Media contributions
4Media contributions
Title Can we make ultimate moral judgements? | Tommy J. Curry, Joanna Kavenna, Massimo Pigliucci Media name/outlet The Institute of Art and Ideas - Youtube Media type Web Duration/Length/Size 10:51 Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 21/03/23 Description Should we abandon the idea of universal morality?
For a couple of millenia in the West we have judged people and their actions by the standards of good and evil. But, from Mother Theresa to Winston Churchill the notion that an individual is simply good is hard to sustain. Almost all claim to be good. Even the Nazis believed they were on a moral crusade against the evils of corruption and deceit, managing to enlist the Catholic church in support. And, from the Crusades to 9/11, seeing oneself and one's cause as good has a habit of intensifying dispute and conflict.
Should we conclude that dividing the world into good and bad is not just misguided but actually dangerous? Should we adopt a Roman approach to human qualities and actions where kindness and brutality could both be valued in the same one individual? Or is the distinction between good and bad essential to social well being, public order, and individual growth?
Fearless thinker, Tommy Curry, esteemed philosopher, Massimo Pigliucci, and author of Zed, Joanna Kavenna, explore whether 'good' and 'evil' are just categories used for coercion. Hosted by Myriam François.Persons Tommy Curry Title What decolonization isn't Media name/outlet Youtube - The Institute of Art and Ideas Media type Web Duration/Length/Size 26:26 Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 23/02/23 Description Tommy Curry, Adjoa Andoh, Kehinde Andrews, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Sundar Sarukkai and Chandrima Ganguly discuss the role of historical narratives in shaping our understanding of the world. Persons Tommy Curry Title Does the university undermine free thought? | Tommy Curry, Aaron Bastani, Kathleen Stock Duration/Length/Size 10:29 Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 6/10/22 Description 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?
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.Producer/Author Youtube - The Institute of Art and Ideas Persons Tommy Curry Title Good and Evil are Western Myths Media name/outlet IAI news Media type Web Duration/Length/Size 2,901 words Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 27/05/22 Description Good and evil are still the moral categories through which we judge people’s actions. But these seemingly universal and inescapable moral concepts are anything but. They are the product of a European history and power structure that construed the perceived inferiority and weakness of the ‘other’ as evil. The universality of ‘good and evil’ is a mythology that was used to legitimate the atrocities of Western civilization. To move beyond the dichotomy of good and evil would be to strip away the pretense at the heart of modernity: that ethics is founded on the autonomous rational individual, rather than on power, argues Tommy Curry Producer/Author Alexis Papazoglou Persons Tommy Curry