Sam Harris on the Science of Good and Evil

Intelligence Squared

Arts, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2017

⏱️ 60 minutes

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Summary

Where do our ideas about morality and meaning come from? Most people - from religious extremists to secular scientists - would agree on one point: that science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, science's failure to explain meaning and morality has become the primary justification for religious faith and the reason why even many non-believers feel obliged to accord respect to the beliefs of the devout. In this podcast, recorded at our event in April 2011, Sam Harris, the American philosopher and neuroscientist, argues that these views are mistaken - that amidst all the competing arguments about how we should lead our lives, science can show us that there are right and wrong answers. This means that moral relativism is mistaken and that there can be neither a Christian nor a Muslim morality - and that ultimately science can and should determine how best to live our lives. After an opening speech, Revd Dr Giles Fraser, former-canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, joins Harris in conversation. The event was chaired by Jeremy O'Grady, Editor-in-chief of The Week magazine and co-founder of Intelligence Squared. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:23.8	your phone and Chromebook.
0:24.8	Ladies, gentlemen, terrific to see you all here today in such numbers.
0:32.0	Who would have thought that on the question of moral philosophy
0:35.8	we could get a pat haul just like that?
0:37.5	Fantastic.
0:38.7	And we're very, very pleased to welcome Sam Harris,
0:41.0	who's just flown in from America and Charles Fraser.
0:45.2	I want to remind you that one of the key aspects of Intelligence Square debates generally and this debate in particular
0:54.1	is the scope to change your mind and to be open to evidence. It's true of both
1:00.6	Sam and Giles that they have both at some stage in their lives
1:04.6	change their mind from what you would have perhaps expected them to be. That's to say
1:09.5	Sam, you may not know this, but was a Buddhist and Hindu meditator at one stage not perhaps
1:16.3	what you would expect now although I'm sure he will be able to trace a linear
1:21.0	development between his present position and those.
1:23.8	Giles was a left-wing socialist who, on the basis of evidence that he saw,
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