Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux - 2225 Ethics Unsucked! A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics
Aired: 2012-10-04
Duration: 02:52


=== Existence and Meaning (02:52) ===

[00:00:00]  Mr. Morini.
[00:00:02]  All right.
[00:00:03]  Hi, everybody.
[00:00:04]  You have good lunch?
[00:00:06]  Are you all carved up?
[00:00:08]  Ready for some good philosophy?
[00:00:10]  All right.
[00:00:10]  Sorry, some people over there said they couldn't hear me.
[00:00:12]  Is that better?
[00:00:13]  Kind of got a deep throat this thing now.
[00:00:14]  Okay.
[00:00:16]  Well, thanks, of course.
[00:00:17]  I just wanted to mention it's really been great to meet all the listeners to Freedom Aid Radio who say it's kind of weird to see you in the flesh.
[00:00:27]  I'm buffering for you just so it feels a little bit more like a true internet experience.
[00:00:34]  Now pixelate.
[00:00:35]  Now pixelate.
[00:00:36]  Oh, you know what?
[00:00:36]  That gives me such a migraine.
[00:00:39]  I get all Picasso and then, no, that's no good.
[00:00:43]  So, if you remember from this morning, ethics sucketh.
[00:00:49]  I think that's where we left off this morning.
[00:00:51]  Ethics suck, but they don't have to.
[00:00:52]  So that's what we're going to try and work on a little bit this afternoon.
[00:00:57]  So, this is Philosophy 101, real quick.
[00:00:59]  I'm sure a lot of you are aware of this.
[00:01:01]  This is how philosophy, I think, should be taught.
[00:01:03]  So, this is audience participation afternoon, so feel free to jump in.
[00:01:09]  Okay, so, let's say I say I do not exist.
[00:01:16]  Still here?
[00:01:17]  Yeah, okay.
[00:01:17]  So, I do not exist.
[00:01:19]  What's wrong with that?
[00:01:20]  Performative contradiction.
[00:01:21]  Yeah, it's performative contradiction.
[00:01:25]  If I say you do not exist, you're not going to believe me, right?
[00:01:28]  Okay, who here has never donated to Freedom in Radio?
[00:01:32]  Okay, good, because I don't want to smoke any donators if I'm wrong.
[00:01:35]  If I say you do not exist, does that make any sense?
[00:01:41]  I guess if I haven't donated, maybe.
[00:01:43]  Yeah, if you don't exist, I'll get my PayPal account, and that's to me the same thing!
[00:01:47]  But no, so, if I say, you do not exist, that clearly makes no sense.
[00:01:51]  Right?
[00:01:52]  Because I'm pointing at you and saying, identifying you as a discrete entity, saying, you do not exist.
[00:01:57]  So, I do not exist, you do not exist, makes no sense.
[00:02:01]  How about, language has no meaning.
[00:02:10]  We're going to be all tricky now.
[00:02:12]  Language has no meaning.
[00:02:14]  Does that make any sense?
[00:02:16]  Why not?
[00:02:19]  I have to pick specific words that have meaning in order to communicate that language has no meaning.
[00:02:24]  Sound does not exist.
[00:02:29]  Yeah, but you can, but then I'm just contradicting myself, right?
[00:02:31]  I mean, I can make up whatever nonsense I want, and I've certainly been accused of that in the past, but sound does not exist.
[00:02:37]  It's like mailing someone a letter saying, letters never get delivered.
[00:02:45]  Okay, so this is to me the essence of philosophy.
[00:02:48]  Everybody knows this old Hume thing.
[00:02:50]  You can't get an ought from an is.