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Daniel Dennett episode discussion thread (Patreon)

Published:
2023-02-02 02:06:40
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Hey everyone,

We finally got the Dennett episode down to size and should be appearing on the main feed shortly.

Quite a lot of content on the cutting room floor as Matt and I got into various arcane discussions about evolution and cultural memes, as such I hope some of the later discussions don't feel too disjointed. It did not feel right to inflict an almost 4hr episode on people.

Fair to say that we both liked Dennett more than other figures we've covered and don't find too much objectionable.

Good to have these kind of figures covered from time to time and a nice palette cleanser ahead of Bill Maher & Dave Rubin.

Feedback & comments welcome!

Files

Comments

A History of Rock n' Roll in Film and Rock n' Roll BONUS MATERIAL

Don't be shy about dropping those cut segments into this feed like breadcrumbs. The conversation between you two is why many of us are here, not the gurus themselves. Especially people like me who will never experience life within academia and are benefitting from the ways in which your backgrounds inform your takes on these ideas being bandied about. If nothing else, it's a window into a world we'll never be a part of, and it helps keep us sane to hear rational, fun people having discussions about something other than what's in our news feed.

Robert Andrews

Yep, would be fine with a four-hour Patreon cut! ;-) I once read Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and I think Dennett comes across as being an even bigger champion of the idea of memes that even its creator, Dawkins. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

Tom McCool

Good grief, as if Prager U wasn’t bad enough, the Peterson clan will foist their ‘ideas’ on a loving audience. The plan to go one step beyond Austin U. Won’t Bari be upset? I give them credit for enhancing the grift; their audience will be online arguing that they’re credentialed! Smarter! More whatev! Joe will be able to get more people on to spread miseducation not just misinformation. Sheesh.

Rasterisk

Bill Maher & Dave Rubin?! Wow, I'm so sorry, but also, thank you. Excited to hear your thoughts on Dennett, who I think of as one of the better atheists, and should contrast with Maher, one of the shittier ones.

TheRealEricWeinstein

Great episode. It’s fun seeing Matt get so excited about evolution.

Graham Clarke

I don’t get why Dennett looks at Hand Axes and decides if you have many of them it must be for signalling to women. Surely the signal here is “keep away or I’ll smash you with an axe”. Just as some people have a large collection of guns or knives.

Paul Bowman

Useful to have these contrast studies to throw the main characters (Peterson, Weinsteins, etc) into relief by contrast. While I am much more on the Stephen Jay Gould side of the "Great Meme Debate", I agree that whatever differences I have with Dennett's postions, they are on matters of substance. I think for a lot of toxic gurus there's a style/substance inversion - the style is all there to conjure up the illusion of substance and it takes cognitive effort (and some knowledge capital) to deconstruct that to see that, in fact, there's no "there" there. While Dennett is a skilled presenter, there's never the feeling that the substance of the argument isn't front and centre. So much for form. Possibly even more important is the content, or affect. Dennett's affect is generally positive, even optimistic or upbeat. There's no dark invocations of cosmic threats to our civilisation and way of life, no imputed sinister forces at work about to snuff out our freedom of thought or action, etc, etc. It really does bring home how much the content of the toxic gurus is above all about channelling resentment. There's a wonderful bit from Deleuze's "Pure Immance" on Nietzsche's dramatis personae that evokes this affect very poetically: "Spider (or Tarantula): It is the spirit of revenge or resentment. Its power of contagion is its venom. Its will is a will to punish and to judge. Its weapon is the thread, the thread of morality. It preaches equality (that everyone become like it!)"

brianshmrian

Nobody invented the hand axe? The next thing Dennett's going to claim is that nobody wrote the song "Love Take Me Down to the Streets"!