Does the university undermine free thought? | Tommy Curry, Aaron Bastani, Kathleen Stock

Tommy Curry, Aaron Bastani and Kathleen Stock discuss whether the modern university system allows for freedom and diversity.
Watch the full debate at iai.tv/video/truth-prejudice-...
The pursuit of truth has frequently been seen as the central goal of the academy, proclaimed by Harvard in its motto 'Veritas'. But many argue this has been undermined by institutional group think, supported by surveys showing a quarter of academics endorse the ousting of a colleague for having the 'wrong' opinion. In response, leading figures including Steven Pinker, Jonathan Haidt and Kathleen Stock, have set up a new institution, the University of Austin, to create a school that encourages all enquiry.
Should we root out intolerance from our campuses to create an imaginative and exploratory culture? Or are these criticisms the misguided prejudices of a conventional liberal elite who have not understood that the world has moved on? At root, is this institutional row itself the consequence of the end of our belief in truth in the first place and no amount of railing against it will bring it back?
#TruthPrejudiceAndTheUniversity #ThePursuitOfTruthAndKnowledge #InstitutionalGroupThink
Tommy Curry is a philosophy professor at Edinburgh University where he holds a Personal Chair in Africana Philosophy and Black Male studies. His research focusses on Africana Philosophy, Critical Race Theory, Anti-Colonialism, Black Male Studies and Public Health.
Aaron Bastani is co-founder of Novara Media, an independent, self-described radical left-wing alternative media organization based in the United Kingdom, and author of Fully Automated Luxury Communism. In his book, Bastani argues that ‘Fully Automated Luxury Communism’ is the paradigm of the future - and the path to a world of luxury, liberty and happiness.
Kathleen Stock is a British philosopher and writer. She was a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex until 2021. She has published several articles and her most recent book 'Material Girls' which argues against the idea of gender as a social construct.
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[@TheInstituteOfArtAndIdeas]

How can we rethink free speech for the benefit of all rather than for the profit of a majority? Let us know what you think in the comments below. To watch the full debate visit iai.tv/video/truth-prejudice-and-the-university3?KZbin&+comment

[@richardasmus9426]

We don't need to rethink free speech. We need to say what we think and live with the consequences.

[@anapontopina86]

I love Kathleen Stock! This Woman makes the world better and more rational!

[@heatherchapman1984]

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool." - Dr. Richard P. Feynman

[@paulheath885]

The problem wih the best foot forward and always all the time is that you assume everyone is the same as you are. the best way to be is to turn this on its head the only to find objective truth is if it relates too you in a direct way and never leaves the impression which you leave that changes the future on it ... meaning you need to see yourself as the agitator which alters the events as they are

[@jeremywilson2875]

Stock's discussion on social construction was wonderfully concise. The idea that Humanities departments are taking away the natural world and putting everything under social constructionism that they get to construct.

[@adamcotton2121]

Kathleen is brilliant. Thank you.

[@abdalrahmanmahmoud9209]

Whose reality,whose interpretation, whose truth? Every one should be citicized! He is saying something deep!

[@benfisher1376]

Kathleen is superb

[@SelfReflective]

She is very tall and British.

[@illomens2766]

The moderator of this discussion asks some GREAT questions, very refreshing to see

[@L_Martin]

3:48 look at his face after she says that lmaooo Don't take his job away, Kathleen!!

[@havenbastion]

Yes there is an objective reality and yes it is a matter of perspective. We each have a unique embodied perspective. That means physical, cultural, and personality filters and a unique position in space, time and scale. Reality is the consensus version of Actuality, the Venn overlap of all perspectives.

[@stevendunn2501]

Love hearing Dr. Curry share his thoughts. The Man-Not is a must read.

[@mikehunt.1609]

All people need to ask themselves is, " glass half full or glass half empty," it doesnt need to be any more complicated than that!

[@MegaKyoukai]

kathleen u did great

[@bradmodd7856]

I hope so

[@Heppellos]

You have to balance subjective and objective truth. Over emphasizing one over the other leads to problems

[@alst4817]

Not sure what that means, can you explain?

[@mikehunt.1609]

The proplem with academics is they live in academia, and they dont realise that nearly all of us don't.The only reality most of us need to know is "Am I in a good place" and if Im not what do I need to do to achieve it. Academics always over complicate matters and when this bleeds into the mainstream it always causes trouble. We need to free ourseleves from Cant!

[@peterstabler2321]

Diversity in everything err except thought obviously.

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

decentralize political government

[@andyiswonderful]

Isn't it an objective truth that my dog is not a galaxy?

[@lakshmisharma2243]

Information matching somehow 😂😂, otherwise don't know it's mystery

[@MegaKyoukai]

yes

[@bennaarsongidi9269]

The obsession with cussing in philosophical inquiry is in bad taste

[@ernestberry-songsrestored5637]

I ‘am’ a Marxist . Lol.

[@4imagesmore]

I am a "Marxist" - hilarious

[@lasttango7522]

​@@4imagesmore Sad

[@traigounregalo]

Please, use humanity, the term men only includes men.

[@smlanka4u]

Reality is not probabilistic scientifically yet. Quantum entanglement shows us that not only time, but also distance is relative. The many-world interpretation that explains the collapse of the wave function remove the probabilistic nature of elementary particles, and makes the nature of elementary particles somewhat deterministic. The universe is mathematical, but the the wave function depends on that process, and it doesn't show that fundamental mathematical process.

[@shaunclubberlang2887]

OK.. now repeat that in English

[@smlanka4u]

@@shaunclubberlang2887, It is based on maths. And it is from my TOE. It is difficullt to explain it in words without using maths.

[@shaunclubberlang2887]

@@smlanka4u Aha.. you have your very own TOE. Well let me just say this. If you can't explain something in terms that a 5 year old would understand it, you don't really have a grasp of it.

[@smlanka4u]

@@shaunclubberlang2887, It is a simple TOE. I could identify errors in modern scientific explanations using it. E.g., Electrons are not particles.

[@havenbastion]

I have a metaphysical ToE that encompasses the physical, but i want to know what y'all think of gravity being explainable as a direct accretive force rather than a remote attractive one.

[@moonchart]

These people just need to take a breath and get on with living.

[@moagiletlala7330]

Why??

[@lolivingston6827]

-Low IQ Neanderthal

[@wattlebough]

And let the lunatics take over the asylum and the kids take over the kindergarten?

[@yardengali]

These are academics and philosophers..this IS their life

[@joshuavanniekerk5055]

Listening to Tommy J Curry, it astonishes me how misguided and brainwashed he is. He cannot separate race from anything he thinks & talks about.

[@j.gyamayaka5826]

It's no surprise to me that you lack the ability to make a connection between racism and it's enormous impact. You react with baseless insults towards a brilliant human being as a result of your inability to escape your own social conditioning. Your comment is a textbook display of the behavior that Robin DiAngelo describes in her book called White Fragility.

[@joshuavanniekerk5055]

@@j.gyamayaka5826 I seemed to have triggered you 😂. I don’t think you know what baseless means. Try using words you understand. It usually helps. Also, just because you agree with something in a book, doesn’t mean it’s true or accurate. People write about all sorts of things, including their biased opinions and cherry picked studies. Some of us choose to leave race out of the equation because it is unhelpful; causes divide, resentment, and hate; plus, it plays such a tiny factor in any real equation. I don’t see Tommy J Curry, Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Will Smith, Wesley Snipes, Idris Elba, Thomas Sowell, Michael Jordon, and so many more successful black individuals experiencing terrible oppression from racism 🧐. They’re all doing (or have done) extraordinarily well in life.

[@pvo.spence1374]

@@joshuavanniekerk5055 I think it’s inadequate to remove race from the topic of what it means to be human and moving through history when you have material circumstances that are contingent upon the racialization of man. Some of us choose to include race in the discussion because of how it has impacted and continues to impact the political, economic, and social realities of humans to this day. You named a few black celebrities who are economically well off, but neglect how racialization plays a factor in the accumulated history of post colonial societies of which racial disparities persist on a grander scale, as well as the frames of reference for what we consider the norm or deviant.

[@j.gyamayaka5826]

@@joshuavanniekerk5055 Baseless is defined as "without foundation in fact." Calling a PhD "misguided and brainwashed" without providing any facts to support your claim is baseless. If I have to teach you again then I'll have to charge you Joshua. Lol Just kidding Btw @pvo.spence1374 has written a great response to that to that good old tokenism argument that you're using. I'm not sure if you'll read it because I know that you said you don't focus on race.. (paraphrasing with sarcasm) You know.. because not focusing on race makes race problems dissappear (more sarcasm)

[@danmuygallo]

@@pvo.spence1374 Yum, word salad.

[@manlikeJoe1010]

1 minute in and Tommy Curry puts forward an utterly confused and embarrassing performance in his 'analysis' of what truth is. This is what happens when you give academic positions to people in made up disciplines like 'critical race theory' and 'africana philosophy'. They end up embarrassing themselves on an international stage🤣🤣🤦‍♂ Even though he's a self avowed communist I have more respect for Bastani

[@VTEC313]

And what exactly is your discipline of expertise?

[@manlikeJoe1010]

@@VTEC313 With respect, Curry has no expertise in any 'discipline'. Corrupt enterprises like sociology and social psychology, which spawned the evil offspring of so-called 'critical race theory', aren't to be taken seriously, never mind being called a 'discipline'. How can Curry sit next to a philosopher like Kathleen Stock and seriously expect her to entertain his childish appeals to relativism? He should have been done with entertaining relativism as a serious concept as an undergraduate, not espousing it as an adult on the world stage

[@fortyacres]

your comment is embarrasing.

[@manlikeJoe1010]

@@fortyacres Care to expand on your pseudo-intellectual posturing? Something tells me you won't...🤡

[@MrDomyzzz]

@@manlikeJoe1010Because first of all he postulates the idea of truth as an historical entity which means that it is relative in the eyes of different culturea and accuses Western European thought of nivelating all cultures to universal moral standart which automatically presupussos an hierarchical category. The main mistake that he makes is that he talks about truth in terms of cultural customs which varies across the globe and also talks about integratian and identifies himself as communist which is a product of universalist modern Western European thought. It would be quite hilarious if he told us that 'I am communist. Truth is relative so communism is therefore I try to impend communism in my society but I can't say that it is truthful political ideology so I act without knowing of truth. If you reject the idea of truth as such and rationality then everything goes. And no one can stop me from killing black people like him because there is no universal system which in any circumstance would tell me that it is wrong.

[@NekoShmeko]

Stock is great, more insightful and intelligent than Bastani.

[@alejandrarodriguezsanchez6667]

There is no such thing as free thought. We are determined. Says neuroscience