Great Books #2: Homer and the Invention of the Human

Predictive History
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In this Wednesday, January 14, 2026 talk to his Beijing high school students, Professor Jiang explains that to be human is to "hear yourself speak." ...more
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I love the feeling of catching his videos in the first minute lol.
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Its crazy that I love to educate myself only when Iam out of school system for 20 years...school system is old and obsolete now
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Brasil loves you, Help us keep growing
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Good morning all, have a great day in class. ❤
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Achilles teaches one thing: ego builds legends and destroys them in the same breath.
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Morning professor and class 4 minutes late today 😂 new record
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Jiang blessing us with more free knowledge ❤
Astonishing how he understood the depth of all humanity problems this man.💕
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I loved the one where Homer started a snow plowing business
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"Guess what guys?!" Let's farm the real aura.
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00:00 - Introduction: Reflections on Reading the Iliad 00:10 - Analyzing Achilles: Mirroring Pride and Vulnerability in Personal Life 01:23 - The Psychology of Young Achilles: Rebellion and Imagination 01:42 - Modern Archetypes: Why Achilles Would Be an Olympic Athlete Today 02:20 - The Conflict of Authority: Why Achilles Fails in Structured Society 02:45 - The Purpose of Great Literature: Peering into the Human Heart 03:31 - Imagining Characters as Living Entities: The Power of Fictional Reality 04:10 - Mechanisms of the Great Book: How Literature Shapes Humanity 04:22 - Harold Bloom’s Perspective: Hearing Yourself Speak as a Human Act 05:07 - Defining Consciousness: The Act of Self-Analysis and Disassociation 06:22 - Case Study: The Conflict Between Agamemnon and Achilles in Book 1 07:37 - Agamemnon’s Strategy: Managing Public Perception and "Losing Face" 09:15 - The Rationale of Power: Coherency in Agamemnon’s Self-Justification 10:48 - Achilles’ Perspective: Risk, Reward, and the Fight for Recognition 11:45 - Controlling Reality: The Battle of Competing Worldviews 12:15 - Psychological Depth: How Agamemnon Uses Memory to Attack Achilles 13:17 - The Genius of Homer: Holding Multiple Conscious Minds Simultaneously 14:15 - Character Vitality: Why Supporting Characters Like Nestor Feel Alive 15:20 - The Narrative Struggle: Truth vs. Perception in the Greek Camp 16:00 - Suicidal Integrity: Why Achilles Refuses to Rejoin the War 17:01 - The Legacy of the Iliad: Empathy, Curiosity, and Greek Civilization 17:28 - The Homeric Mystery: Who Was Homer and How Did He Create This? 18:34 - How Identity is Formed: The Relationship Between Experience and Memory 19:15 - Emotional Indexing: Why We Remember Certain Events and Forget Others 19:57 - Situational Identities: Navigating Different Social Landscapes 21:00 - Psychological Problems: Sorting Mechanisms and Inborn Personalities 22:42 - The Mystery of Memory Storage: Where Does the Brain Keep Identity? 24:45 - Theory of Consciousness: The Brain as an Antenna for the Universe 25:50 - Universal Consciousness: The Cloud Storage Analogy for Human Mind 26:55 - Carl Jung and Archetypes: Accessing Universal Personalities 27:44 - Homer as a Prophet: Translating Universal Truths into Language 29:05 - Timelessness of Literature: Why a 2,500-Year-Old Poem Still Speaks to Us 31:04 - Q&A: Defining the True Meaning of a "Prophet" in Literature 32:33 - Testing Truth: The Relationship Between Moral Judgment and Prediction 33:51 - Why Beauty is Truth: The Function of Poetry in Oral Cultures 34:38 - From Literature to Civilization: How Consciousness Shapes Society 35:35 - Homer’s Influence: From Plato to Thucydides’ Real-World Application 36:38 - Closing Remarks and Assignment for Next Class
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Acording of game theory, what the roll of the great books?
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I wish I could teach like you Prof., speak to an audience like you do.
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Thank you 💕
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"truth": evidence, fact , reality. Period
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HELLO PROFESSOR the podcast you did with Simon Dixon was super helpful please continue with that, Danny and Dialogue works. Thank you
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With great appreciation from Malawi, Africa!
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22 seconds??? Long time since YouTube kept me away
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Find a lover who loves you as professor Jiang loves Homer and Dante
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Nice late night drop here in the Bay Area. Thank you Professor!
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The high pitched "Okaay?" is lowkey Jiang's spirit crying for help being stuck in this high vibration of a body, being effected by the collective attention of the herd who would rather be enslaved than follow their divine spark
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Professor, is there any chance your channel on Spotify get an update of "Secret History" section. I've finished listening to the Geo-Strategy lesson. I work for Uber and these lessons meant alot to me. They kept me going and ignited the very last bit of hope in my soul.
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Just riding the bus home back from school, its raining here in Lusaka, professor is a really refreshing pull... i wish i had a coffee 😊
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Professor I wanted to thank you for the great lectures! I finished the Secret history series and now I went back to listen to the CIVILIZATION series
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nice class as always
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I’m taking 4 classes in college plus this one I love learning
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You are such a great teacher Professor Jiang, your mind is amazing !🤩
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Great rising!
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Thank God I work night shift security, everyone commenting how they bout to go to bed. This is the perfect time to tune in.
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9 minutes ago is breathtaking
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Good Morning, Class ... OKAY?!
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oh, thank you for this blessing!
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Just in time to prevent my sleep. :(
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Just in Time
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BABY WAKE UP PROFESSOR JIANG JUST WOKE UP. Hey Jiang fr tho I started streaming myself watching your videos while taking notes and debating / discoursing with the chat some of the points you brought up etc and I want to spread awareness of your videos by bringing everyone to them. Is that okay? I am not being paid for this I just think this information is invaluable and this level of critical thinking is a disappearing art in today’s society. It must be kept alive and passed through future generations
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The Iliad shows that personality is destiny. The choices characters make are extensions of who they are, never accidents.
Good morning, class. ☀️
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Good Morning Sir from 🇮🇳
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Goodmorning Class!
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