| Science & Reason on Facebook: tinyurl.com Stephen Fry @ BigThink: Philosophy, Logic And Reason. --- Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.YouTube.com • www.YouTube.com • www.YouTube.com • www.YouTube.com --- Interview Transcript Question: What philosophers influenced you? Stephen Fry: Philosophy is an odd thing. When we use the word in everyday speech you know you sometimes hear it hilariously. They say, Oh, its never good to be late. Thats my philosophy. You think thats a generous description of that rather dull precept to call it a philosophy, but its odd how philosophers generally speaking, at least the ones Ive read or the ones I you know value, dont have in that sense a philosophy. There is no particular Socratic or Nietzschean or Kantian way to live your life. They dont offer ethical codes and standards by which to live your life. They dont offer a philosophy to follow. They just simply raise an enormous number of questions mostly, so in the sense that you put the question is there a philosopher thats important to me. Well I me I loved really the sort of the Bertrand Russell grand sort of tour of philosophy, the history of philosophy from the pre Socratics as they're called, Zeno and so on through to Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. I never quite liked Aristotle. I think thats partly... Although he was obviously a genius and brilliant and he invented logic, so whats not to like. I think it was his influence on the medieval mind was probably rather pernicious ... |
