Science & Reason on Facebook: tinyurl.com Stephen Fry @ BigThink: Philosophy, Logic And Reason. — Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.YouTube.com • www.YouTube.com • www.YouTube.com • www.YouTube.com — Interview Transcript Question: What philosophers influenced you? Stephen Fry: Philosophy is an odd thing. When we use the word in everyday speech you know you sometimes hear it hilariously. They say, Oh, its never good to be late. Thats my philosophy. You think thats a generous description of that rather dull precept to call it a philosophy, but its odd how philosophers generally speaking, at least the ones Ive read or the ones I you know value, dont have in that sense a philosophy. There is no particular Socratic or Nietzschean or Kantian way to live your life. They dont offer ethical codes and standards by which to live your life. They dont offer a philosophy to follow. They just simply raise an enormous number of questions mostly, so in the sense that you put the question is there a philosopher thats important to me. Well I me I loved really the sort of the Bertrand Russell grand sort of tour of philosophy, the history of philosophy from the pre Socratics as they’re called, Zeno and so on through to Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. I never quite liked Aristotle. I think thats partly… Although he was obviously a genius and brilliant and he invented logic, so whats not to like. I think it was his influence on the medieval mind was probably rather pernicious …
@hugotuga100 Who are you to tell someone that they can’t talk about something that they’re interested in just because they aren’t ‘qualified’?
@hugotuga100 but what you say isn’t totally true, because I do read a lot of books and would say that they offer much more information that a 3 minute video on youtube, but I like to see other people’s opinions about life and phylosophy, and Stephan Fry is very much educated and what he says is quite smart, plus you shouldn’t judge him just because he goes on a television , I mean look at David Attenborough he’s on TV all the time and he passes on a lot of wisdom onto his viewers
@hugotuga100 but what you say isn’t totally true, because I do read a lot of books and would say that they offer much more information that a 3 minute video on youtube, but I like to see other people’s opinions about life and phylosophy, and Stephan Fry is very much educated and what he says is quite smart, plus you shouldn’t judge him just because he goes on a television , I mean look at David Attenborough he’s on TV all the time and he passes on a lot of wisdom onto his viewers
@hugotuga100 but what you say isn’t totally true, because I do read a lot of books and would say that they offer much more information that a 3 minute video on youtube, but I like to see other people’s opinions about life and phylosophy, and Stephan Fry is very much educated and what he says is quite smart, plus you shouldn’t judge him just because he goes on a television , I mean look at David Attenborough he’s on TV all the time and he passes on a lot of wisdom onto his viewers
@Trumagmur I’m sure that he is a brilliant man but i would rather have someone qualified answering proper questions about philosophy such as what is the relationship between philosophy, arts and science. what is philosophical enquiry; what is philosophical logic, etc. someone who doesn’t know philosophy must get bewildered after watching such. i did not want to hurt celebrity cult religion
@hugotuga100 You’ve reacted to this as if it was meant to be an educational video on philosophy. He was asked to give a list of philosophers, that’s why he did that. Stephen Fry isn’t the average TV celebrity, he reads about all sorts of interesting things.
I got a ba in philosophy and if i was his teacher i would give him 0. he didn’t say anything about philosophy. he only gave us a list of philosophers and things he thought to have studied. It so sad that we live in a celebrity cult culture t least in the UK. Look through books and professors not through tv celebrities
Check out my forum for philosophy students or anyone with an interest: papers.net76.net
@calumelliott IM NOT HOMOPHOBIC U PRETENTIOUS C*NTS! BUT I AM AGAINST OLD MEN LURKING ON HETERO PORN SITES TRYING TO GROOM AROUSED+NAIVE TEENAGE BOYS! BTW,I MADE THOSE COMMENTS A WHILE AGO..& STILL U F*CKERS R GIVING ME SHIT!…LMFAO,I THINK SUM PPL NEED2 GET A LIFE! WE DO HAV SUMTHIN IN COMMON..I TOO AM ASHAMED 2 B HUMAN,MAN-KINDS ‘GREED’ AND ‘EGO’ R THE VERY REASON THIS PLANET IS FUCKED BEYOND RECOGNITION. FINALLY,FYI, I HAVE EVERY SEASON OF Qi ON DVD…BCOZ ITS MY FAVOURITE SHOW. IRONIC HUH!
@SuperTroII and trolls dont? hush child
@yourm0msuxmybigcock I wish people as stupid as you could feel shame.
@yogawiki you mad
@SuperTroII people who believe in god dont think wayyy to much
athiests love to argue WAYYY to much
@Qeerious looking out the window of his loft at night!
stephen fry. im hetro/asexual but i’d totaly label myself Gay for you.
i am honored to live in the same world as you.
STEPHEN FRY national treasure
@ikallicrates yes, but the religions do not claim to ‘know’ the truth, and thus have faith in it, whilst also still searching for it…..so there you have it! Religious people can think also. 😉
Since @TomFynn and @Piatasify have followed me down the low road, (Ad Hom) here then allow me to take things up a notch. Fry blatantly has abused his position as a minor celebrity and oxbridge fecund to look down his big nose and made some glib statements as to the rigor and intellectual veracity of Buddhism which are unfounded. He assumes that because Indian Philosophy was NOT INVENTED HERE he can advance his position as a popular academic. Trouble his, his own words have found him wanting.
@yogawiki Russel was one of the clearest thinkers of the modern age. Likewise Aristotle and Plato sat down to do some serious thinking. By your own logic you must be a greater thinker than them and even than your praised Nagarjuna to make the judgment you did.
Bah. Humbug.
dude, you go it right. I have been waiting for someone to come around and to finally put some God and Science logic into the world. contact me at sebastian_osborn@yahoo.com, and visit my channel on youtube
@ikallicrates Philosophy is ones Ideas’ Philosophic interpretation explains the principles of human consciousness’
@yogawiki as there have been Modern European philosophers who have been influenced by, and thought hightly of, classic Indian philosophy, I’m not sure where this huge chip you seem to carry on your shoulder comes from. Did it appear the moment you saw this clip? If so you might want to look into your over sensitivity issues. If it’s because of something that has been going on for a longer time, try to explain it rather then taking it out on me.
@yogawiki “if you just want to feel good- might I suggest therapy?”, you base this on what exactly?
It should be obvious that I am referring to your rooting for Indian philosophy, as if it were some type of world-cup event. I thought approaching philosophy by the philosopher rather then the idea was bad enough, so I guess you have actually managed to widen my horizon. Dialectic is the one of the most basic concepts, I guess explaning it is also meant to be insulting?
@Piatasify There is a long tradition both in Classical and Indian logic about “winning” arguments – in fact – that IS the whole point of the dialectic – to defeat your opponent so that progress can be made. Philosophy is by definition – uncompromising and challenging – if you just want to feel good – might I suggest therapy?
Great review! You actually touched some interesting news here. I came across it by using Google and I’ve got to admit that I already subscribed to the RSS feed, will be following you on my iphone 🙂