28 March 2009

Philosophical Media

I accidentally found an enjoyable and informative series of YouTube videos tonight. The username "PhilosophicalMedia" has videos on Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Albert Camus, Nietzsche, Plato, et cetera. So far, I have watched the series "Epicurus on Happiness" and "Seneca on Anger" and have enjoyed both. Some of the series appear to be general surveys, while others -- like the two I mentioned -- are smaller and focus only on one subject. I'm personally looking forward to viewing other videos. The videos seem well-put-together, and are sometimes funny in unpredictable ways. In one, the host tries to employ the Socratic method to urge people to think about their lives; in another, he talks to the camera while pedaling across the field. As he pedals, he's looking sideways at the camera, and I kept wondering if he was going to ride straight into a tree.

I found that through the "Related Links" section while re-watching a favorite series of videos, the Virtual University lecture on Marcus Aurelius, in which a classical historian delivers a lecture on the man and his philosophy. I have arranged the videos in a playlist. The first part is slow and is mostly background, but it really picks up during the second part.



User NLPNVC's videos are also of interest. Known as "NLP", he frequently posts videos in which he asks philosophical questions of his viewers and in which he tries to deal with ideas he's encountered, like "non-violent communication". In some videos, he addresses people whose approach and opinions he disagrees with, but tries to find some way to empathize with them. Sometimes he posts music videos about a particular theme, like "Hypnotized to Enjoy Violence". In one not-so-recent video, he asked people what they wondered about. The result is funny, and touching on some levels. This is a guy asking questions and trying to deal with people in a personal way, and I've found that his videos are not only provoking, but moving, as I said before. "All I'm saying with this video is...I wonder if you wonder like me."

2 comments:

CyberKitten said...

Watched the first one so far. Very interesting. Thanks for pointing this out. You know, I never thought of looking @ You Tube for this sort of thing!

Stephen said...

It's a surprising resource. :)