This is the website/blog of Philosopher Stephen Law. Stephen is Reader in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London, and editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal THINK. He has published several books (see sidebar). For school talks and media email: think-AT-royalinstitutephilosophy.org
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Video of Richard Dawkins and myself in conversation in Sheldonian Theatre Oxford
So glad to hear someone (Dawkins, around 3:00) give the correct interpretation of Hamlet's phrase "your philosophy": it just means "philosophy," which in Elizabethan English is roughly equivalent to the word "science" as we use it today. Hamlet uses "your" the same way when he says "Your worm is your only emperor for diet." He is not contrasting one "philosophy," in the modern sense of a personal worldview or outlook on life (a sense of the word that did not exist in Shakespeare's time), with another, but scientific knowledge with things that are outside of it.
"You, know, the lunatic asylums are full of these people who have these private beliefs - and we lock them up!" A rare "Ouch!" Prof. Dawkins. Not very nice and not very true.
7 comments:
So glad to hear someone (Dawkins, around 3:00) give the correct interpretation of Hamlet's phrase "your philosophy": it just means "philosophy," which in Elizabethan English is roughly equivalent to the word "science" as we use it today. Hamlet uses "your" the same way when he says "Your worm is your only emperor for diet." He is not contrasting one "philosophy," in the modern sense of a personal worldview or outlook on life (a sense of the word that did not exist in Shakespeare's time), with another, but scientific knowledge with things that are outside of it.
Excellent discussion. Bravo Richard and Stephen.
FYI: I responded to the infinite regress argument in my book, seen in this post of mine.
I made one of Richard's statements into a poster.
Nice poster! I'll stick it in the blog.
I'm watching now. By the way Stephen, it might be worth making a post about your Closer to Truth interview because they are now online:
http://www.closertotruth.com/participant/Stephen-Law/154
Ah right - didn't know my Closer to Truth stuff was online. Thanks Ryan.
"You, know, the lunatic asylums are full of these people who have these private beliefs - and we lock them up!" A rare "Ouch!" Prof. Dawkins. Not very nice and not very true.
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