This can only be described as a masterful lecture.

Peter Kreeft speaking for WOF. What a treat!

Dr. Kreeft is such a gift. Thank you for making such a complex subject seem so simple

Thank you for this gem! After spending 10 minutes on linked in where people praise the knowledge of self-promotion and marketing as some great new wisdom or science, this makes me smile

I could listen to Peter Kreeft talk all day, the man is never boring

Why is Peter Kreeft so great ?! How can someone synthesize western history in such a masterful way?

Absolutely brilliant! I liked the way Kreeft informed, contrasted, and related his teaching to our life and times. Thank you Dr. Kreeft, Bishop Barron, and Word on Fire.

Wow simply amazing!! Two heroes of mine, bishop Barron and Kreeft working together. May God bless you both and your works!

Dr. Kreeft is incredible! Listening to him is such a treat, sitting at the feet of a genius.

Thank you very much!

Interesting. Looking forward for more. Thank you.

FABULOUS. Thank you so much! Please, more talks like this to help us stiffen our resolve and give us the joy of seeking the Truth.

SUPREME! What an original thinker!!! 👏👏👏

Wow. What a video essay. That was superb.

True enlightenment indeed. I cannot blink, I cannot stop listening. Thank you Dr. Kreeft.

Dr. Peter Kreeft, Word on Fire and Bishop Robert Barron give you TRUTH!

Stunning. Dr. Kreeft had and kept my attention for 30 plus minutes. Thank you sir.

Very well done. This lecture was captivating.

This is why I love philosophy simple and complex in the same time Thank you for this ❤

I started watching this series last night. Word on Fire, once again you've hit a grand slam! Thank you so much for working with Dr. Kreeft on this.

Wow, I could listen to him lecture all day!!!

Thank you for making these lectures and placing them online for all, free access. They are terrific and I'm learning so much.

This was incredibly compelling. I can't say thank you enough.

These are by far one of the best lecture series I have found on philosophy right next to "awakening from the meaning crisis" ... Maybe even better because it feels a little more in depth. My new favorite lecture series and I am so deeply grateful to the curators of this amazing channel. Thank you!

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:25 🧠 Socrates is considered the father of philosophy, practicing logic and wisdom to define truth and distinguish it from falsehood. 01:04 🏛️ The foundation of Western philosophy lies with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, with their influence shaping both philosophy and sciences. 02:12 🌍 Western history of philosophy and religion can be envisioned as two rivers emerging from mythology and merging in the Roman world, Christian culture being a product of this convergence. 02:49 🌌 Greek reason and Hebrew faith opposed the imaginative mythic thinking of their time, with reason focusing on logic and clear definitions, and faith emphasizing public revelations and moral writings. 05:10 ⚖️ The fusion of Socratic reason and Judeo-Christian faith led to the formation of Christian culture or Christendom, a spiritual order lasting for 1500 years until the Renaissance and Reformation. 06:08 🔀 The Reformation and Renaissance initiated a split culture, with the Reformation aiming to free religion from Greek rationalism, and the Renaissance aiming to restore classical glory while divorcing science and art from faith. 08:26 🌐 Post-modernism lacks consensus but generally emphasizes the collapse of objective reason and the rise of subjective feeling, leading to a fractured cultural landscape. 09:21 💡 Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, founders of modern existentialism, find their inspiration and opposition in Socrates and Jesus as central figures. 10:30 🧘 Socrates and Jesus, despite their profound differences, share significant similarities, such as their humility, martyrdom, monotheism, and profound impact on Western civilization. 13:05 📚 Both Socrates and Jesus didn't publish writings extensively, emphasizing oral teachings, and their lasting legacies impact the world in multiple ways. 14:47 🐸 Appearance-wise, Socrates and Jesus were unremarkable, but they stood out for their teachings and influence. 25:01 💬 The Sophists were itinerant teachers skilled in persuasion, selling their techniques for success in Athens' democracy and trial by jury system. 26:08 🕊️ Socrates challenged the Sophists by advocating for truth and justice over manipulation and emotional appeals, aiming to prioritize right over might. 27:34 📚 Socrates' dialogues, as recorded by Plato, provide an exceptional introduction to philosophy. 28:03 🎭 Socrates opposed moral relativism and subjectivism of the Sophists, emphasizing objective truth and moral goodness. 28:43 🤝 Socrates valued truth over power, fame, or wealth, practicing reasoning, defining terms, and logical argumentation. 29:25 🕊️ Sophists mastered fallacies, manipulation, and emotional appeal in their persuasive tactics. 30:23 🔍 Sophists like Gorgias denied objective truth, knowledge, and meaningful communication (logos). 31:06 🎭 Sophism led to moral relativism: Might makes right, and justice is a mask for power. 32:19 💡 The deconstructionist philosophy denies objective truth, emphasizes subjective power, and is a challenge to culture. 33:34 🙏 Socrates refuted relativism with the idea that God, not man, is the measure of all things. 34:02 🔒 Deconstructionism denies objective reality and meta-narratives, using words as weapons. 34:57 🔥 Deconstructionism's warfare is focused on race, class, gender, seeking power rather than truth. 35:38 🚫 Hitler's influence, Nietzsche's disciple, continues through deconstructionism, shaping modern ideologies. 36:20 🌐 Soft totalitarianism of deconstructionism weakens the West, while hard totalitarianism gains strength. Made with HARPA AI

Amazing series! Thank you Dr. Kreeft and WoF for putting this together!

Thank you Word on Fire and Dr. Kreeft! I love you both!

Wow! Peter Kreeft is a treasure. That was amazing!

Terrific lecture. Thank you. An approach to philosophy that I have never heard/read during my 36 years of reading the great works of western civilization.

Thank you ❤🙏

Excellently done!

WOW.. What a blessing to be able to listen this and learning philosophy. Thank you and God Bless.🙏📿✝

How I wish I could give you more than a mere thumbs up and share. This was amazing

This is a great series. I've been wanting my high school son to learn about philosophy but from great source I don't know what better source than Dr. Kreeft. Each summer we spend time learning about important subjects. This summer Socrates' Children will be our focus. Thank you!

Dr. Kreeft as a history teacher of 18 years and a Christian for 24 years. I appreciate the wisdom, knowledge and understanding you have exposed that connects the value of philosophy as a vital aspect of universal education. Thank you

Thank you, one of the best presentations ever to give us understanding and courage....

The amount of knowledge and wisdom this man shows is incredible. It makes you really value the great minds that shape our world and push us at the same time to fight for the preservation of these ones.

Brilliant!

What a wonderful material, I'd wished in college we'd be guided by these amazing propositions. Sadly that's a huge problem nowadays. Thank you guys you all.

Thank you very much! By listening to you I’ve learned so much. I must listen to all of your lectures again and again 🙏🏻

This is re- opening my mind and inspiring me to learn and relearn the classics and great philosophers. It also reaffirms my love of Jesus Christ. His message continues to blow my mind everyday. Put me upside down so I can experience being right side up.

This is Great ! Thanks WOF! Thanks Dr Peter Kreeft!

This may now be my favorite thing on the internet

I have no words to appreciate you. Great insight in philosophy. Those who are understanding philosophy and reader of philosophy only know it,s value.

May God bless Dr. Kreeft for these gems of life and wisdom! I'm much richer and better after listening to these lectures.

Could WOF post a playlist with all the lectures in this series?

excellent and I will watch the whole series

Great video!

Amazing lecture!

These are great, but could you put them in a playlist, please? Thanks!

This is brilliant, of course. A crucial component of Dr. Kreeft's argument is strongly supported by Iain McGilchrist - the neurological basis of what happens when we privilege our empirical mind from our imaginative mind.

Socrates was mainly an ethicist; Plato an idealist; and Aristotle a realist.

Felt blessed on finding this series and work by the respected Peter Kreeft. The whole debate boils down to the ability or otherwise to affirm divine Creator. Your endeavor is of the greatest or perhaps the only importance. It would be tragic to direct it mainly towards the cultural questions or a defence or denial of the historical injustices. As in here and hereafter Christ is and l be the refuge of the downtrodden.

This is a brilliant lecture.

Greetings from Russia 🇷🇺 Peter Kreefe is excellent. Look up the talk he gave on Alexander Solzhenisin.

Incredible lecture

Amazing

“Advertising was I vented by the devil in the garden of Eden” 🤯 never thought of it 😂

Thank you!

Very insightful.

Wonderful!!!!

Excellent

This is nourishing 💯

Genius and funny, too!

I love these but why add the water sound in the background? I keep hitting pause to check if I’ve left the water tap open.

I would love to sit and discuss and debate philosophy with this guy, I very much enjoy his oratory

An exemplary piece of Whig History in describing the modern era.

very inspiring.

Para quitarse el sombrero.

Fabulous!

Three requests. 1. Give this "lecture series" a title. 2. Make a playlist for this "lecture series". 3. Drop the background noise. Given Dr. Kreeft's deserved stature and the importance of what he is saying I think that these are reasonable requests. The background noise does interfere with his voice.

Morally speaking. You wrestle with the truth enough, you go to war with it. And the more you know the Truth, the more you know you don’t know the Truth. Instead you love the Truth and are willing to die for it, as it confirms the Truth that is Love.

You should maybe add Dr. Peter Kreeft to the title or thumbnail, so more could find it 🙂

A few years ago, I proposed to a leading European Catholic cultural site that Dr Kreeft should also be included among its epigones. I was very saddened by the lack of attribution. Today, I understand the profound reasons found in this lesson on Socrates. We are unable, as Catholics, either in politics, or in the cultural debate, to let the cat out of the bag, except perhaps I'd call hyper-traditionalists, who usually lack humility. On the other hand, modernists largely prevail, I think, either in theology and media. Europe, unlike the USA, has, in its political and cultural establishment, fully embraced moral relativism and abortion, the greatest enemy of peace. I quote Dr Kreeft (from: "A Refutation of Moral Relativism"): "Because these relativists turn out to be not relativistic at all about one thing: their relativism. That's their one non-negotiable absolute. There's usually one other one: abortion. I never heard of a pro-life relativist. All good "liberals" have to pass the litmus test and support their society's Holocaust. And that's another big lie: that it's somehow "liberal" (...) (the right to abort, my euphemism). Can't you see it? The very language shows the hypocrisy. Relativism's not just a philosophy, because philosophy is rational and open to reason. It's their creed, their faith, their religion. Or their love, or their lover." In the Ivory Coast, the bride and groom eat a nut at their wedding. If later the man usually wants to divorce, the elders get together and allow him, if he can vomit the nut first. Europe has divorced her husband, the Christ. His religion is overthrown. It asks as a condition for being admitted to its secular marriage, cultural debate and admission to public offices, to eat before the two relativistic axioms first, or at least not to be implicitly contrary to them. My hope is prayer and fast and faithfulness in the Church, the Pope, now ill. Let’s pray for him. Like today's saint, St. Leonardo Murialdo, and on the vigil of the Holy Week, I have experienced divine mercy since the years of my youthful crisis. Therefore I say that it is necessary to let ourselves be loved by the Lord Jesus. Saint Leonardo spoke of «three miracles of God's love. The Crib with the Child Jesus: He teaches us humility, poverty, resignation. Calvary with Jesus Crucified: it is the chair that teaches the great truths of God's love for men and of men's love for God. The Eucharist with Jesus in the Sacrament: it is the perfection of love; Jesus comes to us, he loves us, he joins us". Thank you very much indeed, Msgr. Robert Barron, and Dr Peter Kreeft.

I act, believe, feel, and think, therefore I am.

Great content, but why do we have to listen to the muzak in the background? It is distracting and tends to lull you to sleep.

I can feel the conservatism dripping from your refusal to differentiate epistemological relativism from diversity and democracy

I don’t necessarily agree with his Logos, but at least he has one, and it is what put the fire in his words and makes his ideas so cogent.

The background noise is very bothering and takes from listening to Peter. Can it be removed?

Just WOW !

Word!

Hitler and Stalin were both collectivists. The former followed corporatism and the later adhered to socialism. Individualism is the sole remaining ideology and the closes it gets to collectivism is social contracts. I would like to hear Dr. Kraft's views on Natural Law theory from both it's pre-fall and post-fall humanity viewpoints.

Great lecture. Please turn off the running water....

37:05 "I welcome you back from your nice long vacation on some other planent" - those who use persuasion than truth...

Great examples of how Jesus and Socrates were similar.

Nice hidden Red Sox reference at the very end.

Please get rid of the music/sfx under Dr Kreeft's words which need no embellishment

Why do you say “we lost the vietnam war”? What was there to win? Was the war itself not the loss? I do not understand that in the context of socrates vs sophism.

I thought ignoring all the pre-Socratics was irresponsible, especially concerning the concept of Logos, also I found the invocation of modern culture’s Satan just as empty and eye rolling as always. But besides that this was really good and I look forward to the rest of the series

Christendom is also now being challenged in every front in Asia specially in a more Catholic country such as the Philippines on which people lacks catechism to understand and appreciate the truth which the Church is

A wise man words will educate the ignorant and feed his soul .

7:30 bookmark

interesting as electives in college i took sophistry, did alright... and hermes tristmagista... irrational kefluffle.... to my socratic Physics , business admin, and minor in neurology..... yet. lump Plato and Aristotle into sophist company which both begat Alexander, and thus severe Socrates from Alexander. and through those classes i see democrats are very sophisticated and thus i rarley support them and am often at odds with them. Thanks for the enlightenment.

A light in the dark😊

Praise the Lord

...and the effort to dramatize it and, hence, perpetuate it.

A Sophist, what does it mean after all? An intellectual who knows how to talk. In this perspective, the Sophists consider that it is not enough to know how to talk, but it is important to know how to talk 'about'. They consider that the speech has a power. Therefore, the knowledge of how to talk 'about' is critical.

A lovely talk ruined for me by the low-level , persistent , intrusive and wholly unnecessary background music. Is there a version of these talks (or an option) where I may listen to this engaging speaker and his pleasant delivery without this distracting cacophony?

All.

Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) lived before Socrates & Jesus, & he's pretty important in this world too.