Vsauce - 2021-09-14
Subscribe to our Curiosity Box! http://www.curiositybox.com/bogo Add the Summer Box to your cart, use code BOGO, and get the summer box FREE! FOLLOW ME: https://twitter.com/tweetsauce https://www.instagram.com/electricpants/ LINKS TO LEARN MORE: BOOKS: Metametaphysics (Eds. David Chalmers, David Manley, Ryan Wasserman) An Introduction to Metametaphysics (Tahko) Material Beings (Peter Van Inwagen) Objects and Persons (Trenton Merricks) Ordinary Objects (Amie Thomasson) Ontology Made Easy (Amie Thomasson) Ontology, Modality and the Fallacy of Reference (Michael Jubien) Objects: Nothing our of the Ordinary (Daniel Z. Korman) Composition as Identity (eds. Cotnoir, Baxter) Truth and Ontology (Trenton Merricks) Austere Realism (Horgan and Potrc) The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (Alan Watts) PAPERS: Thinking about Things (Jubien): https://www.jstor.org/stable/2676165 There are no Ordinary Things (Unger): https://www.jstor.org/stable/20115446 Against Parthood (Sider): http://www.tedsider.org/papers/nihilism.pdf A Sweater Unraveled (Sidelle): https://www.jstor.org/stable/2671870 On What There Is (Quine): https://www.jstor.org/stable/20123117 Two Dogmas of Empiricism (Quine): https://www.theologie.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:ffffffff-fbd6-1538-0000-000070cf64bc/Quine51.pdf Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology (Carnap): https://www.jstor.org/stable/23932367 Many-One Identity (Baxter): https://philpapers.org/rec/DONMI-2 Oneness, Aspects, and the Neo-Confucians (Baxter): https://www.academia.edu/39736289/Oneness_Aspects_and_the_Neo_Confucians Why the debate about composition is factually empty (Balaguer): https://philpapers.org/rec/BALWTD ONLINE: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ordinary-objects/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sortals/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaphysics-massexpress/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/material-constitution/ https://iep.utm.edu/mat-comp/ SONGS (in order of use): What's Out There (Christopher Baron) Sleeping Dragon (Rob Kelly | Duncan Pittock) For Whom The Bell Tolls (Oliver Ledbury) Political Manoeuvres (Christopher Baron) Desolate Dream (Sarah Ozelle) Moon Men (Jake Chudnow) Hope Is Alive Toolkit (Erick DeVore) Lazy Daze (Barrie Gledden) Why So Blue (Chris Norton | Frank Mizen) Revitalize 2 (Barrie Gledden | Steve Dymond) Smooth Rhodes (Geoffrey Keezer) Mississippi Mirage (Jeremy Sherman) Broadway Dawn (Paul Michael Harris | Simon) Orbits (Giovanni Antonio Parricelli) Keep Your Chin Up (David Kelly | Paul Michael Harris) Forgotten Tears (David O'Brien) Tiny Suspect (Sue Verran) Strictly Mambo (Christopher Ashmore) Funky Rhodes (Geoffrey Keezer) Sly Spy (Dvorkin | Duncan Pittock) Car Full of Spiders (Chris Blackwell) Houston Keys (Geoffrey Keezer) I Can See the Sea (Neil Williams | Gerard) Skinny Dipper 3 (Bob Bradley | Matt Sanchez | Steve Dymond | Josh Weller) Martinique (Ray Davies) G And T Sunset (Mark Allaway | Jeff Lardner) Tribeca (Tim Garland | Joseph Locke | Geoffrey Keezer) Doug's Demise (Bryce Jacobs) Peaceful Beginnings (Bob Bradley | Thomas Balmforth | Chris Egan) BEYOND (Alter Natural | VIUS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUQh5X31qtI Bell Theory (Oriol Sirinathsingh) Swamp Dude (Bruce Bouton | Neil Williams)
This man turns the dumbest questions to an argument where experts participate in
@your mother ???
@Femme Sammy tha flag, it looks like there’s 2
@your mother Oh, it's the lesbian and trans flag
@Femme Sammy ah I see
@Femme Sammy oof
Vsauce is the type of guy to make a 37 minute video determining if chairs exist
@RamonZ and convincing that chairs don't exist.
38
Clearly
YES
I agree
Michael: do chairs exist?
Michael 30 minutes later: I am death
YES
Ok
This video is the ultimate form of debating over semantics.
This shows you didn't understand what was discussed.
@RagingBlast2Fanexplain how
@Marie This is a disagreement about what exists, not about language. Many times some will reduce very complex issues by saying that it's all just semantics, but that just means they haven't grasped the issue.
@RagingBlast2Fan no it's philosophical perspectives
@Rachel Yes, they're views of what exists. But what exists is different on each of these "perspectives." It's not just a matter of talking about the same thing with different language. The language they use describes different states of affairs. When one says its a disagreement over semantics, what they mean is that if they both parties understood each other's words, they would see they're saying the same thing. In this case, it isn't true. The issue isn't that they lack claricty, it's that they disagree on the fundamental nature of reality.
when he mentioned ontology i thought he was genuinely going to say that it's the study of the existence of chairs
lmaoooooo
Jokes aside, I think we need to appreciate exactly how much work went into this video. We have just watched a meticulously researched video, for which Michael read multiple book & articles, found examples to describe every philosophical viewpoint, and presented it in an interesting and engaging way. You just watched a 37 minute video about the existence of chairs, and weren't bored at all. Praise this man.
That's VSauce for ya. I know this guy is prime meme material but his videos are legit amazing and I think that's why so many people are attracted to them. He has a really great Ted talk about this, how he invites people with a big, seemingly unanswerable question, just to "accidentally trick them into learning something along the way" (in this case an introductory course in ontology). He's hands down one of the best things the internet ever created
That's every episode of Vsauce. He's the only man who can post every 2 years and still keep his audience happy. That's pretty big brain.
But what does it mean to have... A big brain? Vsauce theme starts
vsauce is amazing. I appreciate how much work they put into their videos. you gotta read tons and tons of articles to make a single video because you need to dive into the topic and see it from several points of view. it's kinda like a rabbit hole
"The more we try the sus out where they are, the more sus they become."
- Vsause 2021
sause
V sus
You know it's serious when the Vsauce soundtrack ends and starts playing different songs
Other mammals: “Must get food to survive.”
Humans: “Do chairs exist?”
@OjOk I agree, and we haven't evolved back again.
Covid lockdown got everyone going crazy huh?
Got nothing better to do than talk about inanimate object.
That is the fundamental separation that we have from animals; asking stupid questions and then defying all primitive logic by answering it ourselves.
@Asimchisekh, Chrontek of the Silent King
Idk, all modern medicine and technology is “human” asking questions and answering ourselves through testing so….
So do a chair exist could answer does god exist so?……..controversial either way 😜
The peak of evolution
This video has been on my watch later list for over a year now and I was putting off watching it, i think due to the abnormally long length and more bland than usual thumbnail photo..... but OMG I'm so glad i finally watched this. I love how he explains so many different thought processes on the topic all so thoroughly and in a surprisingly understandable way. this might be a new favorite for me and to think i put it off for a year!
A chair is a chair when simples are arranged chair wise in a specific area, like the room youre in. If you add or subtract things to/from the chair doesnt matter aslong as the things are still arranged chair wise. The problem is if I put a book on the "chair" it doesnt become the chair. But if I add a third arm to the chair, it would become part of the chair wise simples = the chair. Idk Im just confusing myself at this point.
🤓
you know, that's actually interesting
"chair-ing" or being arranged "chair wise" is not a specific form, a lot of chairs are different from each other, different colors, being office or plastic chairs, and so on. so if what makes it "chair wise" is the ability to sit on it, then the ground could be a chair, the top of a roof could be a chair, which is obviously wrong.
so what properties make simples chair? can we even define them at all??
That's why chairs don't exist :) To prevent you from being confused.
If you drill lots of little holes in the chair is it still a chair, or does it become a Swiss chair?
All the saw dust created is no longer a chair, or is it just a new base of the chair on the floor?
But seriously, thank you for making these wonderful videos
Vsause-"All I can do is taste some stuff while it chairs." The best quote I have ever heard.
Okay, after a, no joke, existential crisis, I have reached a sutisfuying answer. Sutisfuying for me, at least (that is the point, by the way)
The answer to reality is the problem of 'asking' itself.
Any answer that you choose from many given philosophies is more reflective on who you are as appose to reality. Because reality does not need to be defined, that is we who are looking for the defenition. And the defenition itself exists only because we seek it, and therefore creating it, but given that we are in fact not a single entity, we come across different defenitions that best fit our personality.
So when looking for a defenition for anything and stumbling onto a ton of different answers we instead have to take a "meta" position and ask why are there some many answers.
And there are so many answers because of the question itself. Because we are creatures who invented the gun and then pointed it on ourselves. Because we are able to talk in a way that mirrors our existence, and our existence inside of a brain that seeks answers demands progressively more inovative questions, but deemd to fall flat because of our primitive ways of interacting with physical matter.
I am too dumb and too tired to explore this any further, but, hopefully, you get the point.
And, I guess, the lesson that you can take away from this way of thinking is:
Shut the fuck up and enjoy the ride.
can't believe how long he actually comfortably sits in this position
this man literally made a 37 minute and 54 second video about the existence of chairs
Reality is bound by our spectrum of definition
ok let me get this straight
if chairs are not real, if they are a simulation from our brain
does that mean we are floating and just dont know it?
Michael, you might be obfuscating. You cannot define chairs by their chemical composition. Rather, you know something is a chair if it fits the definition of a chair: An object created for sitting on, on an elevated surface, also including a back rest or support. Also, molecules and compounds cease to be what they are when you remove a single atom.
The intro is my favorite vsauce intro
After walking around the factory all day at work I began to hallucinate a chair.
I spent a total of eleven years as a philosophy student and got two degrees. This is by far the best explanation of ontology I've ever seen.
@Autodidactic Artisan I guess so.
If you become a philosophy teacher, I'd love it if you spend an entire hour and half convincing your students that chairs don't exist :D
@Martin Poulter Just a question, do you do philosophy because you enjoy it as a fun activity or a hobby? Or it's your current education? What kind of job would be suitable if you have a degree or more in philosophy? I think becoming a teacher in philosophy would be cool. If you become one, don't forget to dedicate at least one lesson to convince your students that chairs don't exist :D Looks like philosophy is very interesting and sometimes the questions are funny as hell, and it fascinates me that these questions can be seriously debated.
@Vedant Sridhar It was an intellectual interest that has fed into my career. An understanding of formal logic has helped with coding and databases; and informal logic (extracting the argument from a piece of text) is useful in anything that involves writing or responding to what someone's written. I have done some teaching and you're right that it's a fun subject to teach because you get into such weird, abstract questions.
I've also gained a better understanding of political and moral questions; this is relevant not so much to my jobs but to things that interest me in the wider world. When I've also studied psychology, philosophy has helped me understand the standards of rationality that people are being assessed against.
I wouldn't try to convince someone that a chair doesn't exist, but that seeing a piece of matter as a chair is a sort-of arbitrary thing that our minds impose on reality. Thanks for the question.
@Martin Poulter Thanks!
i will forever chuckle at the, “where’d the crane go?”
Yet it seems to sound like a very serious philosophical question.
Im convinced this guy is actually going crazy
simples are not concrete things, they are regions of higher energy, the behavior of which is described by quantum wave functions.
I'm about five and a half minutes in, and can't help but want to start tallying how many props he pulls from under his shirt collar.
Michael’s mom: “Michael, did you break this chair?”
Michael:
when he pulled out the knife I lost it XD
@ok oı
@Professor Fukyu it seems prior knowledge of what the thing represented before getting disassembled is also required
🤣
lmao
this man can turn the stupidest question into a theory i swear like: is poop called poop cause its poop?
This question truly is important, I hope someday to be able to understand why.
I love how ambiguous this comment is, it can literally be applied to any philosophy based video ever. Including this one, the chair one, possibly the most absurd one on the internet. Kudos to you, stranger.
One example of the importance is on gender identity, for instance in the question “are trans-women women?” since whether someone is a woman or not and what constitutes someone being a woman or not is in some sense an ontological question. This is how by having the properties and functions associated with being a woman in some sense makes a person a women. People may agree or disagree to different extents but this question has affected and will affect legislation and therefore peoples lives. This is one example of how ontological questions like the one discussed in this video are important in life.
Every word and definition and thing we think their us is just how we understand it. These are human definitions, made by humans, defined by humans; I thinks chair stops being a chair whenever we think its no longer A chair because humans created chairs there for a chair is whatever we want it to be.
I now have the urge to go out and buy a chair...
ive learned two things from this video
1. chairs don’t exist
2. michael is going insane
@Misty !! exactly what I was thinking!
@Blair In fact, he has recently uploaded a new video. 🥳
28:51 Chairs do exist.
Wdym going insane? When has he ever been sane?
Philosophy can be insane.
My favorite Sorites Sequence as a child was wondering what the exact number of pieces of paper in a stack it would take before a stapler couldnt get through it. I never actually tested it, but it always tripped me out to think that there had to be a single increment of space that small that would suddenly make the difference
Yeah, I think it bugged me too. Surely adding one extra piece of paper wouldn't cause any noticeable increase in difficulty to be able to staple it. So does it slowly over time become difficult and more and more difficult until at a specific boundary when adding one extra paper turns it from difficult to impossible? Now here there's literally no answer. These Sorites Sequence questions have bugged me throughout my life.
Btw I use this Sorites Sequence for good purposes too. I wanted to sit close to my school crush, but there's the anxiety and shyness that prevents me from doing it. So instead of directly sitting next to her at one go, at every 2 minutes or so, I moved my chair just a tiny bit. I and my crush felt the same after each move, not noticing any difference. Then I moved my chair a bit more. And a bit more again. And I repeated this process for like 30 minutes, and neither she nor I noticed any change. That's how I got to sit close to her without any anxiety. :) Now I realize that the core argument of why 'chairs don't exist' is the same thing I can use for my own advantage like this 😀
Woke up to "but what does it mean to exist?" Checked the time of 4:20 something and went back to sleep. This channel is crazy
I want those nifty boxes of curiosity. Is it really a box though.
Vsauce is really good at making me question things I thought I knew
I’m relieved to know I’m not the only one who has been skeptical of chairs my entire life.
I thought you were Joshua Weismann
I've been skeptical of chairs for my entire life
@dameto cosita OH GOD WHAT HAVE YOU DONE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
0
@Esphyxia [Dubstep] what theheck
2:29 When I put bread in a toaster, toast comes out. WHERE IS THE BREAD
Im sitting on a chair waiting for my psychiatric visit while watching this. One more thing to evaluate with my psychiatrist
If you name a table of data and you change the data in said table, the table is still said table but the data has changed. While some tables may contain similar data to said table, said table is still unique due to its assigned name. Now if we said that the name of tables should be made by the contents of the table, the data, then names wouldn't exist? I dont know where Im going with this.
I think you actually do know where you're going with it
. And the answer will be that the tables content the data has been for lack of a better word corrupted therefore forfeiting any sort of influence upon real information, making all of the data, the tables and the names of the tables become false therefore how can they exist. What ??? I don't have any idea about what I'm talking about . Cheers
These are the questions that keep me up at night.
I love how Michael is just welcoming the horror aspect the internet has given him over the years
@Joey's Awesome channel TLDR the internet has made Michael seem to be an eldrich scp that cannot be contained. And hes playing along to it
@Soul SLVR haha your tldr is as long as your original 😂
@pat the rick ah ha! You are wrong! ITS EVEN LONGER!!! MUHAHAHA
When you knock over the blocks you've created a mess.
This is why philosophers have to have their own bars to drink in. Fortunately I am a utilitarian nihilist so none of this exists in the first place. Thanks for nothing, non existant people, my absence of gratitude is matched only by my stunningly non extant desire to learn more philosophy.
A 40min vid on wether something I’m literally sitting on rn is real or not…
35:29 made me feel weird. I felt like I Ceased to exist for a fraction of a second. Just what he said, it scared the shit out of me. Because he’s right. And the notion of me not being a thing, but only a collection of stuff that is arranged in a particular way that makes up a thing, it’s crazy to think about. I am not conscious, I am not I. I am simply nothing. There is stuff arranged a certain way that makes up my consciousness. Therefore the consciousness isn’t…. I don’t even know anymore.
Michel is the only man who can ask the question “do chairs really exist” and explain it for 40 mins and make me believe that Chairs don’t exist
Or is he?
Note to self- how to write a Great villain: Start with some belief that's easy to understand and most people agree on. Then have your villain poke holes into your belief until it becomes so holey that you start to drift into their side.
Who's Michel? Vsauce is Michael Stevens, but who's Michel?
@Vedant Sridhar squid games
It's philosophy bro.. sometimes the conclusions are mind blowing.
8:49 We do have a word for that. It's called a ruin, or a wreckage. The blocks now compose a ruin where a tower once was
what if the ruin was always ruin and never a tower?
@light bulb Then he'd call it a ruin and not a tower ez
It's a tree :/
@g Timber
"Do chairs exist?"
Man, i sure hope so. It would be extremely difficult to explain how im able to hover in mid air with my legs crossed otherwise.
But you dont exist either
You dont exist either. You are just a memory of another huge brain .
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