82. Bernard-Henri Lévy (Philosopher) – The Mirror of Our Better Selves

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2017

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think’s interview archives. The Washington Post has this to say about today's guest: "There is no American equivalent of Bernard-Henri Lévy. Known as “BHL,” he is among the last of a quintessentially French breed, the 20th century intellectuel engagé. As a “nouveau philosophe” disenchanted with Marxism, communism and the excesses of 1968, when civil unrest roiled France, Levy has enjoyed a long and theatrical career since the 1970s, embracing journalism, philosophy, film and an outspoken advocacy for human rights." BHL's films include the documentaries Bosna! And A Day in the Death of Sarajevo. Lévy is co-founder of the antiracist group SOS Racisme and has served on diplomatic missions for the French government. His newest book The Genius of Judaism explores what he sees as the crucial metaphysical role of Jewish thought and the Jewish people in the life of nations. Today's episode addresses torture, the question of evil, and the tipping point at which democracy becomes something else. Surprise conversation starter interview clips in this episode: Paul Bloom on Torture, and Ian Bremmer on America as a Superpower. About Think Again - A Big Think Podcast: You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel? Why not gambling? The Art of War? Contemporary parenting? Some of the best conversations happen when we're pushed outside of our comfort zones. Each week on Think Again, we surprise smart people you may have heard of with short clips from Big Think's interview archives on every imaginable subject. These conversations could, and do, go anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, I'm Jason Gots and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.
0:08.0	Started in 2008, Big Think is a kind of online think tank of important emerging ideas from some of the most creative thinkers on the planet.
0:17.0	On this podcast, we revisit these ideas in new ways. Our producers surprise me
0:21.9	and my guests with short interview clips from Big Things Archives, ideas that we didn't
0:26.7	come here necessarily prepared to discuss. I'm delighted to be here today with philosopher,
0:32.3	journalist, activist, and filmmaker Bernard Henri Levy. The Washington Post has this to say about him. There is no American equivalent of Bernard Henri Levy. The Washington Post has this to say about him.
0:38.3	There is no American equivalent of Bernard Henri Levy, known in France as B.HL.
0:43.3	He is among the last of a quintessentially French breed, the 20th century intellectual-enguege.
0:49.3	That loosely translates as an intellectual actively at work in the world.
0:54.6	A fixture in French philosophy since he burst on the scene in the 1970s, Levy has also been
0:59.6	an influential political voice against racism and genocide and on behalf of the oppressed
1:04.5	in the Bosnian War, Ukraine and Syria.
1:07.4	Levy's latest book, The Genius of Judaism, is a personal, philosophical, and historical account
1:11.6	of Jewish ideas at work in Western culture.
1:14.6	It's also a response to what he outlines as a powerful resurgence of anti-Semitism in the Western world.
1:20.6	Welcome to think again.
1:21.6	Thank you.
1:22.6	I'd like to start with the personal and then go to the general.
1:26.6	You talk about how you came later in your intellectual life
1:31.9	to Jewish ideas and Jewish reading and teaching yourself Hebrew and so on,
1:37.0	but that it was like revolutionary for you in your thinking.
1:40.4	Could you talk a little bit about that?
	...

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