From Nigel Warburton: BBC Discussion Of Agnosticism: A Cop Out?

July 6, 2023 / chr1 / 11 Comments

Full post here. (The link may not last long. For future reference, it is the Richard Bacon show on the BBC, Tue June 29th, 2:13:00).

Is agnosticism a convenient middle path…a cop out…a way to split the difference and not confront the balance of evidence?

Here’s a quote from Betrand Russell:

“As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God.

On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.”

Did the ground shift some time ago? Bryan Magee’s Talking Philosophy On YouTube

Repost-From Virtual Philosophy: A Brief Interview With Simon Blackburn

August 19, 2021 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Full interview here.

“Nigel: Has relativism had its day as an influential philosophical position?
Simon: No – and I don’t think it should ever die. The danger is that it gets replaced by some kind of complacent dogmatism, which is at least equally unhealthy. The Greek sceptics thought that confronting a plurality of perspectives is the beginning of wisdom, and I think they were right. It is certainly the beginning of historiography and anthropology, and if we think, for instance, of the Copernican revolution, of self-conscious science. The trick is to benefit from an imaginative awareness of diversity, without falling into a kind of “anything goes” wishy-washy nihilism or scepticism….”

It looks like we’ve been dealing with such a problem for a long time, in one form or another.

See Also On This Site: Can you maintain the virtues of religion without the church…of England?: From The City Journal: Roger Scruton On “Forgiveness And Irony”…Are we going soft and “European”… do we need to protect our religious idealism enshrined in the Constitution….with the social sciences?…Charles Murray Lecture At AEI: The Happiness Of People

From Wikipedia’s Page On Leo Strauss: A Few Quotes: From The Philosopher’s Magazine Via The A & L Daily: ‘My Philosophy: Alan Sokal’

From Nigel Warburton’s Site: A Definition of Humanism?

September 22, 2013 / chr1 / 2 Comments

Full post here.

“‘…a morally concerned style of intellectual atheism openly avowed by only a small minority of individuals (for example, those who are members of the British Humanist Association) but tacitly accepted by a wide spectrum of educated people in all parts of the Western world.”

From Nigel Warburton: BBC Discussion Of Agnosticism: A Cop Out?

July 4, 2009January 1, 2018 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Full post here. (The link may not last long. For future reference, it is the Richard Bacon show on the BBC, Tue June 29th, 2:13:00).

Is agnosticism a convenient middle path…a cop out…a way to split the difference and not confront the balance of evidence?

The Kantianism is thick here. Here’s a quote from Betrand Russell:

Did the ground shift some time ago? Bryan Magee’s Talking Philosophy On YouTube

Nigel Warburton On His New Book About Free Speech

June 6, 2009 / chr1 / Leave a comment

2 min introductory video here. (book can be found at the link)

I get a lot of comments from people who think that philosophy’s not good for much, and often I agree. Maybe it’s best for clarifying one’s own thinking, and through that clarification offering insight into a central and divisive issue:

The divisive issue here is free speech, especially in Europe (it can get you killed) and has become a flashpoint between Muslim immigrants and European natives (where national and racial identity can be violently united).

Do we want absolute freedom of speech or absolute anything for that matter?…How does a civilization deal with the often unwise, incendiary ranting that comes with it? Who decides what the limits are?

Worth a look.

Also On This Site: Do you defend Christianity against Islam as Roger Scruton does despite his depth? From YouTube: Roger Scruton On Religious Freedom, Islam & Atheism…the way people treat immigrants is important, but so is the way people treat the poor among them…

Martha Nussbaum may be asking the question: How do you create a civil society that does not place religion above a concept of the moral good, yet that also does not pursue the moral good while zealously excluding religion? Repost: Martha Nussbaum Channels Roger Williams In The New Republic: The First Founder

I’d like to answer that question without theories of distributive justice please…I don’t think a big bloated government helps in the long run.

Also: From The Atlantic: Samuel Huntington’s Death And Life’s Work