• 4 months ago
Stefan Molyneux shares his views on politics, highlighting his disinterest due to perceived limitations on free will and speech. He discusses self-criticism, ideal standards, and free will, linking them to Christianity, liberalism, and atheism. Molyneux explains his Universal Preferable Behavior (UPB) framework, comparing it to the scientific method for assessing moral propositions. He envisions a society based on UPB principles emphasizing rationality, universality, and consistency in moral theories and voluntary interactions.

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Transcript
00:00Good morning everybody's family from freedom and hope you doing well.
00:03Questions from free domain dot locals dot com great community i hope you join when you say you don't do politics anymore does that mean even in your personal life you just avoid it,
00:12politics is becoming so crushing these days in place with my head i don't do politics really in my personal life,
00:19i'll occasionally read up on it a little bit here and there just to get the lay of the land and someone but i do find politics to be.
00:30Profoundly uninteresting profoundly interesting i think that.
00:36Debate is important where there's two things free will and free speech where you have free will and free speech then i think.
00:45Debate is interesting and important but obviously there's not a lot of free will in politics anymore everybody's just scrambling for the last piece of gold from the decaying.
00:54Empire all over the place and so everybody's just motivated by self interest and.
01:02The perceived need to survive and so on and and flourish and people have like over a couple of generations people adapt.
01:10To state power and feel like they can't really live without it so it's not really much free will there is there much free speech in politics will not.
01:17Not really because if you say the things about politics that are the.
01:22Basic truths you don't make it right so i where there's no free will.
01:30And there's no free speech or that weather is little free will and little free speech and this was the same with my family to write i mean.
01:36With my mother what i did was i tried to be honest about the issues in the fight didn't try i was honest about the issues.
01:46In the family and there was no way past defenses and her gas lighting and avoidance and so on.
01:52And so i recognized that for whatever reason in this area she had no identifiable free will i can be area of self criticism.
02:00It's good important it's good important to map this people in your life of the whole.
02:04The crows are coming to feast on the remnants of my political career so.
02:11She had no functional free will and i had this with other relationships as well girlfriends and someone you try to be.
02:17I'm honest about the issues that you see and there's no particular free well that's just defenses so when people are.
02:25I used to refer to it as defender but you know it's just the npc mean whatever you say they have an instant response that avoids all responsibility and usually blame you.
02:33So there's no functional free will in that kind of conversation free will is a capacity to compare proposed actions to ideal standards and if people are just responding automatically.
02:43Without any interference from the front of cortex you know you have like.
02:48A third of a second to to.
02:51Control or intercept or interfere with impulses arising from the fight flight mechanism people who don't do that it is a muscle that you need to develop and you need.
03:02We're not really born with it this sort of self-critical muscle where you say i could be wrong could i be the bad guy could i be doing the wrong thing what are my standards and how am i doing relative to that's not christianity develop these muscles.
03:14In humanity to an infinite degree near infinite degree and liberalism and atheism and secularism has caused these two.
03:22Decay christianity has higher standards that you need to compare your actions to and secularism does not.
03:29And so the muscle to intercept our impulses and compare proposed actions to ideal standards has a trophy for.
03:39Add two hundred years or so right i mean french revolution and and onwards and certainly with socialism communism that happens pretty badly it's lost a page is that important.
03:51So i'll get it later so i would say that when i'm.
03:58Talking with people and there is no evidence of a muscle that they have developed or a habit that i have developed to intercept their own emotions.
04:10And have a commitment to the truth despite discomfort which is really.
04:15If you don't exercise the muscle cold free will this is where the npc mean comes from if you don't exercise the muscle cold free well which is.
04:24To intercept your emotions and compare them to an ideal standard i don't want to tell the truth but i will tell the truth right.
04:33I don't want to do x but i will do x because you have an ideal standard i don't want to diet but i will die i don't want to exercise but i will exercise i don't want to be courageous.
04:47Really it is the essence of courage i don't want to be courageous but i will be courageous.
04:51So people who have no experience or no particular muscle in resisting their impulses in resisting their base in nature.
05:01Those people have no functional free will and of course the goal is to one of the things with you pb was trying to one of the things i was trying to deliver to the world with you pb,
05:11what's the resurrection of the free will of ideal standards which christianity cultivated and provided and socrates did to some degree but it was mostly intellectual not emotional.
05:26So the free will of comparing proposed actions to ideal standards that a trophy really since the french revolution.
05:33Which is a huge example or or demonstration of what happens when you no longer restrain your behavior according to any moral standards.
05:44I've got a whole ten hour series on the french revolution which you can get by becoming a subscriber free demand local stock should really check it out it's essential to these kinds of conversations but.
05:57You pb was aiming at redelivering a free will.
06:03To the society that i live in to the society that i live in to the culture that i have a history with because by creating absolute ideal standards.
06:14It then gave you a metric by which you can compare your proposed actions to as in with christianity it's.
06:23Being at one with the holy spirit obeying god what would jesus do it is comparing proposed actions to ideal standards which gives you free will without those ideal standards you have no function of free will.
06:33Because you're just bouncing off desire and fear and guilt and you're easily pushed around and manipulated cuz you don't have any ideal standards you have nothing to to sacrifice for.
06:43I mean sacrifice the hedonism of the moment for so.
06:47I gave it a good honest shot and it is a valid framework but it is up to other people.
06:54Do you accept it and to promulgate it right i can only do so much in promulgating philosophy right i mean.
07:01And and i hope that you know i hope that you i'm sure you do not just remind you i don't have any capacity to spread philosophy outside of.
07:10Are the people also spreading philosophy because then i can become isolated and freaky fight in the general.
07:17Minds so.
07:20Yes so and also with people do you have free speech right do you have free speech in your relationships and we can talk about the legal right of this now the other okay.
07:29But do you actually have free speech in your relationships can you say what you think and feel without being attacked punished ostracized whispered about having your reputation attacked being getting those weird looks are those shut down looks like what are you talking about you say that right do you have free speech in your relationships.
07:46It's one thing to have the legal right it's another thing to have the right in society right so where there's not.
07:55Much evidence of free will and when there's little practical free speech i don't get involved.
08:02Personal opinions attached to other people peer groups are environments like universities etc it seems to me they are otherwise logical people start to become illogical when they start to lose the high ground.
08:13Uncertain topic like climate change of voting the less they are rooted in such thought groups the more open they seem to be.
08:19Personal opinion seem to be mingled with other people's opinions.
08:23This i read this a couple of times before doing this a little recording.
08:29So i'm not saying that our people tribe our personal opinions attached to other people peer groups are environments.
08:38I don't really know how to answer that so if you could give me that question again i would appreciate that.
08:45How will you be working society that is incentivized by social credit slash carbon credits.
08:52So you pb is a truly free society where people don't have the right or the perceived right to initiate the use of force against others for the general good the common good the social good and so on.
09:03So you pb works okay you pb doesn't work i mean how does science work a science you pb doesn't work it is not a practical tool for implementing things.
09:14It is physics not engineering so engineering stuff has to work physics just stuff just has to be true.
09:20Engineering has a practical component does the touch screen work right that's the practical component.
09:27But physics doesn't have to work it just has to be true just has to be valid so moral theories don't have to work i mean they should explain the facts of history and they should be consistent and universal as they claim to be right.
09:40But.
09:42Physicists have to explain the operations of the universe and their theories have to be rationally consistent.
09:49With both reason and evidence right so consistent with reason is the hypothetical side of the scientific method right do you say the two and two make four and also two and two make five.
10:00In the same theory well then that's inconsistent and do you say that gravity both attracts and repels the gas is both expanding contract when heated that would be an example of.
10:10A contradiction in the theory and when there's a contradiction in the theory that's designed to describe a rational universe which is non contradictory then.
10:20If what you're describing is rational and your theory is not rational then your theory cannot be valid.
10:26If you cannot be valid.
10:29If what you're trying to describe is a light source and your theory demands that it have no light and no light then your theory is inconsistent with the facts of reality and you don't have to test it but you just have to say,
10:43this is inconsistent if it contradicts itself if it contradicts the observable facts of reality your theory is simply wrong so when you say how will you be work you trying to say what what are the practical effects of.
10:56Universal morality i mean i think the practical effects will be positive and good and beneficial and so on but that's what it's not what it's for so for instance when a scientific discovery of physics discovery purely theoretical physics discovery is made.
11:10It might have an effect on making your touchscreens work better but you don't judge it by that.
11:17Because in order for it to make your touchscreens work better it has to be valid and true according to the scientific method so that's what's needed.
11:25So if the theory in physics is valid and true.
11:30If it accurately describes what happens in reality and if it is internally logically consistent and it can be used to predict.
11:37Future events in the world of physics and then then it's valid and true and then we can start to use it in engineering going from theoretical to practical is going from physics engineering is going from the.
11:51Creation of medicines to the treatment of people right one is theoretical and prone to success or failure the other one is practical after it's been proven to be successful or at least that's how the way it used to work.
12:04So as far as how will you be work you people doesn't work.
12:08Oh people gonna snip that right up it's not designed to have a practical outcome it is designed to have an ideal standard.
12:18An ideal standard it's like saying can i take my business plan to the bank and get money and deposit it as money right well no.
12:28The business plan is a theoretical is a goal it is an ideal and your goal is to work practically to try to achieve it maybe exceed.
12:37So the idea of money is not currency.
12:41Right you cannot chop down and sell the word embedded in the concept of the forest.
12:49The theoreticals are there to describe common standards within reality like trees and wood and so on like clouds right of a water vapor in the air.
13:00So the concept is not designed to work it is designed for accuracy.
13:06So you pb is designed to be accurate and you pb says.
13:12If universe if morality is universal and valid then it cannot be self contradictory now if morality if universally preferable behavior.
13:24Must be rational universal and consistent what would that look like when we flesh that out right.
13:30So it is a methodology for evaluating moral propositions just as the scientific method is a methodology for evaluating statements about.
13:42Empirical material physical and biological reality.
13:47So the scientific method says if you want your.
13:51Individual scientific hypothesis of conjecture to be valid it has to go through the steps right.
13:56It has to be logically consistent it has to accurately describe reality it has to be replicable it should be reviewed by other people you have to release the source data like all of this kind of stuff that goes on with the scientific method.
14:06So and this is a one of the so when i u pb is like science right so when we say science we're talking both about the scientific method and individual.
14:17Scientific conjectures right so science refers to the scientific method and the theory of evolution it refers to the scientific method and.
14:27The general or specific theory of relativity right or quantum mechanics or the money grubbing nonsense known as super string theory so.
14:39You pb refers to if you want to make a moral statement it has to be universal and consistent and ideally should accurately describe the facts of reality and history right so if you have a theory which says a moral theory which says central planning leads to economic efficiency or slavery is good for the economy then you have to.
15:01Deal with the fact that the opposite is true in reality right so if it explains the facts of reality so much the better but it does so within the.
15:09Reality of free will which means that they're going to be variations right so biology.
15:13Has a free will embedded in it human biology and also been animal biology to be a horse has one head but every now and then you'll get this mutant horse born with two heads right but you have to accept that it's gonna be some variation.
15:27Right physics is absolute anything to do with life is a bell curve right in general women are shorter than men but their individual women taller than the average man and so on right so.
15:39When you deal with life you dealing with a bell curve which is statistical probability when you dealing with physics you dealing with absolute right you dealing with absolute it is almost.
15:51So logistical says physics is deductive reasoning and anything to do with life is inductive reasoning right so probabilities and averages and standards which is why it's tough for a lot of people to follow this kind of stuff.
16:05They take the reasoning to do with science and physics and they try to apply to life and choice and it doesn't particularly work so.
16:15Are you pb is there to evaluate the moral statements moral absolute.
16:21And you pb.
16:24Also refers to the moral standards and absolute that are validated by the framework right so the bands on rape theft assault and murder are all validated by the framework but you know there are other things that we need to look at animal rights and,
16:40end abortion and so on all through the framework which we've done which i've done a lot of over the years so i hope that helps you understand you pb says that all it's almost a tautology right so it says all claims.
16:53To morality must be universal and consistent why because morality is claimed to be universal and consistent right there called human rights which means that they apply to all humans and so you pb says.
17:06Okay so if your claim is that your moral theory is universal and consistent guess what it has to be universal and consistent and then all that.
17:14Voluntary isn't end up failing that test so that's why so yeah you can end up with a society that's a you pb acceptance that has.
17:22Some kind of social credit maybe even has carbon credits i don't know but it will all be voluntary and it will all be voluntary.
17:29And it would all be negotiated and it would all be based upon.
17:33Free will and private property rights so how that works i don't have a clue doesn't matter but it just has to not be evil whatever you say that's just not promote evil.
17:44Thanks so much for the mail.com slash donate have yourself a wonderful day i will talk to you soon bye.