#56 Simon Blackburn: Metaethics, The Bases of Ethical Systems, Meaning of Life, and Beauty

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Simon Blackburn taught Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. He is a distinguished research professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College, and a member of the professoriate of New College of the Humanities. He was previously a Fellow of Pembroke College, and has also taught full-time at the University of North Carolina as an Edna J. Koury Professor. He is a former president of the Aristotelian Society. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002, and a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008. In this episode, the conversation centers around metaethics. We talk about evolutionary theory as the basis of morality; the shortcomings of reason; the is-ought dichotomy; the properties of moral axioms; the ethics of religion; the internal contradictions of moral relativism; the condition of nihilism; free will and personal responsibility; truth and cruelty; pleasure in ethics; religion, science, and the meaning of life; the philosophical problem of immortality; and the relationship between beauty, truth, and morality.  Time Links: 01:05 What is metaethics? 04:05 Evolutionary theory as the basis of morality  10:41 The trouble with reason  22:53 The is-ought problem  29:36 About moral axioms  38:50 The ethics of religion  42:28 Contradictions of moral relativism  47:45 Nihilism  52:49 Free will and personal responsibility  57:50 Can truth be cruel? 1:01:45 Pleasure in ethics 1:05:30 Religion, science, and the meaning of life 1:09:04 Immortality 1:11:21 How is beauty related to truth and morality? 1:17:18 Follow Dr. Blackburn’s work  -- Follow Dr. Blackburn’s work: Website: http://www2.phil.cam.ac.uk/~swb24/ Books: https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B000APFM0S -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g