moralvalues

Today it’s great to have Sam Harris on the podcast. Sam is the author of five New York Timesbest sellers, including The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, and Waking Up. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy,religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality—but generally focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. He also hosts the Making Sense Podcast, which was selected by Apple as one of the “iTunes Best” and has won a Webby Award for best podcast in the Science & Education category.

Topics

[0:17] Sam and Scott discuss materialism and consciousness

[2:59] Sam makes his case for determinism

[11:08] Sam and Scott discuss “the self” and free will

[24:50] Sam’s take on why determinism eases human suffering

[29:23] Sam’s thoughts on the "responsibility paradox"

[36:30] The link between the responsibility paradox, cancel culture, and politics

[43:57] Sam’s thoughts on pride

[48:17] Sam’s reflections on love, hate, and Trump

[1:08:00] Sam’s defense of objective morality

[1:15:51] Why we ‘should’ prevent suffering and promote collective wellbeing

[1:30:23] What if reincarnation was real?

[1:33:37] Would it be good to change someone’s intuition of right and wrong?

[1:39:40] How emotions and values are linked

[1:45:09] Why we need to scale values

[1:48:12] Sam’s issue with the is-ought problem

[1:56:49] Why Sam maintains that free will and determinism are incompatible

[2:02:45] Why the self is an illusion

[2:08:53] Sam’s exploration of mystery

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Dr. Jordan Peterson delivered this talk at the Prager Summit in May in Santa Barbara. However, it's really an extended commentary on a lecture from Sydney, Australia, Feb 26, 2019, entitled Who Dares Say He Believes in God? To conclude this episode, Jordan also talks with Dennis Prager at the Prager Summit in May in Santa Barbara.

“There are two ideas about safe spaces. One is a very good idea, and one is a terrible idea. The idea of being physically safe on a campus, not being subjected to sexual harassment and physical abuse, or being targeted for something specifically for some sort of hate speech… I’m perfectly fine with that. But there’s another that is now ascendent, which I just think is a horrible view, which is ‘I need to be safe ideologically, I need to be safe emotionally, I just need to feel good all the time. And if someone says something that I don’t like, that is a problem for everyone else, including the administration.’ I think that is a terrible idea for the following reason: I don’t want you to be safe ideologically. I don’t want you to be safe emotionally. I want you to be strong. That’s different. I’m not going to pave the jungle for you. Put on some boots, and learn how to deal with adversity. I’m not going to take all the weights out of the gym. That’s the whole point of the gym. This is the gym.”

— Anthony Van Jones

Today we have Jonathan Haidt on the podcast. Dr. Haidt is a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Dr. Haidt’s research examines the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultures— including the cultures of American progressive, conservatives, and libertarians. Haidt is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and of The New York Times bestseller The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. His third book, co-authored with Greg Lukianoff, is called The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure.

In this episode we discuss:

•  “The tumultuous years” on college campuses from 2015-2017
• Wisdom and its opposite
• The three great untruths
• The main aims of Heterodox Academy
• The importance of exposing students to opposing views on campus
• The detrimental effects of moral amplification
• How moral foundations theory helps explain political divides
• The common humanity of liberals and conservatives
• The psychological function of having a common enemy
• How social media amplifies tribalism
• The rise of antifragility
• The net effect of “callout culture”
• The importance of play in early childhood
• The importance of cognitive behavioral therapy and sharpening your intuitions
• The importance of both racial/ethnic minority diversity and viewpoint diversity
• How to help young people flourish in college

Links

Heterodox Academy

Wisdom as a classical source of human strength: Conceptualization and empirical inquiry

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Do you consider yourself a good person? Do you seek power? If you answered “yes” to both questions, great. If you answered “yes” to the first but “no” to the second, what the f*ck is wrong with you? You’re what’s wrong with society. You’re the reason the world isn’t a better place. What do I mean? Listen to this episode and find out.

0:00:00 - Opening

0:14:55 - "Stalingrad Memories of Hell"

2:07:18 - Final Thoughts and Take-Aways

2:21:42 - Support: JockoStore stuff, Super Krill Oil and Joint Warfare and Discipline Pre-Mission, THE MUSTER 005 in DC. Origin Brand Apparel and Jocko Gi, with Jocko White Tea,  Onnit Fitness stuff, and Psychological Warfare (on iTunes). Extreme Ownership (book), The Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual. 

2:41:22 - Closing Gratitude.