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Can reason and faith truly coexist? If science explains the natural world, does that leave any room for miracles—or God? And if miracle claims are so rare, should we ever believe them at all? Common atheist talking points unravel under close examination, from the shifting definition of atheism to the idea that all religions rest on equally shaky ground. In the end, Keaton Halley offers compelling reasons why Christianity stands apart.
A special cameo from a special guest aka The Smug Prick filling in for Mason who is jetting back to O – Bealey is a bit dusty after a Newcastle Bucks party. A deep dive into the current standings in the twos, the mailbag has never been fuller – the Tool of the Week is a triple treat – the boys defend a Albury's nightlife venue and our special guest saves his best for his CollKaneo – enjoy Ep 17 !
In this episode, we sit down with Justin Hume, Vice President of Mobile Experience at Samsung South Africa, to explore the groundbreaking innovations behind the all-new Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7. Justin unpacks how these latest foldables mark a major leap forward—not just in sleek design, but in blending top-tier hardware with cutting-edge AI features. With ultra-thin form factors, upgraded hinges, and 200MP cameras, these devices now deliver the full power of a flagship in a foldable format. We also dive into Samsung's thoughtful approach to user feedback, which led to a lighter, more pocket-friendly design and the launch of the more accessible Flip 7 FE. Plus, Justin reveals exciting launch offers, availability dates, and shares how Samsung is fusing hardware and AI to turn smartphones into intelligent personal assistants. Stay tuned to hear more about the Galaxy Watch 8 series, now slimmer, smarter, and equipped with advanced health tracking and AI integration.
Samsung Electronics recently launched the latest line-up of its popular Galaxy A-series of midtier smartphones, with the A26, A36 and A56 replacing the older A25, A35 and A55 models. One of the most notable new features of the A-series is a curated artificial intelligence module, dubbed Awesome Intelligence, that brings powerful AI features previously exclusive to its top-tier Galaxy S-series phones to its midrange devices for the first time. Unique to the A-series is a new safety feature called Samsung SOS+, a free-to-use, 24/7 subscription service exclusive to owners of the new Galaxy A56, A36 and A26 devices. In an emergency situation – and on-demand – the service immediately geolocates the user and sends private security and medical emergency services to their location at the press of a button. In this episode of TCS+, Justin Hume, vice president for mobile at Samsung Electronics South Africa, tells TechCentral about how SOS+ works in the new Galaxy A-series line-up. Hume delves into: • The inspiration behind SOS+ and why Samsung has chosen the A series to pilot the service; • How the service works and its benefits for A-series smartphone users; • Why the service is currently limited to users of the A56, A36 and A26 devices and Samsung's plans for expanded roll-out; • Key features that set the SOS+ service apart; and • Why Samsung has chosen Aura as its partner in providing the SOS+ service. Don't miss a fascinating discussion! TechCentral
This special, live-recorded panel brings together leaders from the CPG and wellness spaces for a night of genuine conversation, actionable insights, and intentional connection. Hosted by Seb, the event dives into what it truly means to scale with purpose in today's business landscape.Panelists Susan Avery Ford (Commercial Banker, J.P. Morgan), Ramya Velasumy (CFO at Bloom Nutrition), and Hannah Perez (Founder of SEEQ Clear Protein) share hard-earned lessons from their journeys. They discuss financial strategy, conscious leadership, brand building, and the evolving role of AI in business, offering clear takeaways for founders, operators, and investors alike.We also had acoustic sets by Cloe Breena and Benza Maman, as well as a breathwork session led by Jenna Roth, Director of Wellness at Hume, which grounded the event in connection and presence.Whether you're scaling a wellness brand or building something with meaning, this conversation is packed with real talk, practical tools, and clarity on how to grow without losing your values.Topics Discussed:Cloe Breena's Musical Opening“Beautiful Soul” PerformanceBenza Maman's Introduction and Duet“Walk Each Other Home” PerformanceIntroduction to “Generation C”Pillars of Conscious CapitalismElevating Workplaces and SelfJenna Roth's Breathwork SessionPanelist IntroductionsEarly Consumer Insights in CPGWellness Market TrendsPersonal Wellness in BusinessFun and Balance in Brand BuildingPivotal Growth DecisionsSustainable Scaling and StructureKPIs and Planning for GrowthManaging Cash Flow and InventoryMarketing Strategies and AdvocacyFinancial Pitfalls and SophisticationCulture as a Financial AssetAssessing Brand CultureInternal Rituals and LeadershipStakeholder Engagement and FeedbackAI and People-First ApproachTraits of Conscious LeadersAudience Q&A: Retention & Choosing InvestorsConnect with Ramya on InstagramConnect with Hannah on InstagramConnect with Susan on InstagramConnect with Cloe on InstagramConnect with Benza on InstagramConnect with Jenna on InstagramConnect with Sebastian on InstagramSebastianNaum.com
Mason reflects back on his youth and a brush with a few over zealous security, Bealey pays homage to a Crows legend who racked up his 150th senior game - nine yrs after his 149th ! A lively audio message hits the Mailbag as Mason hits Niagara Falls !
Has there ever been a better round of goals in this competition? From Diego Cuba's physics-defying free kick to a pair of Preston pile-drivers, we were spoilt for choice for goal of the week. Add in two six-goal thrillers and a pair of backflip celebrations, and NPL Victoria fans were eating good this past weekend.We start at George Andrews, where Thunder found themselves 3-0 up against Oakleigh inside half an hour, before the Cannons roared back to life in the second half. Then, over at Frank Holohan, a Ren Nagamatsu-inspired South Melbourne ran riot before King Kenny led a late fightback. Dinamo's decisive derby win leaves the Knights on the brink, Preston bounce back in emphatic fashion, and Nick Hegarty's Hume lose their third on the trot.Plus in VPL1, we dig into Northcote's decision to sack their coaching duo, and Kingston's incredible 6-1 demolition of Manningham. The NPL Victoria Podcast is brought to you in 2025 by Melville Bodyworks, located at 106 Melville Rd Brunswick West. For all your panel beating and smash repairs, give them a call on 8378-5555, or visit melvillebodyworks.com.au - and let them know we sent you!We're also brought to you by Sacred Herbs who are fuelling us in 2025 with their delicious Yerba Maté and offering a special deal to our listeners.Use codeword “NPL” for a 15% discount on anything at www.sacredherbs111.com/ including some of that sweet, sweet maté
We dive further into the text of lectures 1 and 2 of The Sources of Normativity (1996). We give Korsgaard's account of the idea of reflective endorsement through Hume and Bernard Williams to get to her own view. When you come to know the origins of your moral sentiments, do you still stand behind them? Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Learn more about Mark's fall online political philosophy class at partiallyexaminedlife.com/class. Sponsor: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health.
Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question this evening are Labour MP Alison Hume, podcaster Andrew Gold, author James Bloodworth and former Tory MP Jo Gideon.
Fiona and Macca talk to Fr Peter MacLeod-Miller, as they discuss the controversial topic, is the Anglican Church Dying? Father Peter Macleod-Miller is the rector of St Matthews Anglican Church... LEARN MORE The post Saturday, July 5th, 2025; Fr Peter MacLeod-Miller – Rector of St Matthew's and Archdeacon of the Hume-Is the Anglican Church dying? appeared first on Saturday Magazine.
Missed an episode? This special recap journeys from John Locke to Friedrich Engels, linking each classic thinker to a peace warrior of our time. Perfect for catching up or diving in. We take a reflective pause in our Wolff Peace series to look back on Part One of Robert Paul Wolff's Political Man and Social Man: “The Individual and the State.” Host Avis Kalfsbeek revisits the questions of political legitimacy, power, and moral resistance—and considers how the teachings of Hooker, Austin, Weber, Lenin, Locke, Hume, and Engels meet our present moment. We also revisit the peace warriors who offered alternate models of strength—from Dorothy Day to Bayard Rustin—and ask what authority looks like when love leads. In this episode: Reflections on seven core thinkers of Part One Peace Pairing highlights and their unique forms of moral authority Two big questions to carry into your own practice of peace Visit aviskalfsbeek.com to learn more about the podcast, books, and upcoming episodes in the Wolff Peace series. · Music: Dalai Llama Rides a Bike and The Red Kite by Javier “Peke” Rodriguez. · Bandcamp | Spotify · Robert Paul Wolff's Political Man and Social Man on Amazon
Can philosophy plant a forest? This episode pairs Scottish skeptic David Hume with Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai to explore reason, action, and environmental peace. Can we question the stories governments tell—and plant better ones ourselves? David Hume challenged the myth of the social contract and Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai's reforestation movement helped grow peace from the ground up. Together, they invite us to rethink power, legitimacy, and how we tend the world we inherit. In this episode: Hume's critique of inherited government and imagined consent Maathai's Green Belt Movement and environmental peacebuilding Two reflection questions for political thought and daily practice Visit aviskalfsbeek.com to learn more about the podcast, books, and upcoming episodes in the Wolff Peace series. Music: Dalai Llama Rides a Bike by Javier “Peke” Rodriguez. Bandcamp | Spotify Robert Paul Wolff's Political Man and Social Man on Amazon
This weeks episode takes us live to New York with Mason eyeing off his Hot Dog culinary options, Bealey cops a whack in the Mailbag, more umpires added to the H2H Reserves Team of the Century squad ahead of the Suburban Footballer night at Albury Commercial Club Thursday September 25 and a repeat offender takes Tool of the Week – Ep 15 enjoy !
On The Sources of Normativity (1996), lectures 1 and 2. How are facts related to obligations? We don't want to merely explain our moral impulses, but justify them. Korsgaard walks us through the views of Hobbes, Hume, Bernard Williams and others to arrive at her own breed of Kantianism, which we'll lay out in ep. 371. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Don't wait until the next bite—protect your home with Bzigo. Go to bzigo.com/discount/BUZZ10 to save 10%.
Send us a textThe Reimagined Workforce podcast is brought to you by Workforce Transformations Australia Pty. Ltd.All opinions expressed are the speaker's and not the organisations they represent.If you have a story about a workforce transformation to share and would like to be a guest on this podcast, please contact us at kathhume@workforcetransformations.com.au.Connect with Kath Hume on LinkedInPurchase Kath's book Learn Solve Thrive: Making a difference that matters in a fast and complex world:Learn Solve Thrive: Making a difference that matters in a fast and complex world : Hume, Kathryn Lee: Amazon.com.au: Books
Khanya Ramahali (youth month takeover candidate) and Relebogile Mabotja speak to Earldridge a Vocalist from the Babble Hume collective which is a vibrant and electrifying South African underground collective that is making waves in the music scene, blending genres and defying expectations. 702 Afternoons with Relebogile Mabotja is broadcast live on Johannesburg based talk radio station 702 every weekday afternoon. Relebogile brings a lighter touch to some of the issues of the day as well as a mix of lifestyle topics and a peak into the worlds of entertainment and leisure. Thank you for listening to a 702 Afternoons with Relebogile Mabotja podcast. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 13:00 to 15:00 (SA Time) to Afternoons with Relebogile Mabotja broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/2qKsEfu or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/DTykncj Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Cos'è il trattato filosofico-morale? Storia e caratteristiche del trattato che rimette al centro l'uomo e l'analisi di ciò che è eticamente giusto o sbagliato.
Four more H2H nominations for the H2H Reserves Team of the Century who with The Suburban Footballer will be announcing the team on Thursday September 25th at Commercial Club (tickets via Glory Days FB or Insta) this weeks episode takes us to Miami where Mason has hit the tourist strip, plus some community support required for a couple of families in need - enjoy !
Lucy Zelić has revealed that the Liberal Party was planning on kicking out Senator Jane Hume, largely due to the contentious work-from-home policy debate.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Following the sermon in the Genesis series, God and His World, Tyler talks with Trevor about Hume's Is-Ought distinction, "Where was Adam?", the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and "Where the church has failed over the past 200 years?" Passage: Genesis 3:6-13 If you have any questions about the sermon, fill out the form on the Church Center App.
Pastor Kim, along with Pastor Luke & Sara join Cliff to give a live update from summer camp at Hume Lake.Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/sunrisecommunitychurchWatch live on Mondays at 10am: www.facebook.com/sunrisecommunityonline/liveSong: Fredji - Happy Life (Vlog No Copyright Music)Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.Video Link: https://youtu.be/KzQiRABVARk
If God exists and Jesus rose from the dead, then Christianity is true. Case closed! However, there are still those who offer alternative explanations for the empty tomb despite the evidence for the resurrection. What are these theories and do they withstand critical analysis?This week, Frank sits down with Dr. Gary Habermas, the world's leading resurrection scholar to discuss, 'On the Resurrection: Refutations', the second volume of his magnum opus--a massive 4-volume project nearly 40 years in the making. From second-century texts that seem to challenge the resurrection to modern skeptical scholars like Bart Ehrman, Gary will uncover why naturalistic explanations for the empty tomb simply don't hold up. Tune in as Frank and Gary answer questions like:Who was David Hume and why do so many modern atheists still lean on his centuries-old arguments?What was Hume's actual argument against miracles, and how did C.S. Lewis respond?Are there any good arguments for naturalism or materialism?Why did former skeptic Antony Flew become a theist before he died?What are the top 5 reasons naturalistic explanations for the resurrection fail?What are the 4 best arguments in favor of an afterlife?If you're looking for the most well-researched scholarship to refute common resurrection objections, you won't find a better resource than this! Be sure to pick up your own copies of Gary's amazing work and stay tuned for the next podcast where he'll return to discuss even more insights from his life's work on the resurrection!Resources mentioned during the episode:PODCAST: Did Jesus REALLY Rise From the Dead? - https://bit.ly/3VnrtiDOn the Resurrection: Evidences (Vol.1) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1087778603On the Resurrection: Refutations (Vol.2) - https://a.co/d/48jozEvOn the Resurrection: Scholarly Perspectives (Vol.3) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1087778646Gary's website - https://www.garyhabermas.com/There is a God by Antony Flew - https://a.co/d/eOhWkSTSignature in the Cell by Stephen C. Meyer - https://a.co/d/5XLmVhc
Superstitious footballers – Steve Waugh had his famous red rag well one of the Hume's finest has his fav red undies! Mason live from Vegas and a bit wounded from an overzealous first night – three more added to the H2H Reserves Team of the Century and who has a tattoo – a family secret released.
Get Your Free SEO Audit HereCX Index here In this episode of Ecommerce Australia, host Ryan Martin sits down with Mareile Osthus, ex-CCO of The Iconic and now co-founder & CEO of Humii, Australia's leading online mystery shopping powerhouse. Mareile reveals how traditional metrics like Net Promoter Scores fail modern e-commerce brands and how Hume's real-time, unbiased mystery shopping data is exposing hidden friction points that cost retailers millions in lost revenue and repeat customers.Tune in to discover:✅ Why your NPS is lying to you, and what to track instead✅ How to spy on your competitors' real CX without integrations✅ The shocking average refund times hurting Aussie retailers✅ Common blind spots killing conversion & repeat purchase rates✅ How small to medium brands can harness enterprise-grade insights on a startup budgetIf you think your customer journey is ‘good enough', think again. This episode will challenge you to benchmark, fix blind spots fast, and turn your CX into an unbeatable growth engine.
Massive show unfolds with Mason live from LA smack bang amongst the LA riots ! Our intrepid reporter gives us the latest on the chaos. The CEO of Two's football Connor Smith makes an appearance in the studio and announces details of a huge end of season function while Tool of the Week hits hard at some big operators letting the sporting punters down ! Hot Property is one not to miss - Hume FL and its amazing strike rate of local draftees into the AFL
We conclude our discussion of A Treatise of Human Nature (1739): Book III, "Of Morals," plus a bit more discussion of An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). How do moral sentiments fit into Hume's overall philosophy of mind? Is Hume a relativist? We talk about sociopaths, animals, incest, consent, ethics vs. beauty, moral luck, and more. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.
Valentina Questa"Storia naturale della soggettività"Filosofia, etologia, psicopatologiaRosenberg & Sellierwww.rosenbergsellier.itLa soggettività rimanda all'esperienza del mondo e di noi stessi a partire da un punto di vista, specifico per ciascun individuo.La questione attraversa la storia della filosofia, dall'antichità ai nostri giorni. È stata designata da termini diversi – “soggetto”, “io”, “self” – e ha assunto, di volta in volta, differenti significati: sostanza metafisica, spirito assoluto, forma unitaria a priori della mente, autocoscienza razionale, autocoscienza preriflessiva o utile finzione.In questo libro il tema è affrontato in termini naturalizzati, attraverso un'indagine filosofica empiricamente informata, seguendo una linea di pensiero ideale che connette autori come Hume e Darwin all'attuale scienza cognitiva. La tesi sostenuta è che l'affettività, evoluta da forme di agentività e percezione in funzione relazionale, sia epistemicamente necessaria e fondamentale per la costruzione di tutti i livelli evolutivi della soggettività umana, da quelli meno elaborati a quelli legati ad abilità cognitive complesse, in continuità con le altre specie animali. Inoltre, si ipotizza che questo modello possa spiegare, attraverso l'individuazione di cause comuni, le differenti forme di psicopatologia, considerate in termini di continuità fra categorie di disturbi e tra popolazione clinica e non clinica.Valentina Questa è laureata in Filosofia e in Neuroscienze cognitive all'Università La Sapienza di Roma. È dottoressa di ricerca in Filosofia presso le Università di Roma Tre e Tor Vergata. Inoltre, ha una specializzazione in psicoterapia cognitivo-comportamentale.È psicoterapeuta e svolge la sua attività di ricerca con un interesse particolare per la filosofia della mente, la filosofia della psicologia, l'evoluzionismo e la cognizione sociale. È autrice di articoli e saggi.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarewww.ilpostodelleparole.itDiventa un supporter di questo podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/il-posto-delle-parole--1487855/support.
ANGELA'S SYMPOSIUM 📖 Academic Study on Witchcraft, Paganism, esotericism, magick and the Occult
In this episode, we delve into one of the most profound and contested questions in both philosophy and esotericism: What is the self in magical practice?Drawing on thinkers such as René Descartes, David Hume, and Carl Jung, we examine how the self has been variously conceived as a rational substance, a bundle of perceptions, or an archetypal totality. We then explore how these models intersect with key esoteric frameworks, from Aleister Crowley's doctrine of the True Will and the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel, to the layered soul of Hermetic Qabalah, and the radically performative self of chaos magic.Is the magical self unified, fragmented, performative, or transcendent? And how do different traditions answer this question through their rituals, symbols, and spiritual technologies?Join me as we explore the shifting boundaries between self, soul, and sorcery.CONNECT & SUPPORT
In a world saturated with synthetic voices and emotionless assistants, Hume AI stands out as a genuine leap forward. Far from being just another text-to-speech (TTS) system, their Octave platform is a new breed: the first speech-language model built on a large language model (LLM), capable of understanding not just the words we write, but …
It is Bon Voyage for Mason in his last show before hitting the bright lights of Vegas, Los Angeles and the deep south of the USA, Bealey gets a Tool of the Week nomination, Robeez survives his footy reunion while a mailbag letter reopens some old wounds for Mason from a decade back - enjoy episode 11 gang !
Phil Smith and Jason Jones take a look at all the latest transfer news surrounding Sunderland - including the latest on Jobe Bellingham' proposed move to Borussia Dortmund.
We talk a bit more about David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), and add some parts of A Treatise of Human Nature (1739): sec. 3 "Of the Influencing Motives of the Will" within the third part of Book II, "Of the Passions," and the first two sections of Book III, "Of Morals." Can reason by itself motivate moral action? Hume says no: All ethical reasons must point ultimately to sentiments, which we can generalize about, but which are epistemically basic. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.
In Episode 10 the boys start to add the umpires into the H2H Reserves Team of the Century with a couple of locks ! The lads cast their eye over an interesting round 7 of football, Mason gives Albo a wake up call on behalf of the farmers and a young lad from Walbundrie stars in the VFL on the Albury Sportsground - enjoy !
Continuing on An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), talking about justice (i.e. property laws), why utility is pleasing and what all it includes, sympathy, utility vs. beauty, and more. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.
Here we're focusing on the changes that took place in Britain after Supermac (Harold Macmillan) stood down as Prime Minister.A lot of how that went depended on the Opposition formed by the Labour Party. Initially it was led by Hugh Gaitskell from the right of the party, with Aneurin Bevan giving him a bad time from the left, while a serious threat was growing from Harold Wilson, formerly of the left which he'd deserted, now of the right which wasn't sure it could trust him. An object of suspicion across most of the parliamentary party, Wilson was nonetheless appreciated for his ability and for his excellent rapport with voters.Then two key figures died. Bevan, the man seen by so many, for so long, as the leader in waiting, died in 1960. Then, in 1962, it was the turn of Gaitskell himself. All of a sudden, the way was clear for Wilson to forge ahead. Though not fully trusted by either wing of the party, both saw him as something of a least bad option – the left felt he at least had roots amongst them, the right that he'd at least worked with Gaitskell. Wilson secured the leadership with exactly as many MPs voting against him and voted for him, winning only because neither of the other two candidates could take more votes than he did.Wilson showed his skill in the last months of Macmillan's government, giving him a bad time over such matters as the Profumo scandal. Over that row, Wilson played his cards with great intelligence, enhancing his stature while Macmillan lost his credibility and eventually stood down. He was succeeded by Alec Douglas Home (pronounced Hume), cheating RAB Butler of the prize yet again.As a result, both main parties went into the 1964 general election under new leaders. Home gave Wilson a heck of a run for him money, but in the end Labour won though by a painfully small majority in the Commons. So small that Wilson would be under constant threat of being brought down if a small number of his MPs turned against him.It was clear there would have to be another election pretty soon.Illustration: Harold Wilson by Walter Bird, 25 May 1962National Portrait Gallery x45598, and Alec Douglas Home, unknown photographer, circa 1955, National Portrait Gallery x136159Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License
¿Es posible que las leyes de la naturaleza no sean necesarias? ¿Qué pasaría si todo lo que creemos estable pudiera cambiar de forma radical, sin ninguna razón? En este video exploramos en profundidad el capítulo "El problema de Hume" del libro Después de la finitud del filósofo francés Quentin Meillassoux. A partir de la crítica clásica de David Hume a la causalidad, Meillassoux propone una tesis filosófica radical: no hay necesidad alguna en el universo, y la única necesidad absoluta es la contingencia misma.
Another big episode as the lads add another six names into the Highway to Hume Reserves Team of the Century taking the squad to 19, on World Bee Day the CEO of Robeez Honey is given a whack from Mason, while Bealey reveals a nasty spat between the Crows co captains and a look back on round 6 of Hume football
On David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). What is morality, and how can we know it? Hume claims that we simply find ourselves with sentiments morally approving and disapproving of various things. Characterizing these post hoc, we can say that in general we approve of what brings utility, and this explains the existence of most laws and mores. These may vary by culture because conditions change the utility calculation in different environments. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel.
Chaos in and out of the studio but the lads get the Ep done - featuring Culcairn coach Brendan Way talking about Dane Swan appearance v Henty, six new players added to the H2H 25 Year Hume Reserves Team of Century squad, Mason umpiring comes under fire, Bealey the target in Mailbag - however the big news surrounds the end of season Team of Century Celebration --- going to be huge - enjoy Ep 8
We put our recent episodes on moral phenomenology into perspective, anticipating our upcoming Hume discussion and going through some other options to enrich this study of sentiment vs. rational intuition. Plus, more potential author-guests and recent philosophy book coverage. If you're not hearing the full version of this discussion, sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.
Miracle Claims Vs. Hume And as we wind down our takedown of Hume, we take one final look at Miracle Claims vs. Hume. We address the valid question about competing miracle claims as well as looking at if the Western worldview has outpaced the belief in miracles. Is it over? Have miracles been knocked out of the picture? Well - I didn't hear no bell. Timeline: 00:00 - Introduction 00:58 - We Wouldn't Want Hume To Be Biased - Right? 01:52 - What About Competing Miracle Claims? 03:05 - Answering The Objection About Competing Claims 05:59 - Contemporary Of Hume Critical 07:07 - Not All Systems Claim Miracles 07:53 - Not All Miracle Claims Are Equal 12:05 - We Should First Check Our Presuppositions Before We Deny Miracle Claims 15:33 - A Shift In The Western Worldview Against Miracles 22:39 - Do Modern People Even Believe In Miracles? 26:29 - Modern Academia Needs To Recognize Its Bias 28:58 - Conclusion LINK: 11:15 - Duane Miller Miracle BOOK LINKS: Main Book - Miracles by Craig Keener: Kindle Hardcover Logos ChristianBook.com Other Book - Miracles Today by Craig Keener: Kindle Paperback Audible Logos ChristianBook.com All episodes, short clips, & blog - https://www.cavetothecross.com
Hume's Biased Naturalism Coming into the final episodes of this book, we go after Hume's naturalism being viewed as unbiased science. In fact, it is biased, can't help but be biased, and by claiming not to want to take sides in religious debates...takes sides in religious debates. Hume's biased naturalism has been unchallenged in academia, but not here on this highly, HIGHLY respected show. Timeline: 00:00 - Introduction 01:11 - The Biased Naturalism In-Group Of History Keeps Out Miracle Claims 03:54 - Biased Naturalism Don't Even See Their Own Presuppositions 05:37 - Naturalists & Miracles Should Meet Each Other On Their Presuppositions 09:00 - Naturalists Don't Want To Accept Others' Experiences 12:58 - History Bringing In Those Scary Religious Nuts 16:14 - Critiquing Not Letting Miracles Into History Explanations 23:28 - Conclusion BOOK LINKS: Main Book - Miracles by Craig Keener: Kindle Hardcover Logos ChristianBook.com Other Book - Miracles Today by Craig Keener: Kindle Paperback Audible Logos ChristianBook.com All episodes, short clips, & blog - https://www.cavetothecross.com
Preview: Professor Samuel Gregg Explains the Presumed Friction Between New Natural Law Theory and Hume-Derived Liberalism in the Modern Age. More 1920 ST. PETER'S BASILICA
Occam's Razor: The simplest answer is often the answer. Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.Hitchen's Razor: I must provide evidence for my claim, rather than demand you provide evidence against it. and Hume's Guillotine: You can't derive a moral imperative from a factual description of nature. THE SOURCES: The Philosophical Razors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_razorHitchen's Razor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens%27s_razorHanlon's Razor: https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/philosophy/hanlons-razorHanlon's Razor Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razorHume's Guillotine Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is%E2%80%93ought_problemReddit "Humes Guillotine" https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/r1v09x/eli5_humes_guillotine/Reddit "is-ought" problem: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-is-ought-problem-in-simple-understandable-termsDonate to Palestinian Children's Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
So what, exactly, was “The Enlightenment”? According to the Princeton historian David A. Bell, it was an intellectual movement roughly spanning the early 18th century through to the French Revolution. In his Spring 2025 Liberties Quarterly piece “The Enlightenment, Then and Now”, Bell charts the Enlightenment as a complex intellectual movement centered in Paris but with hubs across Europe and America. He highlights key figures like Montesquieu, Voltaire, Kant, and Franklin, discussing their contributions to concepts of religious tolerance, free speech, and rationality. In our conversation, Bell addresses criticisms of the Enlightenment, including its complicated relationship with colonialism and slavery, while arguing that its principles of freedom and reason remain relevant today. 5 Key Takeaways* The Enlightenment emerged in the early 18th century (around 1720s) and was characterized by intellectual inquiry, skepticism toward religion, and a growing sense among thinkers that they were living in an "enlightened century."* While Paris was the central hub, the Enlightenment had multiple centers including Scotland, Germany, and America, with thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Hume, and Franklin contributing to its development.* The Enlightenment introduced the concept of "society" as a sphere of human existence separate from religion and politics, forming the basis of modern social sciences.* The movement had a complex relationship with colonialism and slavery - many Enlightenment thinkers criticized slavery, but some of their ideas about human progress were later used to justify imperialism.* According to Bell, rather than trying to "return to the Enlightenment," modern society should selectively adopt and adapt its valuable principles of free speech, religious tolerance, and education to create our "own Enlightenment."David Avrom Bell is a historian of early modern and modern Europe at Princeton University. His most recent book, published in 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is Men on Horseback: The Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution. Described in the Journal of Modern History as an "instant classic," it is available in paperback from Picador, in French translation from Fayard, and in Italian translation from Viella. A study of how new forms of political charisma arose in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the book shows that charismatic authoritarianism is as modern a political form as liberal democracy, and shares many of the same origins. Based on exhaustive research in original sources, the book includes case studies of the careers of George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, Toussaint Louverture and Simon Bolivar. The book's Introduction can be read here. An online conversation about the book with Annette Gordon-Reed, hosted by the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library, can be viewed here. Links to material about the book, including reviews in The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, Harper's, The New Republic, The Nation, Le Monde, The Los Angeles Review of Books and other venues can be found here. Bell is also the author of six previous books. He has published academic articles in both English and French and contributes regularly to general interest publications on a variety of subjects, ranging from modern warfare, to contemporary French politics, to the impact of digital technology on learning and scholarship, and of course French history. A list of his publications from 2023 and 2024 can be found here. His Substack newsletter can be found here. His writings have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Hebrew, Swedish, Polish, Russian, German, Croatian, Italian, Turkish and Japanese. At the History Department at Princeton University, he holds the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Chair in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions, and offers courses on early modern Europe, on military history, and on the early modern French empire. Previously, he spent fourteen years at Johns Hopkins University, including three as Dean of Faculty in its School of Arts and Sciences. From 2020 to 2024 he served as Director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy. Bell's new project is a history of the Enlightenment. A preliminary article from the project was published in early 2022 by Modern Intellectual History. Another is now out in French History.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. FULL TRANSCRIPTAndrew Keen: Hello everybody, in these supposedly dark times, the E word comes up a lot, the Enlightenment. Are we at the end of the Enlightenment or the beginning? Was there even an Enlightenment? My guest today, David Bell, a professor of history, very distinguished professor of history at Princeton University, has an interesting piece in the spring issue of It is One of our, our favorite quarterlies here on Keen on America, Bell's piece is The Enlightenment Then and Now, and David is joining us from the home of the Enlightenment, perhaps Paris in France, where he's on sabbatical hard life. David being an academic these days, isn't it?David Bell: Very difficult. I'm having to suffer the Parisian bread and croissant. It's terrible.Andrew Keen: Yeah. Well, I won't keep you too long. Is Paris then, or France? Is it the home of the Enlightenment? I know there are many Enlightenments, the French, the Scottish, maybe even the English, perhaps even the American.David Bell: It's certainly one of the homes of the Enlightenment, and it's probably the closest that the Enlightened had to a center, absolutely. But as you say, there were Edinburgh, Glasgow, plenty of places in Germany, Philadelphia, all those places have good claims to being centers of the enlightenment as well.Andrew Keen: All the same David, is it like one of those sports games in California where everyone gets a medal?David Bell: Well, they're different metals, right, but I think certainly Paris is where everybody went. I mean, if you look at the figures from the German Enlightenment, from the Scottish Enlightenment from the American Enlightenment they all tended to congregate in Paris and the Parisians didn't tend to go anywhere else unless they were forced to. So that gives you a pretty good sense of where the most important center was.Andrew Keen: So David, before we get to specifics, map out for us, because everyone is perhaps as familiar or comfortable with the history of the Enlightenment, and certainly as you are. When did it happen? What years? And who are the leaders of this thing called the Enlightenment?David Bell: Well, that's a big question. And I'm afraid, of course, that if you ask 10 historians, you'll get 10 different answers.Andrew Keen: Well, I'm only asking you, so I only want one answer.David Bell: So I would say that the Enlightenment really gets going around the first couple of decades of the 18th century. And that's when people really start to think that they are actually living in what they start to call an Enlightenment century. There are a lot of reasons for this. They are seeing what we now call the scientific revolution. They're looking at the progress that has been made with that. They are experiencing the changes in the religious sphere, including the end of religious wars, coming with a great deal of skepticism about religion. They are living in a relative period of peace where they're able to speculate much more broadly and daringly than before. But it's really in those first couple of decades that they start thinking of themselves as living in an enlightened century. They start defining themselves as something that would later be called the enlightenment. So I would say that it's, really, really there between maybe the end of the 17th century and 1720s that it really gets started.Andrew Keen: So let's have some names, David, of philosophers, I guess. I mean, if those are the right words. I know that there was a term in French. There is a term called philosoph. Were they the founders, the leaders of the Enlightenment?David Bell: Well, there is a... Again, I don't want to descend into academic quibbling here, but there were lots of leaders. Let me give an example, though. So the year 1721 is a remarkable year. So in the year, 1721, two amazing events happened within a couple of months of each other. So in May, Montesquieu, one of the great philosophers by any definition, publishes his novel called Persian Letters. And this is an incredible novel. Still, I think one of greatest novels ever written, and it's very daring. It is the account, it is supposedly a an account written by two Persian travelers to Europe who are writing back to people in Isfahan about what they're seeing. And it is very critical of French society. It is very of religion. It is, as I said, very daring philosophically. It is a product in part of the increasing contact between Europe and the rest of the world that is also very central to the Enlightenment. So that novel comes out. So it's immediately, you know, the police try to suppress it. But they don't have much success because it's incredibly popular and Montesquieu doesn't suffer any particular problems because...Andrew Keen: And the French police have never been the most efficient police force in the world, have they?David Bell: Oh, they could be, but not in this case. And then two months later, after Montesquieu published this novel, there's a German philosopher much less well-known than Montesqiu, than Christian Bolz, who is a professor at the Universität Haller in Prussia, and he gives an oration in Latin, a very typical university oration for the time, about Chinese philosophy, in which he says that the Chinese have sort of proved to the world, particularly through the writings of Confucius and others, that you can have a virtuous society without religion. Obviously very controversial. Statement for the time it actually gets him fired from his job, he has to leave the Kingdom of Prussia within 48 hours on penalty of death, starts an enormous controversy. But here are two events, both of which involving non-European people, involving the way in which Europeans are starting to look out at the rest of the world and starting to imagine Europe as just one part of a larger humanity, and at the same time they are starting to speculate very daringly about whether you can have. You know, what it means to have a society, do you need to have religion in order to have morality in society? Do you need the proper, what kind of government do you need to to have virtuous conduct and a proper society? So all of these things get, you know, really crystallize, I think, around these two incidents as much as anything. So if I had to pick a single date for when the enlightenment starts, I'd probably pick that 1721.Andrew Keen: And when was, David, I thought you were going to tell me about the earthquake in Lisbon, when was that earthquake?David Bell: That earthquake comes quite a bit later. That comes, and now historians should be better with dates than I am. It's in the 1750s, I think it's the late 1750's. Again, this historian is proving he's getting a very bad grade for forgetting the exact date, but it's in 1750. So that's a different kind of event, which sparks off a great deal of commentary, because it's a terrible earthquake. It destroys most of the city of Lisbon, it destroys other cities throughout Portugal, and it leads a lot of the philosophy to philosophers at the time to be speculating very daringly again on whether there is any kind of real purpose to the universe and whether there's any kind divine purpose. Why would such a terrible thing happen? Why would God do such a thing to his followers? And certainly VoltaireAndrew Keen: Yeah, Votav, of course, comes to mind of questioning.David Bell: And Condit, Voltaire's novel Condit gives a very good description of the earthquake in Lisbon and uses that as a centerpiece. Voltair also read other things about the earthquake, a poem about Lisbon earthquake. But in Condit he gives a lasting, very scathing portrait of the Catholic Church in general and then of what happens in Portugal. And so the Lisbon Earthquake is certainly another one of the events, but it happens considerably later. Really in the middle of the end of life.Andrew Keen: So, David, you believe in this idea of the Enlightenment. I take your point that there are more than one Enlightenment in more than one center, but in broad historical terms, the 18th century could be defined at least in Western and Northern Europe as the period of the Enlightenment, would that be a fair generalization?David Bell: I think it's perfectly fair generalization. Of course, there are historians who say that it never happened. There's a conservative British historian, J.C.D. Clark, who published a book last summer, saying that the Enlightenment is a kind of myth, that there was a lot of intellectual activity in Europe, obviously, but that the idea that it formed a coherent Enlightenment was really invented in the 20th century by a bunch of progressive reformers who wanted to claim a kind of venerable and august pedigree for their own reform, liberal reform plans. I think that's an exaggeration. People in the 18th century defined very clearly what was going on, both people who were in favor of it and people who are against it. And while you can, if you look very closely at it, of course it gets a bit fuzzy. Of course it's gets, there's no single, you can't define a single enlightenment project or a single enlightened ideology. But then, I think people would be hard pressed to define any intellectual movement. You know, in perfect, incoherent terms. So the enlightenment is, you know by compared with almost any other intellectual movement certainly existed.Andrew Keen: In terms of a philosophy of the Enlightenment, the German thinker, Immanuel Kant, seems to be often, and when you describe him as the conscience or the brain or a mixture of the conscience and brain of the enlightenment, why is Kant and Kantian thinking so important in the development of the Enlightenment.David Bell: Well, that's a really interesting question. And one reason is because most of the Enlightenment was not very rigorously philosophical. A lot of the major figures of the enlightenment before Kant tended to be writing for a general public. And they often were writing with a very specific agenda. We look at Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau. Now you look at Adam Smith in Scotland. We look David Hume or Adam Ferguson. You look at Benjamin Franklin in the United States. These people wrote in all sorts of different genres. They wrote in, they wrote all sorts of different kinds of books. They have many different purposes and very few of them did a lot of what we would call rigorous academic philosophy. And Kant was different. Kant was very much an academic philosopher. Kant was nothing if not rigorous. He came at the end of the enlightenment by most people's measure. He wrote these very, very difficult, very rigorous, very brilliant works, such as The Creek of Pure Reason. And so, it's certainly been the case that people who wanted to describe the Enlightenment as a philosophy have tended to look to Kant. So for example, there's a great German philosopher and intellectual historian of the early 20th century named Ernst Kassirer, who had to leave Germany because of the Nazis. And he wrote a great book called The Philosophy of the Enlightened. And that leads directly to Immanuel Kant. And of course, Casir himself was a Kantian, identified with Kant. And so he wanted to make Kant, in a sense, the telos, the end point, the culmination, the fulfillment of the Enlightenment. But so I think that's why Kant has such a particularly important position. You're defining it both ways.Andrew Keen: I've always struggled to understand what Kant was trying to say. I'm certainly not alone there. Might it be fair to say that he was trying to transform the universe and certainly traditional Christian notions into the Enlightenment, so the entire universe, the world, God, whatever that means, that they were all somehow according to Kant enlightened.David Bell: Well, I think that I'm certainly no expert on Immanuel Kant. And I would say that he is trying to, I mean, his major philosophical works are trying to put together a system of philosophical thinking which will justify why people have to act morally, why people act rationally, without the need for Christian revelation to bolster them. That's a very, very crude and reductionist way of putting it, but that's essentially at the heart of it. At the same time, Kant was very much aware of his own place in history. So Kant didn't simply write these very difficult, thick, dense philosophical works. He also wrote things that were more like journalism or like tablets. He wrote a famous essay called What is Enlightenment? And in that, he said that the 18th century was the period in which humankind was simply beginning to. Reach a period of enlightenment. And he said, he starts the essay by saying, this is the period when humankind is being released from its self-imposed tutelage. And we are still, and he said we do not yet live in the midst of a completely enlightened century, but we are getting there. We are living in a century that is enlightening.Andrew Keen: So the seeds, the seeds of Hegel and maybe even Marx are incant in that German thinking, that historical thinking.David Bell: In some ways, in some ways of course Hegel very much reacts against Kant and so and then Marx reacts against Hegel. So it's not exactly.Andrew Keen: Well, that's the dialectic, isn't it, David?David Bell: A simple easy path from one to the other, no, but Hegel is unimaginable without Kant of course and Marx is unimagineable without Hegel.Andrew Keen: You note that Kant represents a shift in some ways into the university and the walls of the universities were going up, and that some of the other figures associated with the the Enlightenment and Scottish Enlightenment, human and Smith and the French Enlightenment Voltaire and the others, they were more generalist writers. Should we be nostalgic for the pre-university period in the Enlightenment, or? Did things start getting serious once the heavyweights, the academic heavyweighs like Emmanuel Kant got into this thing?David Bell: I think it depends on where we're talking about. I mean, Adam Smith was a professor at Glasgow in Edinburgh, so Smith, the Scottish Enlightenment was definitely at least partly in the universities. The German Enlightenment took place very heavily in universities. Christian Vodafoy I just mentioned was the most important German philosopher of the 18th century before Kant, and he had positions in university. Even the French university system, for a while, what's interesting about the French University system, particularly the Sorbonne, which was the theology faculty, It was that. Throughout the first half of the 18th century, there were very vigorous, very interesting philosophical debates going on there, in which the people there, particularly even Jesuits there, were very open to a lot of the ideas we now call enlightenment. They were reading John Locke, they were reading Mel Pench, they were read Dekalb. What happened though in the French universities was that as more daring stuff was getting published elsewhere. Church, the Catholic Church, started to say, all right, these philosophers, these philosophies, these are our enemies, these are people we have to get at. And so at that point, anybody who was in the university, who was still in dialog with these people was basically purged. And the universities became much less interesting after that. But to come back to your question, I do think that I am very nostalgic for that period. I think that the Enlightenment was an extraordinary period, because if you look between. In the 17th century, not all, but a great deal of the most interesting intellectual work is happening in the so-called Republic of Letters. It's happening in Latin language. It is happening on a very small circle of RUD, of scholars. By the 19th century following Kant and Hegel and then the birth of the research university in Germany, which is copied everywhere, philosophy and the most advanced thinking goes back into the university. And the 18th century, particularly in France, I will say, is a time when the most advanced thought is being written for a general public. It is being in the form of novels, of dialogs, of stories, of reference works, and it is very, very accessible. The most profound thought of the West has never been as accessible overall as in the 18 century.Andrew Keen: Again, excuse this question, it might seem a bit naive, but there's a lot of pre-Enlightenment work, books, thinking that we read now that's very accessible from Erasmus and Thomas More to Machiavelli. Why weren't characters like, or are characters like Erasmuus, More's Utopia, Machiavell's prints and discourses, why aren't they considered part of the Enlightenment? What's the difference between? Enlightened thinkers or the supposedly enlightened thinkers of the 18th century and thinkers and writers of the 16th and 17th centuries.David Bell: That's a good question, you know, I think you have to, you, you know, again, one has to draw a line somewhere. That's not a very good answer, of course. All these people that you just mentioned are, in one way or another, predecessors to the Enlightenment. And of course, there were lots of people. I don't mean to say that nobody wrote in an accessible way before 1700. Obviously, lots of the people you mentioned did. Although a lot of them originally wrote in Latin, Erasmus, also Thomas More. But I think what makes the Enlightened different is that you have, again, you have a sense. These people have have a sense that they are themselves engaged in a collective project, that it is a collective project of enlightenment, of enlightening the world. They believe that they live in a century of progress. And there are certain principles. They don't agree on everything by any means. The philosophy of enlightenment is like nothing more than ripping each other to shreds, like any decent group of intellectuals. But that said, they generally did believe That people needed to have freedom of speech. They believed that you needed to have toleration of different religions. They believed in education and the need for a broadly educated public that could be as broad as possible. They generally believed in keeping religion out of the public sphere as much as possible, so all those principles came together into a program that we can consider at least a kind of... You know, not that everybody read it at every moment by any means, but there is an identifiable enlightenment program there, and in this case an identifiable enlightenment mindset. One other thing, I think, which is crucial to the Enlightenment, is that it was the attention they started to pay to something that we now take almost entirely for granted, which is the idea of society. The word society is so entirely ubiquitous, we assume it's always been there, and in one sense it has, because the word societas is a Latin word. But until... The 18th century, the word society generally had a much narrower meaning. It referred to, you know, particular institution most often, like when we talk about the society of, you know, the American philosophical society or something like that. And the idea that there exists something called society, which is the general sphere of human existence that is separate from religion and is separate from the political sphere, that's actually something which only really emerged at the end of the 1600s. And it became really the focus of you know, much, if not most, of enlightenment thinking. When you look at someone like Montesquieu and you look something, somebody like Rousseau or Voltaire or Adam Smith, probably above all, they were concerned with understanding how society works, not how government works only, but how society, what social interactions are like beginning of what we would now call social science. So that's yet another thing that distinguishes the enlightened from people like Machiavelli, often people like Thomas More, and people like bonuses.Andrew Keen: You noted earlier that the idea of progress is somehow baked in, in part, and certainly when it comes to Kant, certainly the French Enlightenment, although, of course, Rousseau challenged that. I'm not sure whether Rousseaut, as always, is both in and out of the Enlightenment and he seems to be in and out of everything. How did the Enlightement, though, make sense of itself in the context of antiquity, as it was, of Terms, it was the Renaissance that supposedly discovered or rediscovered antiquity. How did many of the leading Enlightenment thinkers, writers, how did they think of their own society in the context of not just antiquity, but even the idea of a European or Western society?David Bell: Well, there was a great book, one of the great histories of the Enlightenment was written about more than 50 years ago by the Yale professor named Peter Gay, and the first part of that book was called The Modern Paganism. So it was about the, you know, it was very much about the relationship between the Enlightenment and the ancient Greek synonyms. And certainly the writers of the enlightenment felt a great deal of kinship with the ancient Greek synonymous. They felt a common bond, particularly in the posing. Christianity and opposing what they believed the Christian Church had wrought on Europe in suppressing freedom and suppressing free thought and suppassing free inquiry. And so they felt that they were both recovering but also going beyond antiquity at the same time. And of course they were all, I mean everybody at the time, every single major figure of the Enlightenment, their education consisted in large part of what we would now call classics, right? I mean, there was an educational reformer in France in the 1760s who said, you know, our educational system is great if the purpose is to train Roman centurions, if it's to train modern people who are not doing both so well. And it's true. I mean they would spend, certainly, you know in Germany, in much of Europe, in the Netherlands, even in France, I mean people were trained not simply to read Latin, but to write in Latin. In Germany, university courses took part in the Latin language. So there's an enormous, you know, so they're certainly very, very conversant with the Greek and Roman classics, and they identify with them to a very great extent. Someone like Rousseau, I mean, and many others, and what's his first reading? How did he learn to read by reading Plutarch? In translation, but he learns to read reading Plutach. He sees from the beginning by this enormous admiration for the ancients that we get from Bhutan.Andrew Keen: Was Socrates relevant here? Was the Enlightenment somehow replacing Aristotle with Socrates and making him and his spirit of Enlightenment, of asking questions rather than answering questions, the symbol of a new way of thinking?David Bell: I would say to a certain extent, so I mean, much of the Enlightenment criticizes scholasticism, medieval scholastic, very, very sharply, and medieval scholasticism is founded philosophically very heavily upon Aristotle, so to that extent. And the spirit of skepticism that Socrates embodied, the idea of taking nothing for granted and asking questions about everything, including questions of oneself, yes, absolutely. That said, while the great figures of the Red Plato, you know, Socrates was generally I mean, it was not all that present as they come. But certainly have people with people with red play-doh in the entire virus.Andrew Keen: You mentioned Benjamin Franklin earlier, David. Most of the Enlightenment, of course, seems to be centered in France and Scotland, Germany, England. But America, many Europeans went to America then as a, what some people would call a settler colonial society, or certainly an offshoot of the European world. Was the settling of America and the American Revolution Was it the quintessential Enlightenment project?David Bell: Another very good question, and again, it depends a bit on who you talk to. I just mentioned this book by Peter Gay, and the last part of his book is called The Science of Freedom, and it's all about the American Revolution. So certainly a lot of interpreters of the Enlightenment have said that, yes, the American revolution represents in a sense the best possible outcome of the American Revolution, it was the best, possible outcome of the enlightened. Certainly there you look at the founding fathers of the United States and there's a great deal that they took from me like Certainly, they took a great great number of political ideas from Obviously Madison was very much inspired and drafting the edifice of the Constitution by Montesquieu to see himself Was happy to admit in addition most of the founding Fathers of the united states were you know had kind of you know We still had we were still definitely Christians, but we're also but we were also very much influenced by deism were very much against the idea of making the United States a kind of confessional country where Christianity was dominant. They wanted to believe in the enlightenment principles of free speech, religious toleration and so on and so forth. So in all those senses and very much the gun was probably more inspired than Franklin was somebody who was very conversant with the European Enlightenment. He spent a large part of his life in London. Where he was in contact with figures of the Enlightenment. He also, during the American Revolution, of course, he was mostly in France, where he is vetted by some of the surviving fellows and were very much in contact for them as well. So yes, I would say the American revolution is certainly... And then the American revolutionary scene, of course by the Europeans, very much as a kind of offshoot of the enlightenment. So one of the great books of the late Enlightenment is by Condor Say, which he wrote while he was hiding actually in the future evolution of the chariot. It's called a historical sketch of the progress of the human spirit, or the human mind, and you know he writes about the American Revolution as being, basically owing its existence to being like...Andrew Keen: Franklin is of course an example of your pre-academic enlightenment, a generalist, inventor, scientist, entrepreneur, political thinker. What about the role of science and indeed economics in the Enlightenment? David, we're going to talk of course about the Marxist interpretation, perhaps the Marxist interpretation which sees The Enlightenment is just a euphemism, perhaps, for exploitative capitalism. How central was the growth and development of the market, of economics, and innovation, and capitalism in your reading of The Enlightened?David Bell: Well, in my reading, it was very important, but not in the way that the Marxists used to say. So Friedrich Engels once said that the Enlightenment was basically the idealized kingdom of the bourgeoisie, and there was whole strain of Marxist thinking that followed the assumption that, and then Karl Marx himself argued that the documents like the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which obviously were inspired by the Enlightment, were simply kind of the near, or kind of. Way that the bourgeoisie was able to advance itself ideologically, and I don't think that holds much water, which is very little indication that any particular economic class motivated the Enlightenment or was using the Enlightment in any way. That said, I think it's very difficult to imagine the Enlightement without the social and economic changes that come in with the 18th century. To begin with globalization. If you read the great works of the Enlightenment, it's remarkable just how open they are to talking about humanity in general. So one of Voltaire's largest works, one of his most important works, is something called Essay on Customs and the Spirit of Nations, which is actually History of the World, where he talks learnedly not simply about Europe, but about the Americas, about China, about Africa, about India. Montesquieu writes Persian letters. Christian Volpe writes about Chinese philosophy. You know, Rousseau writes about... You know, the earliest days of humankind talks about Africa. All the great figures of the Enlightenment are writing about the rest of the world, and this is a period in which contacts between Europe and the rest the world are exploding along with international trade. So by the end of the 18th century, there are 4,000 to 5,000 ships a year crossing the Atlantic. It's an enormous number. And that's one context in which the enlightenment takes place. Another is what we call the consumer revolution. So in the 18th century, certainly in the major cities of Western Europe, people of a wide range of social classes, including even artisans, sort of somewhat wealthy artisians, shopkeepers, are suddenly able to buy a much larger range of products than they were before. They're able to choose how to basically furnish their own lives, if you will, how they're gonna dress, what they're going to eat, what they gonna put on the walls of their apartments and so on and so forth. And so they become accustomed to exercising a great deal more personal choice than their ancestors have done. And the Enlightenment really develops in tandem with this. Most of the great works of the Enlightment, they're not really written to, they're treatises, they're like Kant, they're written to persuade you to think in a single way. Really written to make you ask questions yourself, to force you to ponder things. They're written in the form of puzzles and riddles. Voltaire had a great line there, he wrote that the best kind of books are the books that readers write half of themselves as they read, and that's sort of the quintessence of the Enlightenment as far as I'm concerned.Andrew Keen: Yeah, Voltaire might have been comfortable on YouTube or Facebook. David, you mentioned all those ships going from Europe across the Atlantic. Of course, many of those ships were filled with African slaves. You mentioned this in your piece. I mean, this is no secret, of course. You also mentioned a couple of times Montesquieu's Persian letters. To what extent is... The enlightenment then perhaps the birth of Western power, of Western colonialism, of going to Africa, seizing people, selling them in North America, the French, the English, Dutch colonization of the rest of the world. Of course, later more sophisticated Marxist thinkers from the Frankfurt School, you mentioned these in your essay, Odorno and Horkheimer in particular, See the Enlightenment as... A project, if you like, of Western domination. I remember reading many years ago when I was in graduate school, Edward Said, his analysis of books like The Persian Letters, which is a form of cultural Western power. How much of this is simply bound up in the profound, perhaps, injustice of the Western achievement? And of course, some of the justice as well. We haven't talked about Jefferson, but perhaps in Jefferson's life and his thinking and his enlightened principles and his... Life as a slave owner, these contradictions are most self-evident.David Bell: Well, there are certainly contradictions, and there's certainly... I think what's remarkable, if you think about it, is that if you read through works of the Enlightenment, you would be hard-pressed to find a justification for slavery. You do find a lot of critiques of slavery, and I think that's something very important to keep in mind. Obviously, the chattel slavery of Africans in the Americas began well before the Enlightment, it began in 1500. The Enlightenment doesn't have the credit for being the first movement to oppose slavery. That really goes back to various religious groups, especially the Fakers. But that said, you have in France, you had in Britain, in America even, you'd have a lot of figures associated with the Enlightenment who were pretty sure of becoming very forceful opponents of slavery very early. Now, when it comes to imperialism, that's a tricky issue. What I think you'd find in these light bulbs, you'd different sorts of tendencies and different sorts of writings. So there are certainly a lot of writers of the Enlightenment who are deeply opposed to European authorities. One of the most popular works of the late Enlightenment was a collective work edited by the man named the Abbe Rinal, which is called The History of the Two Indies. And that is a book which is deeply, deeply critical of European imperialism. At the same time, at the same of the enlightenment, a lot the works of history written during the Enlightment. Tended, such as Voltaire's essay on customs, which I just mentioned, tend to give a kind of very linear version of history. They suggest that all societies follow the same path, from sort of primitive savagery, hunter-gatherers, through early agriculture, feudal stages, and on into sort of modern commercial society and civilization. And so they're basically saying, okay, we, the Europeans, are the most advanced. People like the Africans and the Native Americans are the least advanced, and so perhaps we're justified in going and quote, bringing our civilization to them, what later generations would call the civilizing missions, or possibly just, you know, going over and exploiting them because we are stronger and we are more, and again, we are the best. And then there's another thing that the Enlightenment did. The Enlightenment tended to destroy an older Christian view of humankind, which in some ways militated against modern racism. Christians believed, of course, that everyone was the same from Adam and Eve, which meant that there was an essential similarity in the world. And the Enlightenment challenged this by challenging the biblical kind of creation. The Enlightenment challenges this. Voltaire, for instance, believed that there had actually been several different human species that had different origins, and that can very easily become a justification for racism. Buffon, one of the most Figures of the French Enlightenment, one of the early naturalists, was crucial for trying to show that in fact nature is not static, that nature is always changing, that species are changing, including human beings. And so again, that allowed people to think in terms of human beings at different stages of evolution, and perhaps this would be a justification for privileging the more advanced humans over the less advanced. In the 18th century itself, most of these things remain potential, rather than really being acted upon. But in the 19th century, figures of writers who would draw upon these things certainly went much further, and these became justifications for slavery, imperialism, and other things. So again, the Enlightenment is the source of a great deal of stuff here, and you can't simply put it into one box or more.Andrew Keen: You mentioned earlier, David, that Concorda wrote one of the later classics of the... Condorcet? Sorry, Condorcets, excuse my French. Condorcès wrote one the later Classics of the Enlightenment when he was hiding from the French Revolution. In your mind, was the revolution itself the natural conclusion, climax? Perhaps anti-climax of the Enlightenment. Certainly, it seems as if a lot of the critiques of the French Revolution, particularly the more conservative ones, Burke comes to mind, suggested that perhaps the principles of in the Enlightment inevitably led to the guillotine, or is that an unfair way of thinking of it?David Bell: Well, there are a lot of people who have thought like that. Edmund Burke already, writing in 1790, in his reflections on the revolution in France, he said that everything which was great in the old regime is being dissolved and, quoting, dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason. And then he said about the French that in the groves of their academy at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows. Nothing but the Gallows. So there, in 1780, he already seemed to be predicting the reign of terror and blaming it. A certain extent from the Enlightenment. That said, I think, you know, again, the French Revolution is incredibly complicated event. I mean, you certainly have, you know, an explosion of what we could call Enlightenment thinking all over the place. In France, it happened in France. What happened there was that you had a, you know, the collapse of an extraordinarily inefficient government and a very, you know, in a very antiquated, paralyzed system of government kind of collapsed, created a kind of political vacuum. Into that vacuum stepped a lot of figures who were definitely readers of the Enlightenment. Oh so um but again the Enlightment had I said I don't think you can call the Enlightement a single thing so to say that the Enlightiment inspired the French Revolution rather than the There you go.Andrew Keen: Although your essay on liberties is the Enlightenment then and now you probably didn't write is always these lazy editors who come up with inaccurate and inaccurate titles. So for you, there is no such thing as the Enlighten.David Bell: No, there is. There is. But still, it's a complex thing. It contains multitudes.Andrew Keen: So it's the Enlightenment rather than the United States.David Bell: Conflicting tendencies, it has contradictions within it. There's enough unity to refer to it as a singular noun, but it doesn't mean that it all went in one single direction.Andrew Keen: But in historical terms, did the failure of the French Revolution, its descent into Robespierre and then Bonaparte, did it mark the end in historical terms a kind of bookend of history? You began in 1720 by 1820. Was the age of the Enlightenment pretty much over?David Bell: I would say yes. I think that, again, one of the things about the French Revolution is that people who are reading these books and they're reading these ideas and they are discussing things really start to act on them in a very different way from what it did before the French revolution. You have a lot of absolute monarchs who are trying to bring certain enlightenment principles to bear in their form of government, but they're not. But it's difficult to talk about a full-fledged attempt to enact a kind of enlightenment program. Certainly a lot of the people in the French Revolution saw themselves as doing that. But as they did it, they ran into reality, I would say. I mean, now Tocqueville, when he writes his old regime in the revolution, talks about how the French philosophes were full of these abstract ideas that were divorced from reality. And while that's an exaggeration, there was a certain truth to them. And as soon as you start having the age of revolutions, as soon you start people having to devise systems of government that will actually last, and as you have people, democratic representative systems that will last, and as they start revising these systems under the pressure of actual events, then you're not simply talking about an intellectual movement anymore, you're talking about something very different. And so I would say that, well, obviously the ideas of the Enlightenment continue to inspire people, the books continue to be read, debated. They lead on to figures like Kant, and as we talked about earlier, Kant leads to Hegel, Hegel leads to Marx in a certain sense. Nonetheless, by the time you're getting into the 19th century, what you have, you know, has connections to the Enlightenment, but can we really still call it the Enlightment? I would sayAndrew Keen: And Tocqueville, of course, found democracy in America. Is democracy itself? I know it's a big question. But is it? Bound up in the Enlightenment. You've written extensively, David, both for liberties and elsewhere on liberalism. Is the promise of democracy, democratic systems, the one born in the American Revolution, promised in the French Revolution, not realized? Are they products of the Enlightment, or is the 19th century and the democratic systems that in the 19th century, is that just a separate historical track?David Bell: Again, I would say there are certain things in the Enlightenment that do lead in that direction. Certainly, I think most figures in the enlightenment in one general sense or another accepted the idea of a kind of general notion of popular sovereignty. It didn't mean that they always felt that this was going to be something that could necessarily be acted upon or implemented in their own day. And they didn't necessarily associate generalized popular sovereignty with what we would now call democracy with people being able to actually govern themselves. Would be certain figures, certainly Diderot and some of his essays, what we saw very much in the social contract, you know, were sketching out, you knows, models for possible democratic system. Condorcet, who actually lived into the French Revolution, wrote one of the most draft constitutions for France, that's one of most democratic documents ever proposed. But of course there were lots of figures in the Enlightenment, Voltaire, and others who actually believed much more in absolute monarchy, who believed that you just, you know, you should have. Freedom of speech and freedom of discussion, out of which the best ideas would emerge, but then you had to give those ideas to the prince who imposed them by poor sicknesses.Andrew Keen: And of course, Rousseau himself, his social contract, some historians have seen that as the foundations of totalitarian, modern totalitarianism. Finally, David, your wonderful essay in Liberties in the spring quarterly 2025 is The Enlightenment, Then and Now. What about now? You work at Princeton, your president has very bravely stood up to the new presidential regime in the United States, in defense of academic intellectual freedom. Does the word and the movement, does it have any relevance in the 2020s, particularly in an age of neo-authoritarianism around the world?David Bell: I think it does. I think we have to be careful about it. I always get a little nervous when people say, well, we should simply go back to the Enlightenment, because the Enlightenments is history. We don't go back the 18th century. I think what we need to do is to recover certain principles, certain ideals from the 18 century, the ones that matter to us, the ones we think are right, and make our own Enlightenment better. I don't think we need be governed by the 18 century. Thomas Paine once said that no generation should necessarily rule over every generation to come, and I think that's probably right. Unfortunately in the United States, we have a constitution which is now essentially unamendable, so we're doomed to live by a constitution largely from the 18th century. But are there many things in the Enlightenment that we should look back to, absolutely?Andrew Keen: Well, David, I am going to free you for your own French Enlightenment. You can go and have some croissant now in your local cafe in Paris. Thank you so much for a very, I excuse the pun, enlightening conversation on the Enlightenment then and now, Essential Essay in Liberties. I'd love to get you back on the show. Talk more history. Thank you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
A Rhodes Scholar from Nimmitabel with a Master of Philosophy in Economics from Cambridge. He cut his teeth at McKinsey before helping establish Fonterra, the Kiwi dairy co-op whose creation is now studied at Harvard Business School as one of the greatest feats of agribusiness strategy in the modern era. That should qualify him for the role of Federal Treasurer right? Now, he’s pitching nuclear power as the affordable answer to Australia’s energy future and facing the task of trying to win back government against significant headwinds. We ask is he the man from the high country who can win back Teal seats and bring the “colt from Old Regret” back into the fold? Or will the Canberra machine chew him up and spit him out? We talk policy, power bills, and political branding and why Treasurer Jim Chalmers reckons he’d be “shit”. You can judge that for yourself. Like any good country boy, he didn’t arrive at The Advocate’s newsroom empty handed. Angus came bearing hats, a branded mug with his famous self-congratulatory tweet on it, some notepads, shopping bags and stickers. We appreciate that. Good Job, Angus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
You can send me a text if you have a comment or questionThe defense of England is reviewed in terms of manpower, construction and engineering and advanced technology.We start off with the empirical philosophy of Smith and Hume, look at the WWI level of mobilization Britain was able to achieve, a level of mobilization 3-4 times that of France. This was the real Levee En Masse. We get some scale for Britain's financial intervention and subsidization of her allies.
Continuing on The Nature of Sympathy (1913/1922), Part I: "Fellow Feeling," Ch. 1-4. We look more closely at the text, getting further into how fellow feeling relates to ethics, and why the moral sentimentalists (like Hume) were wrong about this. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.
Brit Hume, chief political analyst for Fox News Channel, joined The Guy Benson Show to discuss the increasingly toxic state of the Democratic Party as it continues to be pulled further to the left. He also weighed in on the release of the JFK files, explaining why he doesn't expect much to come from them and which conspiracy theories seem plausible to him. Plus, Hume shared his thoughts on the public's support for Ukraine following Trump's recent meeting with Vladimir Putin. You can listen to the full interview below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices