Syllojism is a bi-weekly, culture, and philosophy challenge podcast on the edge of chaos.
CHALLENGE: Watch the 2019 Zizek/Peterson debate on Communism, Capitalism, and Happiness.
“Existential intelligence” isn’t a Howie G-stamped type of intelligence like the rest we have discussed this season, but as we’ve discussed none of these are real “intelligences” that can be defined by scientific reasoning. So by that logic, Existential Intelligence is just as real as Kinesthetic Intelligence.
We debated what to talk about and what kind of challenge to do, and we decided that this type of intelligence is a type of thinking that is bigger than one’s self. Last season, episode 8 was a literal manifestation of existential thinking when we did the FLI worldbuilding challenge - for which we won an Honorable Mention! It was a ton of fun, and also a ton of work, so we decided to watch a YouTube video and read a bit this time. Existential thinking is often abstract and outside the ego - or it aspires to be. So, we chose to listen to some culture war bullshit between Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Zizek. This particular debate started out deep in ego and personal interpretation but turned out largely to transcend the garbage. I think it was a great representation of existential intelligence as I see it.
The episode was good! Matt as a guest was fantastic. His knowledge of political philosophy was a great gift to which Brett and I were ecstatic to bathe in, per yoosh. Brett’s tech snafu was hilarious (probably) for the viewer, and slightly annoying for the participants, and after it’s all over, I’m learning to give so many fewer fucks! Shit happens, and the rawness of our show is imperative.
Show Notes:
1:22 The modern left - Hater Nation
2:46 Assholes, the icons of equality
3:25 The Challenge: The Joust of the Century that never was
5:01 Funny shoes, saliva, and Kermit the Frog (not a rap video)
11:00 Peterson’s missteps
13:26 The honest dishonest extemporaneous JBP
15:20 Maps, meaning, myth, mayhem
17:27 Brett: “get thinkers of Twitter”
19:36 Natasha’s psychoanalysis of Peterson
21:03 Brett’s issues
21:46 Undercover atheist: Peterson’s functional approach to religion
25:25 The Monstrosity of Christ, Zizek’s faith
26:45 Literal vs. metaphorical truth
29:01 Hegel on moving from metaphor to literal ways of thinking (Adam and Eve)
30:20 Commodity fetishism
33:15 Brett’s fetish and how things get their value
34:40 The anti-intellectualism of intellectuals
36:52 Matt’s definition of existential intelligence
41:08 The simultaneous objectivity and subjectivity of value and self-conscious freedom
42:27 The Existential brain and the threat to conservative ideology
46:00 The Meaning of Conservatism, by Matt’s favorite conservative
47:29 Where experience > analysis
49:13 The political implications of existential thinking
53:05 Individual vs collective action
54:56 Scale issues with solely focusing on individual action
57:21 Being defined by your resentments (Hater-nation)
58:41 JBP - do yo psychometric thang thang for the neo-cons
1:00:51 Syllojistic absurdist inoculation against megalomania
1:04:43 A final toggle from Brett’s brain
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Thought Experiment: (Win $ on BigNerve!)
Final Season 2 Challenge:
Take an IQ Test!
(I’ll link the one we choose once Brett gets his shit together and finds one.)
Syllojism S2 Episode 10 - The Existential Master Debaters Zizek + Peterson w/ Matt McManus