David Berlinski: Human Nature
Socrates in the City
Socrates in the City
4.7 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2023
⏱️ 74 minutes
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Summary
A conversation between David Berlinski and Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas regarding Dr. Berlinski’s recent book “Human Nature.” This event took place at the Union League Club in New York City in November 2022. Learn more about Socrates in the City at socratesinthecity.com.
David Berlinski received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University and was later a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics and molecular biology at Columbia University. He has authored works on systems analysis, differential topology, theoretical biology, analytic philosophy, and the philosophy of mathematics, and three novels. He has taught philosophy, mathematics and English at Stanford, Rutgers, the City University of New York and the Université de Paris. David is the author of many books including the bestselling book The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions. Dr. Berlinski lives in Paris, France.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wow. Thanks again all of you for being here at Sockd-Ezen City. We've been doing these roughly monthly. Some of you I know have been here to each one of these, and we |
| 0:23.2 | aim to be eclectic. For example, you'll remember May 31st, we had Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie |
| 0:32.3 | Duke who walked on the moon 50 years ago, and I'm sorry to say, |
| 0:38.4 | none of the guests we've had since then has walked on the moon. |
| 0:43.5 | And I feel we're doing the best we can. |
| 0:48.0 | We tried, but there really was no one else who walked on the moon |
| 0:52.7 | who was willing to be our guest. |
| 0:53.9 | So from here on in, I think it's going to be mostly terrestrially bound guests. |
| 1:01.0 | And again, I apologize. I'm sorry. |
| 1:05.0 | I want to say, to those of you unfamiliar with the concept of Socrates in the city, |
| 1:10.1 | Socrates famously said the unexamined life is not worth living. |
| 1:15.4 | And then he blew his brains out in an alley. |
| 1:18.3 | That's not true. |
| 1:20.1 | He said the unexamined life is not worth living. |
| 1:21.9 | And we thought, I think, 20-something years ago, |
| 1:24.0 | that, you know, New Yorkers in particular lead particularly unexamined lives. |
| 1:28.5 | We're kind of going after the brass ring. And it would be nice if we could have a forum where |
| 1:34.2 | we could have conversations where people talked about the big questions, you know, the big questions, |
| 1:42.4 | whether God exists, whether there's such a thing as human nature, |
| 1:47.7 | whether science is compatible with faith, whether we can know anything, you know, things like that. |
| 1:54.5 | First of all, I want to thank the Discovery Institute for helping make this possible, |
| 1:58.0 | and I want to thank a particular Mr. David Thayer, |
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