跟读练习: Some brains are built for philosophy. Is yours? - 通过视频学习英语口语

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I think it takes me about five minutes.

I think I've got five minutes to work out the kind of conversation I'm going to have

and the kind of person I'm talking to.

Hi, nice to meet you.

I'm Johnny.

So how do you know Lisa?

Oh, you work together, do you?

Great.

Cool.

No, no, no. We went to school together.

And so it goes.

We each dance in a socially prescribed script known as small talk.

And then we come up to a crossroads.

We have to decide how we're going to go on, what questions we are going to ask each other.

Shall I ask you about truth, about morality, about the soul?

Or are you going to ask me about pets, about holidays and what I watch on Netflix?

I'm on the record as saying that I think we should have more deep

and meaningful conversations because I think these kind of conversations are important to who we are and to our relationships.

But I feel like I need to add a caveat to that because not everybody likes deep conversations.

This doesn't mean that their conversations are vacuous or boring or irrelevant.

It's just that some people prefer the familiar.

They prefer to talk about holidays, about pets, about family, and so on.

So why is it that some people do have this burning, unquenchable desire to unravel the mysteries of the universe?

Some people need to write these vast and unseen essays about my philosophy, whereas other people cringe and they shy away from anything like what is the meaning of life.

Now I hate to say it, but this video will not answer the age-old question of nature

and nurture everything in life is a complicated swirl of our genes and environment and philosophy is no different.

But it is interesting to ask the question why it is that some people need to know.

Why do some people like to have philosophical conversations and some people cringe away?

Well today we're going to answer those questions.

Today we're going to look at the brain of a philosopher.

And to do that I want to look at the godfather of philosophical cool, Albert Camus.

Camus is generally considered to be one of the first and most famous absurdists in philosophical history.

He's certainly the best read and most loved and especially on social media.

Now there are many ways that you can define absurdism

and there are quite a few kinds of absurdism

but generally speaking absurdism is the philosophy

that tries to hold one terrible irony we are meaning-seeking creatures

in a meaningless world we try to find explanations for things we crave explanations for things

and yet the universe as a whole has no explanation to offer a human life ends

and all of its achievements are washed away in only a

few generations life itself seems like a pointless flash in the pan.

And so absurdism is about the tension between seeking meaning and no meaning available.

This is an objective principle.

But the fact is that not everybody can relate to absurdism.

Not everybody feels this way.

Not everybody seeks meaning in the way that Camus diagnoses in his works, especially the myth of Sisyphus.

I know plenty of people who never experienced the kind of existential anguish that you find in Soren Kierkegaard, Leo Tolstoy, and yes, Albert Camus.

They just kind of get on with their lives and

so I wonder are these people less intelligent and less deep than anybody else?

I don't think so, in fact absolutely not.

They're just built differently to how I am built.

To explore this I want to look at one of Camus' novels,

The Outsider or sometimes called The Stranger and in there we meet an absurdist anti-hero called Merceau.

Now Merceau is somebody who doesn't play by the rules

and we the reader and the characters in the book view him with a kind of repulsion but also respect.

On the one hand we see this authentic and honest person as admirable in some way and we long to emulate them, we want to see more of that in the world.

But on the other hand there is something anti-social about somebody who never cares what other people think

because we are as Kierkegaard said a paradox of a social being who craves individuality.

We like being around other people, but we like solitude.

For example, when Merceau glibly states that he'll marry his girlfriend if she's keen on it, we're inclined to appreciate that honesty.

And yet when he fails to show any emotion at all at his mother's funeral

and he begins the novel by forgetting which day she died on, we see him as robotic or even perhaps broken.

Now there is some debate among Camu readers about whether we should see Merceau as neurodivergent in some way, possibly with a kind of Asperger's,

or simply as holding a different philosophical outlook on life.

I do not know enough about psychology to armchair diagnose any literary character,

but the debate does raise an interesting question about the biological factors that incline a person towards philosophy or not.

So here's what we know so far.

Neurologically, we can identify a few areas that tend to underpin archetypally philosophical minds.

For example, we know that the hippocampus is linked to curiosity.

We can point to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to see how we can make logical goal-direct decisions

and exert cognitive control over thoughts and actions.

We can see theory of mind regions like the medial prefrontal cortex light up when we debate or discuss an idea.

And when it comes to the call a spade a spade nature of Merceau, who rarely does what is expected of him,

neuroscientists can point to the amygdala and chordate responses associated with choosing independence over conformity in the face of social pressure.

As with any physiology, these brain elements can be more or less efficient or developed partially due to genetic factors.

Some people are simply born more curious, more controlled in their reasoning and more inclined to debate.

So what about absurdism?

Are there neurological elements in those who stay up late and ask existential questions of a silent, unresponsive universe?

Well, possibly.

Some people act more from the brain's habit system than others.

They just kind of get on with it rather than pausing to deliberate or second guess things.

There are also parts of the brain that allow some people to be more comfortable with just not knowing.

When presented with a mystery like the absurd or a pointless universe, some people are happy to shrug and return to their lives

and this may have something to do with the anterior insula and the dorsal anterior cingulate.

None of this is to say that you are or you are not born as a philosopher.

As I mentioned before, we are a combination of our genes and our environment.

The brain adapts and bends to the world it must work with.

However, it does mean that much of the human nature that philosophers, including Camus, like to talk about is actually a specific type of person.

When I used to meet people who just don't get philosophy

or can't understand why others spend their lives debating the most parochial and unanswerable questions, I was baffled.

How can you not find this interesting?

How can you not love Camus?

Well, it might just be that philosophers are built a bit differently to others.

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誰適合這支影片？

這支探討哲學與人際對話的影片適合中高階英語學習者，尤其是想提升深度對話表達和文化理解的人。內容涵蓋日常閒聊到哲學議題，詞彙豐富且邏輯清晰，非常適合用作英語影子跟读素材，幫助鍛煉口語流暢度與思考速度。

值得學習的詞彙與短語

socially prescribed script：社會規定的「腳本」（指約定俗成的對話模式）
burning, unquenchable desire：強烈且無法抑制的慾望
pointless flash in the pan：無意義的曇花一現（比喻短暫而無價值）
existential anguish：存在主義的痛苦（指對生命意義的焦慮）

這些表達生動且適用範圍廣，無論是寫作還是口語都能提升檔次，建議結合shadowing site反覆練習。

如何練好發音與語調？

講者語速中等，重音清晰，適合練習英語影子跟读。注意以下兩點：
1. 弱讀現象：如「and so on」中的「and」常弱讀為/ən/，需仔細辨聽；
2. 語調起伏：講者在強調觀點時（如「absolutely not」）會提高音量並加重語氣，模仿時要注意情緒傳達。
可使用shadowspeak工具逐句對比，專注糾正發音細節，有效提高英語发音。

视频中的语法

说话人最常用的结构，并附上视频中的原话：

结构	视频中的用法
被动语态 be + 过去分词 — 强调发生了什么，而不是谁做的	are washed · is linked · is expected
定语从句 who / which + 从句 — 补充说明人或事物	people who never · somebody who doesn · somebody who never

什么是跟读法？

跟读法 (Shadowing) 是一种有科学依据的语言学习技巧，最初开发用于专业口译员的培训，并由多语言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。这个方法简单而强大：您在听英语母语原声的同时立即大声重复——就像是一个延迟1-2秒紧跟说话者的影子。与被动听力或语法练习不同，跟读法强迫您的大脑和口腔肌肉同时处理并模仿真实的讲话模式。研究表明它能显着提高发音准确性，语调，节奏，连读，听力理解和口语流利度——使其成为雅思口语备考和真实英语交流最有效的方法之一。

影子跟读法: 阅读完整分步指南 →

跟读练习: Some brains are built for philosophy. Is yours? - 通过视频学习英语口语

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誰適合這支影片？

值得學習的詞彙與短語

如何練好發音與語調？

视频中的语法

什么是跟读法？