UNLOCKED! Ben Burgis on Logic and Arguments

Current Affairs

Comedy, Government, News, Culture, Politics

4.4 • 645 Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson, financial editor Sparky Abraham and contributing editor Aisling McCrea sit down with philosophy professor Ben Burgis to discuss his new book Give Them An Argument: Logic for the Left. Give Them An Argument: Logic for the Left is published by Zero Books. You can support and enjoy Ben Burgis' work by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/benburgis, where he publishes short essays and videos, or catch him on The Michael Brooks Show on his regular segment, The Debunk. This is a bonus episode that was released early for Patreon subscribers. To gain early access to episodes like these, as well as lots of delicious exclusive content, consider becoming one of our patrons at www.patreon.com/CurrentAffairs! This episode was edited by Dan Thorn of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good evening, current affairs listeners. My name is Nathan Robertson. I'm the editor of
0:04.5	Current Affairs Magazine, and I'm here tonight with my colleagues, first of all. I'm here
0:09.3	with Ashley McRae, contributing editor and podmaster. Hello, Ashley. Hello. And I'm here
0:13.6	with Barkie Abraham, our financial editor. Hello, Nathan. And we have a special guest with us.
0:19.5	This evening, we have Mr. Ben Burgess.
0:21.7	He teaches philosophy at Rutgers University.
0:24.4	He is the author of the new book, Give Them an Argument, Logic for the Left.
0:29.8	He also appears Tuesday nights on the Michael Brooks show with the segment The Debunk.
0:34.1	And he also releases essays on philosophy and politics on Patreon at patreon.com
0:40.2	slash Ben Burgess. Ben, it's so great to have you with us.
0:43.7	Yeah, it's great to be here. Ben, your book pushes back a little bit on a tendency that you have
0:52.1	kind of noticed among some on the left, which is that we see all of these
0:57.8	people on the right on YouTube who are obsessed with and love what they call logic and reason
1:06.7	and facts. And there is a tendency to react by saying, well, people like Ben Shapiro or even people
1:15.4	like Ayn Rand, well, yes, they're cold, rational logical people, but we like our feelings.
1:22.0	Feelings and values and emotions are important. And your book sort of says, well, it's not quite the right reaction because
1:29.3	it seeds too much ground. Feelings are important, but we shouldn't give them, we shouldn't grant them
1:36.8	that they are the logical ones, because in fact, logic is good and they're not doing it right.
1:44.6	Is that a fair description of your position?
1:47.0	Yes, absolutely.
1:48.2	Some of this, I have to say, is the fault of Star Trek,
1:51.7	which for all of its many virtues, has given television viewers the entirely false idea
	...

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