Philosophy is a subject everyone practices, even if they do not always realize or admit to it. No matter its level of understanding, it drives everyday discourse and leads to mental, psychological, technological, and even biological evolution. Many in academia embrace the fact that their knowledge and perspectives ought to be shared with the entire world rather than kept within a small, insular community. The internet provides a wonderful opportunity for them to break down the barriers of elitism and enrich the public with their groundbreaking ideas, spreading innovation, intelligence, and intuition like a virus. In the following lectures – all of them inspired by a diverse background of subjects and experiences, including psychology, sociology, technology, healthcare, and even the culinary – anyone who pines for knowledge and understanding beyond the four walls of a classroom are freely given insightful material to help them begin forging their own personal philosophies.
1. Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom
No matter what end of the political spectrum a person falls on, most of them will agree on some degree of inefficiency and ineffectiveness within bureaucracies. Barry Schwartz uses this as a launching point to explain the role of the relationship between compassion, empathy, and intelligence. He makes a delineation between IQ levels and actual wisdom, citing that the latter involves a greater sense of connecting and understanding people based on experience. At the same time, Schwartz also posits that tighter rules and restrictions force the citizenry to abandon thinking for themselves – thus denying them the experiences needed to obtain true wisdom and virtue.
2. Michael Shermer on strange beliefs
Referring to himself and his contemporaries of the Skeptics Society as “the Ralph Naders of bad ideas” who spend their time and talents “trying to replace bad ideas with good ideas,” Michael Shermer dissects the hows and whys of human belief systems. He does not mean religion, but rather people placing faith in concepts, images, sounds, and other stimuli that are not exactly verifiable. The first example he gives involves a supposed dousing rod that school systems use to find marijuana in students’ lockers. It only worked because teachers opened up more lockers and increased their chances of discovering a stash – not because of any surprising scientific breakthrough. In many ways, his theories carry similar messages as the self-fulfilling prophecy.
3. Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy?
In this provocative lecture, psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges many of the preconceptions and perceptions people hold about happiness and its root causes. While many believe that happiness derives directly from accomplishing goals and getting one’s way as often as possible, Gilbert highlights a physiological phenomenon that may restore emotional equilibrium more than any other external factor. Located on the pre-frontal cortex, these “experience simulators” behave almost as if an “immune system” that struggles to restore happiness at all costs even under times of immense hardship.
4. Dan Dennett on dangerous memes
Many people only know of memes as hilarious pictures of cats and perpetual repetition of pop cultural detritus on the internet, but they actually stem from psychological factors present on the planet since the advent of life itself. Memetic concepts spread through behaviors and thought processes almost as if viruses – not dissimilar to Jungian theories of the collective subconscious. Here, Dennett traces the way memes evolve in societies of living things, slowly making his way towards how humans may use them to cause devastation and harm to one another.
5. Michael Sandel: What’s the right thing to do?
Harvard political philosophy professor Michael Sandel dissects society’s comparatively Objectivist leanings – which adheres to the belief in absolute good and absolute evil – and takes a look at the grey areas. With an eye for justice and ethics, he tackles difficult, nebulous questions such as the classic, “Would you steal a drug that your child needs to survive?” and analyzes the different reasons behind all the various answers.
6. Shaffi Mather: A new way to fight corruption
Shaffi Mather, a philanthropist dedicated to providing educational and healthcare opportunities to the impoverished, became a lawyer in response to the infrastructure-crippling corruption he witnessed on a daily basis. His conjectures on how to end the undue exploitation and marginalization of people are extremely bold, but potentially revolutionary. Using entirely legal and ethical means, Mather has himself formatted a system that feeds off the very same psychology behind entitlement and bribery to manipulate compromised morals into more reliable, honest actions. The first 42 attempts proved successful, and as a result may hold the key to bettering the lives of victims of injustice and corruption everywhere.
7. Emily Levine’s theory of everything
At once hilarious and stimulating, humorist Emily Levine pulls from her own personal observations and philosophies to deliver a highly entertaining and intelligent lecture on science, society, math, the human condition, and their intersections. Like all whip-smart commentators on the state of the world, she delights in offering up alternative perspectives and cogent arguments against some of the shakier theories people believe. Rationality and analysis form the cornerstone of her discussion, peppered liberally with warm, insightful humor. In doing so, she also shines a light on her creative process and personal psychological profile as well.
8. Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man
Advertising involves the manipulation of perception and fluidity of values, and nobody understands this more than Rory Sutherland – one of the copywriters who worked on the Microsoft campaign prior to the existence of Windows. This lecture pulls deeply from his experiences in the industry and offers up intriguing insight into the postmodernist malleability of perception and values. Many of his comments open up ideas and theories regarding how people communicate with one another.
9. Dan Ariely on our buggy moral code
Human morality is rife with irrationality and unethical, self-serving behavior – in a seemingly paradoxical predictable pattern. Dan Ariely pokes holes in the true motivations behind seemingly illogical actions such as stealing and cheating and, after years of passionate research and deep inquiry into principles of economics and psychology, makes the conjecture that such moral anomalies come inherently hardwired into the human mind. This lecture painstakingly details all of his revealing social experiments which led him to these conclusions.
10. Rebecca Saxe: How we read each other’s minds
Using cutting-edge fMRI technology at MIT, Rebecca Saxe reveals the physiology and cognitive science behind empathy, explaining how some people can accurately gauge the feelings of their peers in a seemingly metahuman fashion, while others struggle endlessly with it. She discovered that the area of the brain known as the Right Temporo-Parietal Junction is responsible for processing the emotions and statements of others, allowing them to form experiences and empathic reactions and allow them to better connect with those around them.
11. Seth Godin on the tribes we lead
Along with memetic repetition, the internet also gave rise to another fully ingrained aspect of human behavior. Online communities revolving around shared interests piqued tribalist instincts, which in turn imbue participants with a sense of connectivity and empowerment that they then may utilize in the interest of social justice. The sociology of internet-based “tribes” is a powerful tool in combating bureaucratic elitism, and Godin hopes that his studies eventually lead to positive change in the world.
Bread is one of the cornerstones of nourishment, no matter how one bakes it, and baker-philosopher Peter Reinhart understands this better than anyone. Here, he eloquently delves into how it has shaped and influenced human civilization not only nutritionally, but scientifically, socially, creatively, economically, and politically as well. In addition, this beautiful, poetic lecture outlines his experimentations with exciting new culinary processes to change the way people create this most basic dietary staple.
13. Nina Jablonski breaks the illusion of skin color
Biologist Charles Darwin believed the different skin colors present in humans had no direct correlation to their exposure to certain climates. Using NASA’S TOMS 7 satellite, Nina Jablonski noticed that areas of the globe with lower levels of ultraviolet light resulted in people with far lighter skin than those with more. She debunks many of the common assumptions about racial origins and makes a compelling case that the evolution of skin color came about through reactions to environmental factors.
14. Richard Dawkins on our “queer” universe
Drawing from his studies in the biological sciences, Richard Dawkins peers into how the mind places blinders on the true role of mankind in the universe. He states outright that the true nature of the cosmos is far stranger and wondrous than human beings are capable of imagining, and their limited frame of reference prevents them from ever fully comprehending its majesty. Parts of his lecture also delve into quantum theories, including those that believe in the possibility of multiple universes layered on top of one another.
Academic Renaissance man Robert Wright offers up his theories on “non-zero sumness,” which pulls from positivity and cooperation to help push humanity forward. He believes that people constantly move and evolve in a direct “arrow” as a result of sharing good fortune and harmony with one another – a rather extreme idea, of course. But it is one that eventually comes to make sense the more Wright begins to reveal the historical and biological evidence that supports his theses. One of the possibilities he discusses draws parallels between genetic evolution and shifts in social structures.
16. Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives
Politicians leaning towards the right side of the spectrum tend to drop the terms “morality” and “family values” into their rhetoric. However, they do not hold such concepts in their exclusive domain. This intelligent, interesting lecture outlines 5 basic moral constructs that universally influence political affiliations. An individual’s prioritizations and saturations of these concepts determine his or her liberal, conservative, or moderate belief systems. Jonathan Haidt shows how certain personality types and experiences typically indicate gravitatation towards certain perspectives.
17. Kevin Kelly on how technology evolves
As with genetics, technology also forges ahead by constantly changing and evolving and adapting to the pressures and requests of the world around it. Though not sentient, new advances in science, computers, and engineering always seek the paradigm shifts that propel their creations ever forward – becoming gods of machinery begging to live in spite of not actually living. Kevin Kelly looks into how this comes to reflect the human experience as well.
18. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
One of the greatest complaints high school students all over the world will file – aside from the fact that they even have to go at all, of course – is the lack of flexibility and creativity allowed in the curricula. Ken Robinson constructs a reasonable framework that nurtures imagination and free thought without compromising quality and education. Science, technology, engineering, math, and other traditionally “left-brained” concepts only grow well-rounded with the addition of innovation and creativity. In fact, without innovative applications, the technicalities only stagnate and may never achieve their full potential.
19. Steven Pinker chalks it up to the blank slate
Steven Pinker blends together elements of the nature vs. nurture debate with John Locke’s theory of the tabula rasa to create his own theories on human cognitive and moral development. He essentially believes that the so-called “blank slate” exists not as a purely empty entity, but rather a series of innate patterns and behaviors present in nearly every human being. Art, for example, exists in almost every society on the planet – but tastes and personal aesthetics vary extensively. The analogy becomes stretched into excellent detail that fully underscores Pinker’s theses.
20. Joachim de Posada says, Don’t eat the marshmallow yet
Delayed gratification and its status as an indicator of a child’s future achievements form the cornerstone of Joachim de Posada’s quick lecture on his cognitive research. Based on his studies and follow-up studies, four-year-olds capable of practicing self-discipline when told to not give into certain temptations (in this case, a marshmallow) typically performed better in school and interpersonal relationships than their counterparts who caved to the pressure. This sheds quite a bit of light on human cognitive behavior and development, carrying with it some interesting implications.
21. Noah Feldman says politics and religion are technologies
The cliché regarding polite conversation dictates that politics and religion are best avoided at the risk of offending the sensibilities of others. Technology, however, seems to be fair game with the etiquette crowd, and with Noah Feldman’s theories allow cheekier talkers to infuse controversial subjects in conversation without breaking traditional protocol. His amazing lecture connects human concepts with its creations by illustrating their functional similarities.
22. Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy
Regardless of whether or not the term “design” applies to graphics, furniture, interiors, cookware, or the myriad other functions, Don Norman posits that successful pieces must do more than just adhere to the technical aspects. It must also achieve three specific aesthetic goals as well. Without them, viewers do not emotionally connect with the works at hand and may miss what the overall message entails.
23. Stuart Brown says play is more than fun
Stuart Brown stands behind playtime in all its rambunctious, imaginative glory. In addition to providing enjoyment and decompression, play also helps mentally stimulate and refresh humans. It improves their intelligence levels and alleviates (but does not outright cure) the negative effects of depression and anxiety. Unfortunately, at the conclusion of the lecture, it seems as if few organizations accept much of his research on using the tenets of play for the benefit of all mankind.
24. Dan Dennett: Cute, sexy, sweet, funny
Perception and evolution all play a role in what human beings consider “cute, sexy, sweet, [and] funny,” and Dan Dennett speaks up about how all of these elements come together to shape experiences and ideas. He also traces them to more evolutionary roots rather than the expected social, making this an enlightening, wholly fascinating lecture on one aspect of life that many believe to be rather mundane and unexciting.
25. Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice
People, especially those living in heavily consumerist societies, love having choices and options available when it comes to almost everything. But Barry Schwartz looks at the negative repercussions of such unbridled freedom. While not advocating pure homogeny, he states that many people end up feeling dizzy, intimidated, trapped, and ultimately dissatisfied with the number of decisions they must make on everything from the small and seemingly insignificant to the seriously dire.
No matter a person’s area of interest, he or she will find something beautiful to ponder about the world with these fantastic lectures by top experts. Whether they love technology, cognitive science, psychology, genetics, evolutionary theory, art, semantics, cooking, or any other subject covered here, these talks offer up intellectual opportunities at no cost. They nurture anyone and everyone who seeks their counsel and inspire them to branch off and start forming new concepts and ideals to share with the world.
