36 - Tom Holland - Where do our ideas come from?

danieljoachim

For our recent "Philosophy Evening" this Summer, with regional events being hosted all over Norway, we got a digital visit from renown British historian, author and maker of documentaries, Tom Holland. Now you can listen to the full recording here, or watch the video here: https://youtu.be/Dq4IPV7gDAc He talked on the topic "Where do our ideas come from?". It's tempting to believe that all of the ideas that we cherish, from human dignity and equality, democracy, scientific methods, right to health and education, environmental care, progress, property rights, freedom of speech, etc, are ideas that were created ex nihilo during the Enlightenment, or at least are ideas that all rational human beings would discover if they only were left untouched by dogma and ideology. But is it really that simple? Holland first discovered that something radical had happened in the world of ideas, between our own age and the brutality of the Romans. The session ends with an interesting Q&A, where among others Holland suggest three possible outcomes from the current cultural crisis, his current standing with the Christian worldview and much more. (Some of the questions were accidentally muted, but you should be able to understand most of it from context.) Find Tom Holland's latest gem, "Dominion", here: https://smile.amazon.com/Dominion-Making-Western-Tom-Holland/dp/1408706954/