Rationally Speaking #119 - Aaron James on Assholes (and Bitches)

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2014

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You probably feel like you can recognize someone who's an asshole when you're unlucky enough to encounter him. But can you really? Philosophy professor Aaron James, the author of "Assholes: A Theory," joins the podcast to lay out just what makes an asshole an asshole, and why they're so uniquely maddening. Massimo, Julia and Aaron debate the assholery of certain people in politics and atheism, explore the difference between an asshole and a bitch, and swap coping mechanisms.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.
0:22.6	For more information, please visit us at NYCCEPtics.org.
0:35.2	Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.
0:40.7	I'm your host, Massimo Pilucci, and with me as always is my co-host, Julia Galev.
0:45.2	Julia, what are we going to talk about today?
0:48.3	Well, Massimo, I'm pleased to welcome today's guest, Professor Aaron James, who is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, and did his doctorate at Harvard.
1:00.9	Aaron focuses on ethics and political philosophy.
1:05.0	And he's published two books.
1:07.4	In 2012, he published Fairness in Practice, a social contract for a global economy.
1:12.8	But that's not what we're talking about, right?
1:15.1	That's not what we're talking about. Today's topic is a more recent book with a punchier title
1:20.7	called Assholes, A Theory.
1:23.9	Okay. Welcome, Aaron. Oh, thanks very much. Nice to be with you. Okay, so let's jump straight
1:32.2	into it. What's your definition of an asshole, philosophically speaking? Right. Okay, so in brief,
1:39.3	the asshole is the guy and they're mainly but not only men the guy who systematically allows himself special
1:47.3	advantages in cooperative life out of an entrenchence of entitlement that immunizes him against
1:52.8	the complaints of other people.
1:54.3	Yeah, I think I know a few of those.
1:56.7	You've met that guy.
1:58.8	If you feel like you've met that guy, then the definition succeeds in getting us to think
2:04.0	that there's a genuine type of moral personality and that the term asshole isn't just
2:08.9	a term of swearing or abuse or blowing off steam.
	...

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