Gray's Anatomy: Thoughts on Politics, Religion and the Meaning of life

Speaker: Professor John Gray
Chair: Richard Reeves
This event was recorded on 30 April 2009 in Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
The world has entered a period of crisis and upheaval in which the ideologies of the past give little guidance. How did it reach its present condition? Is there a pattern of thinking that has led governments to make systematic errors? In conversation with Richard Reeves, John Gray will ask what went wrong and what we can expect in future. John Gray is emeritus professor of European thought at the LSE and author of Gray's Anatomy. Richard Reeves is Director of the think-tank Demos.

[@dewiowen3010]

An important thinker of our time. If only our leaders were as wise!

[@HM88848]

Listening to this 11 year talk by Prof John Gray makes it clear why some of the smartest people on the planet rate him so highly. Every force that he said will come into play did come into play and if anything he was a little optimistic about our common-sense.

[@arvind13]

ppl who like Gray's thoughts (i'm one of them) should really look at S.N. Balagangadhara's work and videos. he takes it even further in some ways. especially his theories on ethics and religion

[@jennymy12]

"All of our myths don't work together."

[@saimak7079]

Flutterandwow: yes I was wondering about the difference in postulates between Pinker and Gray.

[@nightoftheworld]

For anyone who is into Gray, read Zizek’s “Violence” or watch his lecture at Google on it.

[@KiljiArslan]

I love at 48:00 where he talks about the return of the old right, he is even more correct now than he was when this video was made, the Golden Dawn rises in Greece, Hungary is verging on Authoritarianism, and Jobbick still rises. MNP in France attampets to ape the National Front, in Bulgaria Ataksa is continuing to rise. fascism is returning again to Europe. LIkewise he is correct about womens emancipation going up against Democracy, as egypt now shows us.

[@frankmolnar2459]

Motion does not equal progress. One step forward, two steps back, two steps forward, one step back. Such is the dance of progress. It is nothing more than a stationary squirming, an illusion. The universal equilibrium is forever in effect.

[@alihammadshah]

Do you think there exists some sort of universal equilibrium of good and evil at all times?

Brilliant, brilliant man... Totally farted at 1:03.

[@chrish12345]

sorry who did? i missed it

[@bayreuth79]

The idea of progress in ethics presupposes that there is an absolute standard of morality to which this progress can be measured. If there is no such standard, and therefore nothing by which moral progress could be determined, then "progress" loses all meaning; it would just be code for power interests. The question is: how do liberals ground an absolute morality which can make meaningful the notion of moral progress?

[@saimak7079]

Wouldn't progressions, or regressions, of ethical behaviour be measured by means of comparison from one era to another, or one episteme in contradiction to the next? As oppose to measuring ethics against some 'absolute' yardstick?

[@Silly.Old.Sisyphus]

The Loop - a few people - ask the question: who benefited? answer: the same people who benefited from all the other wars USA has started since WWII

[@saimak7079]

I wonder if Gray is perturbed by his interviewers manner?

[@ajs41]

What was wrong with his manner?

[@winston2015]

1:02:46 It's the police that need their excessive aggression removed.

[@Amalgafiend]

it's also a myth to think that scientific knowledge cannot be lost. This kind of seperation between ethical knowledge and scientific knowledge was shown to be untenabable over 60 years ago by Popper, in the poverty of historicism.

[@winston2015]

44:23 How does he not put together the mountain of troubling facts surrounding 911?

[@chrisw7347]

You can't be taken seriously if you do.

[@phwodehouse]

ill-read,ill-informed,self-contradictory but very reasonable and good to listen to. where are the challenging intellectual debates?

[@bblackburn1823]

I'll informed? Compared to u?

[@androeis]

Well I would say, Gray makes a distinction between what is absolutely 'real' (e.g. can be found in hard sciences), and what is socially real (of which he rejects the importance, as this is mere self-deception and illusory). I agree with you that socially, amongst others ethics, the social idea of progress can be incorporated. Gray just rejects the importance of this.

[@MrSvenovitch]

so humans 'have power' huh, welcome to 2020 hahahaha

[@MagnumInnominandum]

We lost the fact of the roundness of the Earth, that the Romans had taken account of. Scientific knowledge is every bit as fragile as moral "knowledge". Reevaluate on the basis of a causal survey of KZbin videos defending a flat Earth hypothesis vs. videos defending a global view.

[@Austria88586]

Homosexuality within certain parameters was accepted but homosexuality wasn't accepted universally in the ancient world.

[@eamonnmurphy5385]

I like a lot of his thinking but 1. He blames Christianity for Homophobia but Christ did not promote persecution of anyone 2: He assumes that abortion is a natural human right without qualifying that that is his opinion! What about the right of the person being aborted.

[@arzukhan3284]

Nothing is of value if there are no man as sold as him...Wow...he has got so happy when communism collapsed but could only realize that there were the rest still ? What a great story book...

[@williampowhida572]

Gray is very dismissive of the young man who is supposed to be a participant in the discussion. No eye contact, and his body is swivelled away from his host. He may be, Gray, is a stuffed shirt.