Slavery, Enlightenment, and America's Refounding

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Natural Sciences, Science

4.3 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Shermer and Matthew Stewart explore the heretical philosophical roots of the American Republic, including Enlightenment influences and the Founding Fathers' religious beliefs. They discuss Epicurean and ancient Greek ideas, slavery's moral contradictions, and its role in causing the Civil War, with figures like John Brown and Frederick Douglass shaping abolitionist movements that ultimately led to emancipation.

Matthew Stewart is an independent philosopher and historian who has written extensively about the philosophical origins of the American republic, the history of philosophy, management theory, and the culture of inequality. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review, among other publications. In recent years he has lived in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, and is currently based in London. He is the author of Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic and An Emancipation of the Mind: Radical Philosophy, the War over Slavery, and the Refounding of America.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Michaelber Show. Hey everybody it's Michael Schurmer's time for another episode of the Michael
0:26.8	Schurmer show in studio this time we're here in the offices of Skeptic
0:31.2	Society in Santa Barbara, California.
0:33.2	And my guest today is Matthew Stewart.
0:35.8	Here is his new book.
0:37.9	He is an independent philosopher and historian
0:40.2	who has written extensively
0:41.4	about the philosophical origins of the American Republic,
0:45.0	the history of philosophy, management theory, and the culture of inequality.
0:49.0	His work has appeared in the Atlantic, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business
0:54.0	Review, among other publications in recent years.
0:56.8	He has lived in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, currently based in London.
1:00.3	Actually, he's currently based in Santa Barbara.
1:01.7	Yeah, it's great to be here.
1:04.4	When are you going to move to Santa Barbara?
1:05.7	Come on, man.
1:06.7	As soon as I can, as soon as I can.
1:08.2	I mean, you got the life, and I'm just trying to emulate you.
1:11.4	I know, it's a bit of paradise here I have to say.
1:15.2	As you know I've had your wife Catherine on the show talk about
1:19.4	Christian nationalism and the re-rise of the religious right and all that stuff.
1:25.4	So I read your book, Nature's God, before I knew who you were, that was maybe a decade ago,
	...

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