Understanding The Jordan Peterson vs Sam Harris Debates: Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson have engaged in a series of debates that included Bret Weinstein and Douglas Murray as moderators, in addition to two podcasts. One in which they famously debated the nature of truth for over two hours.
Peterson’s Logos Argument, or Why Atheists aren’t Atheists: ‘Logos’ translates to ‘reason’ in Greek. The term originated in ancient Greece in the sixth century B.C with Heraclitus, who linked the logic of the cosmos with human reason. The Stoics defined the logos as an “active rational and spiritual principle that permeated all of reality.” To them, the logos was providence, god, nature, and the soul of the universe. But this term has permeated many traditions, with ideas about it found in Indian, Egyptian, and Persian philosophical systems.
The Munk Debate on Political Correctness: There is too much certainty, there needs to be an end to the blind clash between both sides of the debate. “it’s time for this toxic binary zero-sum madness to stop before we destroy ourselves.” I am opposed to political correctness not only because “I have spent a lifetime loathing and opposing preachiness, piety, self-righteousness, heresy, hunting, denunciation, shaming, assertion without evidence, accusation, inquisition, censoring – my real objection is that I don’t think political correctness works.”
What is Truth? Sam Harris vs Jordan Peterson: It is imperative in science to doubt; it is absolutely necessary, for progress in science, to have uncertainty as a fundamental part of your inner nature. To make progress in understanding, we must remain modest and allow that we do not know. – Richard Feynman
Jordan Peterson vs Susan Blackmore: Do we need God?: They first discuss the nature of memes and archetypes. Susan Blackmore subscribes to Dawkins’ idea of memes as being separate from genes in that they are not biological, but that they are culturally determined. Peterson disagrees. He believes that memes are really archetypes (that Dawkins is wrong) – and that archetypes are biological. Peterson affirms that nature selects the best traits, and that these are traits are “right” in some fundamental way. Susan says that’s a big jump.
The Munk Debate on the Rise of Populism: “The markets have just had the worst month since 09. Since the bottom of the recession, 1.2 million manufacturing jobs have been creating. 2/3rds by Obama, and 1/3rd Trump. Trump is a continuation of Obama but with more tariffs and more inflation and higher interest rates. The new financial crisis will come, not because of Bernanke, but because Populism is appealing to emotions and not results or the future. Trump accuses the democrats of wanting to turn the U.S into Venezuela but his policies are like those of Juan Peron’s Argentina. With high tariffs, and high inflation. The U.S is running a trillion-dollar deficit in the coming fiscal year. That’s a bigger deficit than Bush’s in the first Gulf War. The populists feign being the guardians of the future, but the future is on our side. The populists only know how to hate, and hate doesn’t build.”
Jordan Peterson vs Sam Harris (Vancouver 1): Further, our experiences in our short life span (relative to existence of ancient structures such as the dominance hierarchy, religion, etc…) are insufficient – they cannot illuminate enough truths about the nature of reality. Peterson thinks that we are too complex to be able to guide ourselves by using a top-down rational approach. Moral systems are emergent, they develop organically. He cites Piaget’s studies on how children naturally develop moral systems bottom-up through play.
Triggered: Sam Harris vs Scott Adams: Scott Adams even talks about the three types of lies that exist. One lie is the mistaken fact, the other is hyperbole, and the third is the inconsequential lie — the one that doesn’t make a difference to the results. Why are people like Harris reluctant to accept this? Because there seems to be something morally pernicious about doing so. It is, in a way, admitting to a wicked underlying reality. But this doesn’t negate the obvious existence of this reality. It would be nice if the world were not so, but it is. Lies serve a function, a very important one, otherwise they wouldn’t be so prevalent, and so consistent. They’re useful.
The Jordan Peterson vs Matt Dillahunty Debate: Herein lies the key argument. The reason why Peterson doesn’t accept Dillahunty’s distinction is because he divides the world into two types of moral systems, rationality-based systems and mythology-based systems. It doesn’t matter if you call your rationalist moral system secular humanism,because the problem is that it is purely based on rationality. And the instances we have ever had of rationalist moral system in the 20th century have ended in catastrophe.
The Problem with the Sam Harris Cookbook Argument: Harris wrote this in the end-notes of his book “The End of Faith” and intends it to be a counter-example to Joseph Campbell’s work on mythology. He walks into a bookstore (Barnes & Noble), and with his eyes closed, randomly grabbed a book and opened it at random. The book was called “A taste of Hawaii: New Cooking from the Crossroads of the Pacific.” Here’s what Harris wrote in the end-note.
Eric Weinstein and Sam Harris: Sam Harris had a discussion with Eric Weinstein on his podcast. Eric is a mathematician, economist, physicist and managing director of Thiel Capital. Eric and Sam talked about left and right political ideologies, religion, and well… Sam Harris.
When Yuval Harari Warned Daniel Kahneman of the Future: On September 14, 2019, a drone hit two oil facilities in Aramco.