You’d Be Surprised How Closed-Minded You Are | Jacques Derrida

"Being open minded is being open to the possibility that you're close minded"

I like how he started the video with a binary "whether we realize it or not"

Reminds of a quote by Gerry Spence; "I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief."

Levels of thought: 1) binary (black/white) 2) along a scale (shades of gray) 3) as a graph in two dimensions (we need some water but there is a point when less water is better; a bell curve) 4) as a graph in 3 dimensions (balance of right amount of food, exercise and sleep) 5) feeling of the right amount of multiple variables. Feels like intuition because it is too difficult to verbalize.

And that's why I question everything and try to find answers to things. My mom says that having no answer to something counts as an answer, which is fine too.

Wow guys this is amazing. I was feeling depressed today. But somehow this video gave me hope. Especially, the uncertainty part "being uncertain is not a sign of intellectual weakness but this can make you open up to new things" This blew me away. Thanks Pursuit of Wonder!!! ❤

`My understanding of this reminds me a great deal of my understanding of Buddhism. Nothing has a self or essence, a "Form" or true nature, but everything is just a relationship with everything else, and all those "things" and relationships are constantly changing. Words are like buckets full of water taken from a river, claiming to be the river. Language can never adequately express reality, but always misleads, as it always assumes "things" have "natures" and is always static whereas reality is always in motion.

05:41 Now it makes sense how my critical thinking incresead a lot after I started readind English and French philosophical books. My mother tongue is portuguese, and I was feeling claustrophobic having only one language to understand the reality. The advantage: watching amazing videos like yours. The disadvantage: losing the sense of a self based on simple and shallow narratives.

Thank you for putting this in a word for me, Aporia. I've been training my mind to be as open minded as possible for over 10 years. It's not an easy task. Being open minded is not the difficult part, setting your own moral principles while accepting all versions of a reality is. It is very important for one to understand their own innate nature and also constantly question any influence of a predisposed bias or societal conditioning. I feel it's a life long journey of never ending learning. It's beautiful!!

such a great feeling when you discover a philosopher and recall having thoughts that align with his before reading/listening to his writing! I have noticed certain people in my day to day life who have "aporia". they just seem to be open minded, not attached to any idea, always gracefully and tactfully playing devil's advocate. and it's clear they have a high level of self actualization and an understanding of how things are not binary. great video important to note also that aporia, at least in my understanding of it, is not the same as indifference. it's more like an innate acknowledgement of the foolishness of dogmatism

Thanks for making this video. It’s amazing to me how many people today completely misunderstand the meaning of “deconstruction” - which has little or nothing to do with what Derrida meant by it. All over YouTube there are videos about “deconstructing” this and that - but they are not really deconstructing at all. By the way, someone once said that deconstruction is NOT something you do to a work, it’s something that HAPPENS (usually organically) within any given discourse. Once again, many thanks for your great videos.

I can't say I understood all of it but I loved the overall theme and background music that goes with it. It makes me wanna quit software engineering as a profession and become a full time philosophy student/professor dedicating my life to understand the truth and psychology behind human motives, emotions and suffering.

I can’t describe how much I love this video. We need more Aporia in this world, there are too many divides when basically every human being is a vast constellation on an indivisible spectrum. Thank you so much 🫂

We think in terms of binary because of our fundamental understanding of who we are. Self and other, if we allow those rigid boundaries to become fluid, we’d more easily welcome nuances

One night while speaking with a best friend of mine, I said something that set him off and he disappeared for a moment into the next room….. Upon his return he was covering half of his face with one of Derrida’s books. He gives it to me happily exclaiming, “IT IS TIME!!! IT IS TIME!!!!!” The book was written so well I blazed through it! Derrida opened my eyes and mind both to just how simply the entire universe is strung together! He helped me to understand that anything that exists has an equal and similar opposite. One gives meaning to the other and both cannot exist without the other. Everyone is so quick to say ‘right and wrong’ but I don’t think that right is an opposite to wrong, left is the opposite of right. We have correct and incorrect if you want to describe something as ‘right’ and to me it is more than just semantics! There is good and bad but no right and wrong. Ever since I have been challenging people to give me a legitimate opposite to wrong and no one has been able to do so. This is because there is no such thing as ‘wrong’!!!!! Every choice we make is the correct choice simply because you made that choice. It can be a good choice or a bad one, but it will never be the wrong choice. It is the correct choice for one to choose, whether it’s good or bad doesn’t come into play as much as it’s the correct choice because of the circumstances of your life at the time and something leading up to this choice has compelled you to go in that direction. It’s a tough concept for so many to comprehend, but it’s really quite simple if you are able to break down enough of the CRAP that has been shoved into our heads to think clearly and from an unbiased point of view. After finding your channel and realizing just how important the work you are doing is, I’ve been hoping to see Derrida make it into the picture!! Here we are!!!! THANK YOU!!!!! I believe this post can help a great many toward finding the WONDER we are all in pursuit of!!!! I hope all are doing well on this night!

I've just graduated from this and I still can't escape Derrida no matter how far I run from him.

Thank you so much, I’ve been thinking about these things every day and finally someone is addressing the issue. Glad to see I’m open minded

One of the best short introductions to Derrida I have come across and so much better than many philosophical introductions dealing with his work. You get to much of the heart of his thinking very eloquently and with exceptional clarity without reducing it. Thank you.

"The word is not the thing. The word love is not love. Definitions may give us ideas but they are at the end just ideas not the reality" J. Krishnamurti. It really took years for me to completely grasp this simple fact. Now when i struggle to express how i feel to my friends, only in that predicament I realised the truth.

Your vids never fail to make me think new thoughts keep it up!