithtomanyeyes8282 7 ай бұрын
@@CagetheOnionYou probably should go to a place like that and test your own assumption.
@forgetfulfunctor1 7 ай бұрын
@@CagetheOnionlol dude try listening instead of just talking 😅😅 u gone be getting robbed and shunned and being like "yeah well at least I KNOW WHO I AM"
@dihexa7256 7 ай бұрын
@@forgetfulfunctor1how will acting polite get someone robbed?🤨 There’s nothing impolite about carrying a firearm for self-defence in a dangerous area
@FourOf92000 7 ай бұрын
Move.
@simbabwe2907 Ай бұрын
Its not politeness per se. But ritual which is the birth of virtue. Politeness is ritualised behavior. There is a nice chapter about this(virtue and ritual) in the book "thinking through ritual".
@jascha9033 7 ай бұрын
Do you know of any English (or German) interviews with André Comte Sponville?
@prudentibus 6 ай бұрын
I like topic of your video, actually interesting. But I noticed there microphone difference somewhere in the video.
@Vitlaus 7 ай бұрын
If I understand this correctly: A Jihadist is either vicious, lacking phronesis, or . . . (from their perspective) virtuous.
@prudentibus 6 ай бұрын
I'm not really into philosophy, but could you do a video about Modern Heroism and compare it to different times? I think it's very interesting topics in our dangerous world, where people becoming more and more selfish
@capslocked7274 6 ай бұрын
This reminds me of one of those most typical video essays that runs in circles for 30 minutes delivering a message that could have been delivered in 5 and includes excerpts of a le quentin tarantino movie for the sake of it. absolute reddit tier content
@jjhassy 6 ай бұрын
glad u saved me watching this thanks
@jjhassy 6 ай бұрын
I feel like a lot of these types of video essays are a little masturbatory.
@mosfet-1337 6 ай бұрын
great video!
@practicable 6 ай бұрын
Thanks :)
@shrekeyes2410 3 ай бұрын
Microphone seems a bit weird
@susannehuber3996 6 ай бұрын
I‘m a very polite and helpful person. I’m German and where I’m from you’re seen as a sucker and idiot if you’re polite, also people totally take advantage of you and than blame you for it. The thing is I know all that and I’m still polite and helpful but not to everybody.
@alicantuncer4800 6 ай бұрын
Audio is too quiet.
@antiprismatic 6 ай бұрын
Being polite doesnt make for virtue, saying please, thank you, you're welcome etc is virtuous politeness.
@bgiv2010 6 ай бұрын
The circularity problem isn't solved by using gentler language. The question is, "how is 'politeness' defined?" If the answer is, "just try," then you're appealing to a dangerous level of common sense, customs, and indoctrination by authority figures to shape morality just to obscure the fact that you cannot define politeness but you want to claim to be building a worthwhile life for yourself.
@patrickkilroy6512 7 ай бұрын
The difference in the two lists of virtues you provide here is strikingly pre- and post-Christian. You can really see it’s impact on western and therefore world thought. Perhaps more so than any other system of ethics. Magnificence is replaced with humility and simplicity. Ambition is replaced with gentleness and gratitude. Righteous indignation with mercy.
@simplyharkonnen 7 ай бұрын
Imagine my shock, the christoid is claiming its cult has sole possession of what’s /really/ morally good- and how convenient that its definition of goodness includes all the things that make one a good thrall.
@masscreationbroadcasts 7 ай бұрын
@@simplyharkonnen you just watched a video on virtue, and you described someone from a virtue tradition as an "-oid". I want you to reflect on that.
@simplyharkonnen 7 ай бұрын
@@masscreationbroadcasts I’ll not take personal address from those born to thralldom, thanks.
@masscreationbroadcasts 7 ай бұрын
@@simplyharkonnen what the devil is a Thrall? Sounds like a fantasy alien.
@masscreationbroadcasts 7 ай бұрын
Ah, Norse slavery. So you're LARPing. Got it.
@villepakkanen4833 6 ай бұрын
im going to preface this me saying i dont know jackshit about philosophy (yet, im gonna learn) An interesting thinf i thought about during the video: If looked at from a utiltarian perspective, politeness is actually the furthest a person has to go to achieve maximum "good". The intention isn't relevant in this case. The polite person may secretly want to stab 59 people in the heart every day, but it doesn't matter.
@bgiv2010 6 ай бұрын
It's amazing how 2000 years of repeating this incredibly simple concept, without properly framing or defining subjective terms, hasn't yielded the desired results. Maybe none of this is true?
@eSupRx44 6 ай бұрын
If you want to know virtue then study the sins. Be the antithesis to suffering.
@morthim 7 ай бұрын
'politeness is the top of his list of virtues' politeness isnt really a virtue. virtues can always be turned into careers. public speaking can be a skill taken to be a virtue. cowardice and politeness- can not.
@kaydgaming 6 ай бұрын
What if you live a good life ignorant of virtues? Perceptions of a good life have little to do with virtues. I think virtues are more of a tool of perception, rather than a list of natural truths.
@BLKBRDD 7 ай бұрын
It’s interesting but who defines virtue makes the premise undefinable.
@Cecilia-ky3uw 7 ай бұрын
Do you actually need virtue to be happy? I'm fairly sure you do not. That simply is not necessary. Give the example of a tight knit community of friends, say, those friends are a bunch of rowdy teenagers and do stupid things like vandalism. They oft engage in hard banter and live colloquially hedonistic lives. I'd say they're happy, they have all sorts of happiness, from their bond with each other to the joys of doing... questionable things.
@CagetheOnion 7 ай бұрын
Hedonic happiness is not true happiness, and such boys would learn this in due time. Virtue isn’t necessary to experience joy, but it is necessary to attain ultimate satisfaction. Even in your example, the friends are only such to the extent that they have enough virtue to satisfy the needs of their relationship. If two people have no trust, no mutual good will, understanding, loyalty, cooperation, ambition… they cannot be friends. People with a relationship that embodies no virtue between them must necessarily be enemies, even if only in passing.
@Cecilia-ky3uw 7 ай бұрын
@@CagetheOnion It is no mere hedonic happiness, say they have their moments when they just sit around aimlessly but enjoying the time nonetheless. Obviously the boys have trust, mutual good will, understanding, loyalty and cooperation, or else their rowdiness would not be possible. They all understand and support amongst themselves and that is what enables their less than moral acts, they support each other in those endeavors, they understand why they all do as they do, they certainly are loyal to the group and amongst themselves, they cooperate to do all that. And why is ambition even a requirement?. And secondly what distinguishes hedonic happiness from other happiness? I say it's entirely possible people who make the distinction are more or less creating two concepts out of one thing.
@SaveWesternCivilisation 6 ай бұрын
Politeness will get you treated like utter filth in Australia. Maybe it's fine if you're 6 foot six tall and weigh 300 pounds, but if you're slim and polite, people will view you as a weakling to be trampled upon. Be polite - but have the world's hardest sidekick ready to teach people a lesson when they respond with contempt.
@jackdeniston59 6 ай бұрын
Personal experience, people who are very polite have tended to be the worst. Seriously evil. Like everything, appearance over authentic.
@bgiv2010 6 ай бұрын
So many words used to discuss virtue yet somehow "consent" is never uttered. This omission at the core of the problems with Western civilization.
@sagunsingh7415 6 ай бұрын
What the hell? 😂😂😂
@Broken_robot1986 6 ай бұрын
None of this makes any sense. Play image politics, that's how you get ahead in life. Learn what people want and then promise it to them. Use the tools of behavioral modification to let other people what they want to believe.
@catboy_official 6 ай бұрын
The opposite of morality, in other words