Musings on art, nothingness, and the observation of the observations of others. With reference to Walter Benjamin and Niklas Luhmann.
Category: Philosophy
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Drillosophy
What is the connection between Drill music and ancient greek philosophy? This short video explores themes from the lyrics of Drill songs using concepts from Plato’s Republic. It is produced by Roadworks a UK music education charity. An interesting use of a classical analogy linked to modern situations.
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What is Culture?
Listen to linguist, anthropologist, philosopher, and author Dan Everett talking about his theory of culture. He discusses exactly what it is, how it exists on a macro and micro level, how it affects our language and our cognition, and how without it, we would die.
Everett spent many decades living with hunter-gatherers in the Amazon jungle. The language of the natives who he lived with, Piraha, is unlike all other known languages in that it has no words for numbers, colours or the future. He explains what his knowledge of the Piraha language, tells us about the intersection of language and culture.
He also talks about the practice of the science of linguistics, animal vs human communication, universal translation, and what unites and what divides us as humans.
The Emoji Movie is a story of rebellion and co-option. This video shows the parallels that this story has with the nature of the culture industry as a whole. When the profit motive completely takes over society, cultural innovation and rebellion are transformed into another commodity that is sold back to us to be passively consumed. If Adornian critiques of trashy kids’ films are your thing check this out.