Raymond Tallis - The Strange Idea that What Happens Has to be Made to Happen (WITH SLIDES)

[@DamienRowatt]

Great talk, really enjoyed listening to that and considering the material. Something to offer of my own in respect of the subject matter; from Plato's Timaeus; "Now the whole Heaven, or Cosmos, or if there is any other name which it specially prefers, by that let us call it,-so, be its name what it may, we must first investigate concerning it that primary question which has to be investigated at the outset in every case,-namely, whether it has existed always, having no beginning of generation, or whether it has come into existence, having begun from some beginning. It has come into existence; for it is visible and tangible and possessed of a body; and all such things are sensible, and things sensible, being apprehensible by opinion with the aid of sensation, come into existence, as we saw, and are generated. And that which has come into existence must necessarily, as we say, have come into existence by reason of some Cause. Now to discover the Maker and Father of this Universe were a task indeed; and having discovered Him, to declare Him unto all men were a thing impossible. However, let us return and inquire further concerning the Cosmos,-after which of the Models did its Architect construct it? Was it after that which is self-identical and uniform, or after that which has come into existence; Now if so be that this Cosmos is beautiful and its Constructor good, it is plain that he fixed his gaze on the Eternal; but if otherwise (which is an impious supposition), his gaze was on that which has come into existence. But it is clear to everyone that his gaze was on the Eternal; for the Cosmos is the fairest of all that has come into existence, and He the best of all the Causes." ~ Plato, Timaeus

[@roryoconnor6574]

This is greatly influenced by "After Finitude" by Quentin Meillassoux.

[@tbayley6]

If God is too general a cause to explain the variety of local happenings, how can we regard the sense of self as a similarly general causal agent who influences the world in a countless variety of ways? And yet in another talk Tallis seemed to think free will was incontrovertible :-/