Argument: 3. Synthesis
Rory Stewart: The Long History of...
BBC
4.6 • 593 Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rory Stewart explores the strange human phenomenon of arguing and why it matters so deeply to our lives in a new series on BBC Radio 4.
Argument became the way in which we answered the deepest questions of philosophy, established scientific rules, and made legal decisions. It was the foundation of our democracies and the way in which we chose the policies for our state.
Rory grew up believing that the way to reach the truth was through argument. He was trained to argue in school, briefly taught classical rhetoric and he became a member of parliament. But the experience of being a politician also showed him how dangerous arguments can be, and how bad arguments can threaten our democracies, provoke division and hide the truth.
In this episode, Rory explores why our democracy and humanity may depend on rediscovering how to argue well.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
Transcript
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| 0:26.0 | What I would love to do is go to the transfer and say radically cut the taxes of those with children. |
| 0:31.2 | Radical with me and Ol Rajan. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.1 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:42.0 | No, Penny. |
| 0:44.0 | Don't throw everything away? |
| 0:46.3 | Don't want them. |
| 0:48.5 | Well, you have to respect. |
| 0:51.4 | No. |
| 0:52.4 | Growing! |
| 0:54.5 | This is Elodie and Penny, my producer's six- and four-year-olds. |
| 1:00.0 | As a parent of children the same age, I often tune these kinds of arguments out. |
| 1:04.1 | But if you listen more carefully, you can see there is a special mental skill here, which is actually unique to humans. |
| 1:11.3 | It's not yours, Penny, you're pulling again. |
| 1:15.2 | Well, you're not serving. |
| 1:18.1 | Sharing is caring. |
| 1:21.0 | Each child is forming a representation of their siblings' minds, |
| 1:25.4 | and addressing them in a way which orientes to what they think the other thinks. |
| 1:30.5 | But that's when they're not just lying, of course, or ranting the other into submission. |
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