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Docta ignorantia, ou a ignorância aprendida - Sócrates, Nicolau de Cusa e a ignorância na filosofia

21:00EnglishTranscribed Jul 4, 2026
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Hello friends and friends, you know. In today's video we are going to talk about the ignorance

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learned by Dr. Ignorant in Latin. We are going to take a point from this work here,

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the ignorant doctrine in Latin, but I am in English, so it is of Learn Ignorance,

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or about the ignorance learned, which is from a medieval writer. He is there doing the

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point between the middle and the Renaissance, it is a philosopher called Nicolau de Cusa,

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and then we are going to talk about some more general questions related to

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the philosophical ignorance. Why is it necessary to learn to be ignorant?

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It seems to be paradoxical, but it is not. We are going to explain this in this brief video of today,

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which is the end of the story, the ignorance learned, and why is that fundamental to

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do philosophy. Come on.

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Before starting, a brief talk is made in our new course, the philosophy of

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Calmarx, the introduction. The goal of this course is to make a record in what is specifically

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philosophy in Calmarx works. But well, this is not a course of introduction to Marxism,

1:18

because Marxism is a tradition that begins in Marx's works, but it is a branch of

1:24

several other thinkers and also several other arts of knowledge, and the record of our course

1:29

is Calmarx and its philosophy. For more information, to know the

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example of the Greek topic, just click on the link that is in the description of this video.

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Our second question is that it continues to all the vapor of our course,

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the introduction to philosophy of the saccharacter. The goal of this

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most general course of introduction to philosophy is to put you in direct contact with

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some of the main texts of all the history of philosophy. So, instead of reading

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comments or then the secondary literature, talking about philosophers, the goal of our

2:04

videos is to put you in direct contact with some plates of Aristoteles,

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Seneca, Marco Aurelio, Santa Gustinho, Henry DeCarte, Imanualcante,

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Ragell, Marx, Sartre, etc. For more information, just click on the link

2:20

that is in the description of this video. We will then return to our topic,

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the ignorant doctor or the learned ignorance. Initially, let's talk briefly about

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who is the author of this work, the author of the ignorant doctor.

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Nicolò de Cusa is a German thinker, he born here in Germany, a city called

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Cusa, and he is an interesting thinker because he makes a echo, he is a connection

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between the media and the relationship, the human thought to be more exact.

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He has some very interesting positions, typical positions of the humanism, but for example,

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he was extremely tolerant in relation to Islam. He thought that we should

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know better Islam and pointed out all religions as, in fact, being

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in many manifestations to many cults to the same God. He was born in the year

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of 10101, here in Germany, as we have already stated, and died in Italy in the year

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1464. So he was a thinker, totally there in the 15th century. He studied

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philosophy at the University of Ralderberg, and also studied in Italy,

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the right to canonical, mathematical and theology. From a theoretical point of view,

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conceptual, philosophical, what can we talk about Nicolò de Cusa? He is an interesting

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connection between the neoplatonism original, the neoplatonism of the media, and the

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systems of the Renaissance. Nicolò de Cusa was also influenced by the master

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E.C. and the nominees. And he was in the position that our knowledge

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leads us to a certain point, to a certain barrier, even in which the

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thought is. We just perceive that, and this reminds us a lot of Kant and the

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things in itself. And it is not a surprise, we are totally in a

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context to the German. Nicolò de Cusa, the German, the master E.C. also,

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the German, and Manuel Kant also. So we perceive that this thing already appears here,

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this reflection of our knowledge leads us to a certain point, but then we can't

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pass it. And then we have, in the case of the master E.C. and the neoplatonism,

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we have the divine, which is the thought. And instead of just that, we reach the

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call, ignorant. The reflection that neoplatonism will make here is in the

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logical sense. His ignorance is in the sense of the knowledge of God, this will be

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closer to a negative theology. But here we are not going to talk about God

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here in this episode, because what is really interesting in this reflection of

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him is the way we obtain knowledge. So it is a natural reflection of

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epistemological. We can basically affirm that all the philosophy of

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Nicolò de Cusa is found in this work, in the Dota Ignorance,

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the learned Ignorance. This work was finished in 1440, and it received

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more or less 4 editions until the year 1514, but you see it is just interesting.

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This work only received a new edition in 1913, it received the jump of 1514

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to 1913 to have a new edition of this work. And even if she was released in Brazil,

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before recording this video, I made a research to know if the translation

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appears and it seems that the editor of the little Rio Grande do Sul released the edition

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of the book. You know, it was in 2002 and 2002, I don't know, but I even found it

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in the virtual form for a price even good, but I just realized that this work was

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in the middle of the century, a new edition. And the work is very interesting,

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not yet, it is not exactly original. It is basically a work of negative theology,

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as we have already stated. Right in the first chapter, Nicolò already presents

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the Dota Ignorance, learned Ignorance, in the main object of application

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that is God or the knowledge of God. And he will basically say,

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when we will know a certain object of which we do not have any experience,

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that is, we will try to know in direct object, we can only do this through

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approximations, through truths. We only realize that this is not relative

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to the knowledge of God, as we will give the example of here a little bit. What do you want?

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Let's take a look at it. When we will give a description of something that we do not

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know in a direct way, we can only give this basic description to what we already know

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through similarity. Now the question is, nothing in this world is exactly identical to the other.

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So, whenever we want to describe something that we do not know, we need to do

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that based on what we already know. Our partial knowledge implies, therefore,

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an Ignorance. As if it were not like that, if we do not recognize our own

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partial ignorance, we will fall into the mistake of firm knowing more than actually,

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we know. So, let's give an example here to leave this very clear. But we just

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have an individual who was born and grew up in a totally isolated tribe,

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because we call it civilization of our great metropolis. An individual always

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immoralized does not have any knowledge of what is our technology. He never saw a car,

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he never saw a plane, a helicopter, a television, a phone, and so on. He does not have any knowledge

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of that. He is totally in a brutal nature state. Now, I think that for some reason,

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this individual, he appears in one of our great cities, he is taken to there,

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and he begins to know such objects, right? The object is like TV, he looks at the cell,

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he comes to the helicopter, he goes, he realizes that there are people inside here, he

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finds a helicopter, and after seeing all this, he goes back to his tribe, and there he will try to

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explain to his community everything that he presented. How this individual will do this, how he will

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transmit knowledge, and how those other individuals who do not see, do not have the knowledge

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of the objects, do not have the knowledge of the helicopter, for example, how can they understand

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what that partner is talking about? This example is in a certain way a modification of the

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cavalry of the silver horse, because at least in the cavalry of the cavalry, the individuals had the shadows

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there in the wall, but in this case, they do not see no shadows of this, they are listening to

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things that they do not even know, at least, imagine the way, because they do not have

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the shadow, the contour of things, it is obviously the individual will try to explain what is

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an helicopter, so that who never has an helicopter, starting from what they know, well, they know

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the birds, so they will try to explain that maybe an helicopter is something similar to the bird,

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maybe it is a flower, maybe it is similar to a gaffer, anyway, imagine, just how the individual will

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try to explain, try to describe the object of which they do not have direct knowledge,

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this question that is involved here, so in the first chapter when he will talk about God,

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we do not have direct knowledge of God, so how can we talk about him, just for the

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approximations, for the truth, for analogy, and in this we have a type of negative theology,

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what is negative theology, you affirm only what God is not, we can never say in a

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direct way what God is, you just deny, you say, well, God is not finite, this is God is infinite,

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say that God is infinite, he means that he is not finite, so the descriptions of negative theology are

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always negative, they will always deny certain characteristics to say what God is not,

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these lines are so that Nikolá and Kuzov will talk about the ignorance learned,

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your main object here is God, it is a medieval work, we are talking about a Christian

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writing about theological things, but your epistemological reflection is very interesting,

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as we do in this example, this helps us to realize how the process of knowledge works,

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this is, we always have to talk about reality, we always have to describe things from

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what we already know, and this has even implications in the own pedagogy, and when we talk about

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stupid ignorance, about ignorant ignorance learned, one of the things that occur to us immediately

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is ignorance and its own practice, that sentence attributed to the only thing that I know,

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well, first of all, socrates never says this, this formulation I know nothing

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seems to be a way condensed to try to describe some things that Socrates said in a

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similar way, but Socrates has never stopped this, even there are passages in the work of Plato,

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as for example in the Socrates' apology, in which Socrates, in fact, the firm knows something,

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so Socrates already arrived, no, I know that, so he never made the firmation of

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that he does not know anything, absolutely nothing, this issue of ignorance, socrates has the origin,

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the apology of Socrates, which is one of the works that are here in this volume, in the part that Socrates

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speaks about the message he received from the oracle of Delphus, saying that he was the most famous man,

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and Socrates, obviously, as a devotee, he could not hear the word of God,

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so he says, God is right now, I do not understand this because I do not think I am the most famous man,

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I do not think so, I have to try to find out what he wants to say with this, because in the way I

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understand the oracle, he is false, but I do not think God is lying, so he was to try to find out,

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in this process he began to talk to several people, with several individuals who

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were authorities, without several areas of knowledge, and Socrates arrived in the conclusion,

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look, the difference between these individuals and I, they think they know things that they do not know,

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while I know when I do not know things, it is basically what Socrates said, so he was more

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wise in the sense of recognizing the own ignorance, so he never said I only know that nothing

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is what he said is, I know and recognize the ignorance, I am more wise than this, I am more wise

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because I know I am ignorant, in case you have interest in reading this in the

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Proprime of Socrates, you just get here the Socrates apology, in the 21st of the day he will talk

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about the oracle of Delphi and in the 29th century, he will talk about what he actually knows,

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he will give at least one of the passages of the firm that knows something, and in this

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29th century, what he will say is that he knows that it is evil, you will desobede, here they are

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better than you, they are gods or men, but what matters here is the firmament that he knows

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what I would like to highlight here at this point of reflection, this position for the

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Socrates' diagmatic in relation to philosophical faze, because to make philosophy essential

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recognize the own ignorance and not be considered in the post of truth, at least two

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conceptions of philosophy in Plato, and in these two conceptions we never can have the post of truth,

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first or because we can't grab the truth or because when we grab it we

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escape from the gods, so we never can keep the post of truth, this is paradiagmatical and

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essential to make philosophy, because the individual who is considered in the post of truth is the

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individual who will not do more philosophy, because we just seek what we still have, we will not

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seek for something that we already have, something that we already found, we just look for something

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that is lost by what we do not have, that's why the post of truth is the dogmatism and the end of the

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death of the philosophy itself, the position of the philosopher in the world, therefore it is of a

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eternal ignorance, but we do not have to confuse the ignorance of philosophy with the

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natural ignorance with which we are born. We are not talking about a return of a

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walking cycle, this is, I will do philosophy only for the end of discovering that I already knew

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in this, that I am ignorant, well, if I started to do philosophy, why? I recognized the need to

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heal the anger of ignorance, now if I pass the whole life doing this for the end, I recognize that I

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still am ignorant, this means that I will have the point of departure, not necessarily,

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a life dedicated to philosophy will never be the same thing as a life not dedicated to making

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philosophy. And in this sense, this reminds me of the spirit of the spirit of the king, which is a work that

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will describe the various and successive experiences of consciousness on this one. The interesting aspect

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in the phenomenology in relation to our discussion here is the following, in certain moments, the

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consciousness will return or repeat certain experiences for which it has already passed, but in the

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phenomenology of the king what happens is that this return does not fall into repetition, but it is

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always a return enriched. We never have the consciousness, so simply doing the same thing,

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as if it were perhaps the composition of the repetition on the psychoanalysis. Never

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that, a return or return again the same experience is always the return different and enriched

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in a way of a sound, passing here, taking another example in the music, when we take a sound,

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mainly the sound of Beethoven in the example. The sound has a structure A-B-A, we have an

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video here on the channel and the episode there, you can ask for it. What does this

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structure of the sound A-B-A mean? It is that the sound is part of a certain theme, and then you

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must imagine how you were going out of the house to make a pass, to pass through an experience,

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this is B, and in the end you return A, but when you hear a sound of Beethoven, for example,

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this return again to A, it does not fall into repetition, from what you hear at the beginning of the

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music, it does not fall, but it is a enrichment repetition, a repetition that in truth brings

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into consideration all that she learned, that she discovered in the B part, which was this part of experience,

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in this adventure. So it is in this sense that we can encourage the process of the philosopher,

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so the philosopher is the one who is not a god and not a whole, it is something that the

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philosopher also speaks about, why the philosopher puts himself to make philosophy because he decides to do

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such things, but in the past the philosopher is the one who is in the middle between the gods and the

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gods, because only the gods and the gods do not make philosophy, the gods, why do they already know everything and

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do not need to know anything, the gods already know everything, so the gods do not make philosophy,

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and the gods think they do not need to know nothing, so the tool will not make philosophy,

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now if you are not a god and not a whole, you recognize your ignorance, then if you will dedicate

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to philosophy, then the philosophers are these, right, here there is as a point of

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starting to recognize the own ignorance, but after spending a whole life doing philosophy,

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what happens? We return to the same point? No, we can imagine this return as an

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ignorance learned or a doubt ignorance, that's why the philosopher is characterized by the

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intellectual humility who convives with the doubt, that's why the philosopher is open, he wants to know

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everything, he wants to talk to everyone, he wants to know other points of view, now an individual who

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thinks that he already considers himself in the post of truth, he enters in the discussion only to

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come, he wants to enter the discussions to show the others mistakes, to point the

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words, because well, it can be in another way, right? If the individual is considered in the post of truth,

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it means that the rest of the world is in the error and in the lie, so this is the lesson of today,

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we must seek the doubt ignorance, the ignorance learned, how much more we dedicate to the philosophical

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activity, but we convince ourselves that we are ignorant, but this ignorance is preferable to

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have a natural brute ignorance, it is a qualitative ignorance different and superior, the

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doubt ignorance is superior to the natural ignorance, because we cannot say that

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after a life dedicated to the philosophy, we are ignorant in the same way as we were in the

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beginning of the day, no, our ignorance is certainly a return, but a return enriched,

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as well as in the experiences of consciousness, in the spirit of the kingdom and also in the

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structure of the sound as we find in Beethoven's music, remembering once again, make your

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description in our course, the philosophical marks, the introduction, the link is in the description of

20:27

this video and if you also write in our course, the introduction to philosophy of the

20:31

classic press, the link is also here in the description. Remembering once again, we have a

20:37

reading club here on the channel, to participate in this reading club, just turn the

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channel, clicking on the button that is down in the description of this video, if you

20:47

remember, you will have access to immediate updates to all the videos we have already

20:51

published and will be able to follow and participate in our reading club and also

20:56

part of our telegram group. A big hug and until the next.

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