Stephen Fry & Steven Pinker on the Enlightenment Today 

Greatest idea I've ever heard

He actually does a little bit, but he keeps it borderline.

@@alientube1984 I think it's his enthusiasm that makes it seem that way.

@@jcee6886 I wouldn't see it in a negative way. His excitement along with varying mood and passion for the subject definitely come across. You can see he has to actively pause to allow the other man to speak. This actually shows how self-aware and controlled he is in an excitable mood - something very rare

Totally agree. And unlike a lot of said interviewers, he would be interesting!

Stephen certainly has such a way of debating and I couldn’t agree more. In this particular case I’d say ‘dialogue’ might me a more accurate description of his aim and approach.

I also applaud S. Fry's social graces, but who told U that this was a Debate ? Not a friendly conversation, between like minded scholars ? As is my wish for Palestinians & Hebrews.

​@@kevincarrigan635 fat chance

I'm watching it again. I obviously didn't hear everything. I watch films several times because I want to get all the kernels of wisdom out.

these are useless farty Epstein conmen the are not our worlds genius males you dont hear about those

Religious Speakers, Enlightenment Speakers & Many Other Sharp Minds Are Needed. Which Is Why They Attend Colleges & Such, To Break Up Idiocy Before Hell Emerges.

Couldn't agree more: the rewatching and note-taking

I learned about Stephen J Fry in a Monk Debate, when he was sitting side by side with Jordan B. Peterson. They both listened to the Race Baiter Lunatic named ( Mike Erik Dyson ), which might I add Mike Dyson was talking Race, Race, Race, Oh... and Don't forget about Race 🤣

But it's the one we needed!

yes

Speak for yourself young lad(y). I've wanted that from the time I could think

There’s no We I’ve made it clear and so did America China Canada India Mexico etc

Meh, there’s much better pairings. Pinker is a passionless dullard. Not even Fry’s great wit could elicit some interesting back and forth from him.

Alan Roberts Don’t discount yourself: just to like exploring such conversation is admirable and how else to “get to Carnegie Hall” except to practice...and grow. Until annoying mouth smacking drives ME away!

@The Traditionalist Mind who shat in your coffee mate?

"and then you say something like conjunct" I absolutely died laughing at this point. Sooo relatable.

Is that what you saw? I got the sense that he was thinking..."If we were in prison, you'd be my bitch"

Hahahahaa that's a good one.

Forrest gump

I had a similar thought! I said to myself that watching this was like feeding my brain, but I like your metaphor better :D

After listening to this my brain wonders why it was recorded from a stage mike and not from the desk

The Enlightenment belongs to the phenomenon that is humanity, and not to atheism as an ideology, we have all benefited from the enlightenment and we can all use it together to create new ways to improve the lives of all, especially in the areas of peace. To suggest that only reason, science, humanism, and progress are the natural benefiters of the enlightenment is to hijack it and make it exclusive to an atheist agenda - i.e. that which has a proven record of utter destruction to humanity!

I don't know the grey haired guy but Stephen Fry ain't much smarter than guy that just gave you fries with that.

@@spadebraithwaite1762 at least you are willing to admit that you are ignorant.

Indeed :-D

Snobbery

“The only people who seem to bother with language in public today bother with it in quite the wrong way. They write letters to broadcasters and newspapers in which they are rude and haughty about other people’s usage, and in which they show off their own superior ‘knowledge’ of how language should be. I hate that, and I particularly hate the fact that so many of these pedants assume that I am on their side.” - Stephen Fry

Bartholomew Tott "snobbery"? You spelt "standards" incorrectly.

I love these two SOOO hard!

Doctor Who should be the new Steven Pinker. :p

ha ha yes indeed!

But he isn't a black, French-speaking, trans-gender Lesbian in a wheelchair! I demand that the next Doctor be Intersectional As Fuck.

@Shadow Heart Well, *_I_* was having a laugh. Smile! :0)

Shadow Heart: who hurt you? Nothing more pathetic than a snowflake commenting on an opposite snowflake about commenting not realising the irony of the comment

I've already had about 14 drinks...

"I am drunk indeed!"

Hiccup!!

"Sozzled, in thought and indeed" XD

I rhink rhR IA a freat ideo\@|!!!

I found it a strange too thinking it was a lot more posh than using, say, "exactly." :D

The interviewer?

Yet Pinker calls Damore and MIlo "Alit-right" and neither are alt-right. Intelligent? Yes, yet still fallible

Richard Depaola jr intelligent has never meant perfect. Intelligent people are more likely to know that they are not perfect.

Never said it meant perfect...I pointed out the flaw in the OPs statement. An intelligent person knows when they do not know something and Mr Pinker made his statement as a statement of fact, not a statement of opinion.

@@r13hd22 yes, fallible. Especially when he said "Capitalism is just superior. That 's just a fact." On Joe Rogan. That's...just a fact, Steven? Since when do scientists say things like...well, that's just a fact. That's that. Now what about that scientific method, bruv?

@@tinylittlevampire Umm, yes they actually do say things like "Thats just a fact" when a thing has been proven beyond a doubt when looking at all information...and Capitalism IS superior. Socialism only looks good to those lacking in most information not only about both economies, but also about history.

He's a beast

No he's not. He barely keeps up with high school physics.

No he isn't. I have to agree with @Cliff Hanley. I love Fry...but his ego runs away with him when he is the interviewer...his basic feelings of being 'less than' are exposed. Sad, since he is such a brilliant man.

What a strange view ! ..I haven't seen an interviewer who interrupts LESS than him.

He is not always 'the authority' on the subject, yet insists on inputting his shining "look what I know" statements.... It's not a big thing. As I've said, I'm a big fan of his and he is a very brilliant man.

Problems: 1. defining sentience. At what point on the spectrum of sentience or the ability to react to external stimuli, do we draw the line. Most plants and fungi could be described as having senses. 2. bacon.

@@emdiar6588 Thanks for your reply! 1) That challenge doesn't undermine the moral salience of sentience. Other terms like "life", "human" and "person" face similar challenges - yet they remain useful. My suggested approach is not to think of Sentience as a strict binary on/off - but as something that likely has fuzzy edges (like "life") - in our understanding of it if not in reality. We can use science to work out, always imperfectly, where that fuzziness is. We can also grade sentience. So far I've seen no evidence that plants/fungi experience suffering or flourishing - but if they did, maybe that experience would be less intense than that of animals? As ever, let's follow the science. And wherever it is and whoever experiences it - surely all suffering matters morally? 2) I get that taste pleasures are important to many people. But are they really important enough to justify the suffering & death involved in satisfying them? Particularly as the alternatives available can give other wonderful taste experiences without causing suffering & death. Even the plant-based bacons are getting really good. Well worth a try if you love the smoky taste. Most find that the taste pleasure of bacon is much more about smoke and salt than it is about the flesh of sentient pigs. Personally, any pleasure I used to take from consuming animal products has now been replaced by a deep ethical disgust at what those products are, how they were made and what that meant for the experiences of the sentient beings involved and their families.

@@Sentientism as to your response to 1) well said. No rebuttal required. As to 2) i say "mmmmmmmmmmm…..bacon. I win.

@@stupidas9466 1) Thank you. 2) Nominative determinism 🙂

Hahahahahahhhaaaaahahahahaa!!

What is the collective noun for "Stev(ph)ens"?

@@elizabethblackwell6242 Stephanymophores: bearers of names derived from the name Stephanus.

The BEST with great thanks. Delightful.

Stephen and Steven are gifts to humanity.

kamiel choi agreed.

Christopher is dead? What? Oh my god. Call Mom RIGHT NOW. Wait, how do you know my brother?

Many do...and more importantly, all "should" miss him even more. Yet I have his books close by me...he's not going anywhere.

Hitch xxxx.

so do I , I sorely miss his input in todays debates......

Would you atheist-gasm at an audience with Stalin and Hitler? Honest question.

@Reggie Cyde thing is atheism is a non theistic religion

@Reggie Cyde God is dead meaning that theres no morality once God is 'killed' according to Nietzsche. But you're right man is deified, nevertheless it doesn't take away that Atheism is a religion.

Lol

"The Blank Slate" and "How the Mind Works" are well worth reading. If anything, he so soundly and brilliantly crushed the issues he approached that popular science has all seemed pretty boring to me, since then. And some current cultural arguments still seem almost deranged--"Pinker already won this argument in 2002."

isreview.org/issue/86/steven-pinker-alleged-decline-violence

blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/war-scholar-critiques-new-study-of-roots-of-violence/

Pinkers book has been widely criticised by his peers. I'm suprised he hasn't retracted it yet

@@mattgreer86 Evidence for that assertion, then...provide it.

Let's hope we get there someday... we're still evolving, and barley out of the dark ages, so despite the current political situation, I think there's hope in the long run. I know, call me over optimistic, but still! ✌

@Reggie Cyde Do you remember when Harvard's the Best and the Brightest ran US policy? Disaster. My experience is that academics can be a pretty petty bunch...has nothing to do with brain size and intellectual interests.

Vast majority of people would find this intolerably boring.

But they don't spread hate and tell people what they need to be against. They would fail misserably in politics.

@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 You shouldn't need to be told to be against treating people like 2nd class humans because of race, sex, etc.

Unlike daddy Peterson who constantly has to rely on name calling and reminding his alt right fans why they’re wasting so much money on his Patreon account.

Must have been ecstatic!

Isnt name dropping a way of letting the listeners know that the idea you are about to say comes from somebody else? Like how you put a source on a statistical evidence because it wasn't you who conducted the test/survey?

@boson96 can you point to some sources of your claims?

You lucky doer.

You just spoke my mind, sir.

Isn't Fry God?

The Enlightenment belongs to the phenomenon that is humanity, and not to atheism as an ideology, we have all benefited from the enlightenment and we can all use it together to create new ways to improve the lives of all, especially in the areas of peace. To suggest that only reason, science, humanism, and progress are the natural benefiters of the enlightenment is to hijack it and make it exclusive to an atheist agenda - i.e. that which has a proven record of utter destruction to humanity!

Fry has blind spots in his thinking process. Living a reclusive life of autodidacticism doesn't necessarily mean you're smart about everything.

these are useless farty Epstein conmen the are not our worlds genius males you dont hear about those

@@quantumfineartsandfossils2152 What are you talking about?

@@urbangorilla33 Why waste your breathe and time on it!

People would rather die than think Cat videos don't need any work

You cant defeat cats on youtube

Proves people react more strongly to cute stuff than smart stuff. Of course, one could possess both qualities. My friend's cat is a true intellectual, he comes up with novel ideas all the time.

The McLuhan quote I remember is, "The medium is the message." Regarding FB, twitter and, yes, even RU-vid comments, the media and their messages are worth every penny you pay for it!

Only one Steven. The other is a Stephen :)

And? The point isn't to prove their intellect but to make the public think. What do you mean "extravagant jargon"? Are you intimidated by articulate speakers that have actually glanced at a dictionary or read books? Comprehension of a language helps with explanation of ideas. They actually think and consider what they say instead of spewing the first banality that comes to mind.

How is this extravagant jargon?

and german talkshowhost thomas gottschalk...

And Albert Einstein...

Nathan, I love your comment. Laughing. And they are both scientists too.

Oh they'd get on famously.

... and Simon Rattle.

@Reggie Cyde lets hope this doesnt transform into something detrimental to society

@Reggie Cyde friend the news is always like that

Prateek Lala i don't need a 'trigger' to have a shot!

Too bad they're both hideously ugly men.

@@sammavacaist I'd bet that it is because they somehow oppose your political ideology that you now have to go into the comments and for no reason whatsoever live out your foolish emotional state of anger because you lack the capability of controlling it yourself.

@@finnradoy1742 Doesn't make them better looking. Its caused Steven great pain throughout his life. He's said as much.

@@sammavacaist It caused him pain that he isn't attractive? I'd like the source on that, and even if so, I don't find Pinker unattractive, and besides all of that, what exactly has that to do with any of the ideas that were discussed or the fact that someone finds the pronounciation of Aufklärung sexy? You're not really contributing to anything here and I wonder where that drive to spread hatred comes from.

@@finnradoy1742 Do you call out men who trash unattractive women this hard?

Jordan interviewed Pinker once online. There's a video of that somewhere on his channel.

This is so well said

Nice but futile

It is fullfilling a selfish need. The need to feel more important then you actually are. And that is fine, we all end up doing whatever gives us that feeling. Doesn't take away the shallowness of it though.

His believes, books and media image make J. Peterson very alt right in my personal European terms. He is probably not extreme right but traditional right here is more business and less morals.

was a discussion not an interview

What principles?

@@AkshayTomar1987 scientific method, freedom of speech, freedom of enquiry, freedom of religion 100% should be taught from a young age imo. Don't teach kids what to think, teach them how to think.