Video

Lovely! Very glad I found this. No mention of the Schopenhauerian "will" in the music? I suppose it's been done to death.

This man is very wise.

He seems to equate all eroticism as valid. That flesh is flesh and then it's not seems so flat. The male and female principles and the longing for God is not "Scutonized"? Picture 2 lovers (whether Homo or Hetrosexual) as two planets revolving around each other spiraling off into the void of space and juxtapose that to a picture of 2 planets (more like a moon and a planet rather than two planets of the same nature) orbiting a sun, the single object of their combined desires. Sex that excludes an entire segment of humankind along with God is a spiraling race into nothingness. How conservative is this guy anyway - not very if he ignores God, the true and only Authority to obey.

I think that Corporatism is the problem. Not laissez-faire capitalism.

That's a difference in spread, not necessarily in quantity.

I largely agree, but there is a danger in denying differences in human nature. Male IQ is different to female IQ as descrbed by Steven Pinker

Poor Roger! How many interviews did you have to conduct on that day? Both of you are wearing the same clothes, the room is the same, my guess is they were all done in one day;

the power of love.!!! Wagner was a complete genious and he will live forever!!!

I find that the Wagner's operas, in their essence, if not their form, are profoundly Christian

Wonderful insight, explained beautifully - thank you

Roger really flourishes in this personal environment. Thank you - great interview.

Isn't "ultimate truth" a chimera?

This is so interesting. Are you also looking at gender gaps in various artistic disciplines? I feel like the same idea carries over. For instance jazz with it's emphasis on improvisation (brilliance) is predominately male. While dance with it's emphasis on daily classes and hard work is predominantly female...although almost all the major choreographers are male. Anyway, thanks for posting!

What is the opening keyboard piece?

Is there a link for that graph of %female PhD's? I just have a few concerns with its data representation; is it taking into account all PhD's ever awarded, or the last 5-10 years for instance? I've recently been told that over the last few years women's representation in awarded PhD's is increasing, more so than men's, so hopefully this inequality is being overcome and will lead to a change in cultural perspective on the topic of popular media: when someone says brilliant women, Bones comes to mind immediately; although, it could be argued that her character is intentionally constructed to be the dualization of culture's perspective of women.

I agree with most of what you said about the pop culture references. However, I think one exception might be Dr. Temperance Brennan from BONES. She is portrayed as a prodigy who has that "spark of brilliance" and has always had an innate ability for science. Even though she is made fun of for her own lack of knowledge about popular culture etc.

A few thoughts: First, you say that "people of all ages and abilities fare better when they place more emphasis on the importance of hard work and less on the importance of innate talent." You say this conclusion is supported by Carol Dweck's research. To my (admittedly very limited) knowledge, Dweck is a developmental psychologist, so her work is mostly focused on children and adolescents. Perhaps there are important differences between Dweck's studied population and adults. Second, (for the sake of argument) based on Dweck's research, we should expect women to be more successful than men. After all, the success of women in the media is more often attributed to hard work rather than innate talent. Women's advantage should be especially pronounced in "brilliance-required" fields. The people in those fields will be hindered by their fixed mindset, whereas women's growth mindset will allow them to excel. But this is apparently not what we observe, so something here must be mistaken. Perhaps women in the media are as likely to be thought of as hard working as they are to be thought of as innately talented (Veronica Mars immediately came to mind as innately gifted). Perhaps, the messages in the media don't change people's mindsets. Perhaps Ph.D.'s aren't a good measure of success. Third, there's a claim that needs to be tested: Women "may doubt whether they have what it takes to succeed in a brilliance required discipline," and this drives them to enter other disciplines. To test this, it might be helpful to ask high school and undergraduate students what their perceptions are of those disciplines. After all, these are the people who are actually deciding whether or not to go into these disciplines. At more elite levels like grad school and post doc, I suspect that people are more likely to perceive these fixed mindset messages but that they are also less motivated to leave "brilliance-required" fields. At lower levels, however, I suspect that people are less likely to perceive these messages, and so the impetus to leave these fields is driven by something else. Fourth, I'm skeptical of the advice at the end: Academics who wish to encourage diversity should steer clear of talking about innate talent. The perception of brilliance-requirements might not be driven by explicit messages but by something else like actual brilliance requirements. Fifth, the ability needed for brilliance is probably different for each field. For instance, the ability needed for English Lit is almost certainly different than the ability needed for math. And I don't even know what it would mean to be brilliant at communication studies or archaeology.

Excellent video that certainly reflects my personal educational experiences in life. When I was a child I was constantly told I was 'brilliant' and 'gifted' by those around me and managed to get into a selective school. However when my 'brilliance' was no longer enough to get me passed the mounting piles of work I needed to complete, I failed hugely and thought this was simply because I was not 'brilliant' enough. This situation continued for many years, and it wasn't until I was well into my twenties that I realized that I had to work my way out of an increasingly desperate situation. Of course It was then that I started to succeed in life on my own terms. For the record I am a white male and would like to add that this concept of innate 'brilliance' harms people of all ethnicity. I would like to share the following quote that I think is relevant, "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." Calvin Coolidge.

Wrong, Roger. Love is more real than anything for lovers -- it's not about confronting the void, but about living forever. Love is a removal from this world and its limitations brought about by dearth. It is a promise of life, almost a fairy tale existence. Romeo and Juliet didn't worry about Death. Wagner's take is a corruption and so is much of the later commentary on the erotic love of the two lovers.

I am so glad I found this! Sarah-Jane Leslie is a truly brilliant interviewer, and Scruton is at his best in such congenial company.

Thank you for this rich and civilized conversation. The way life should be! Many gems here. I particularly like characterizing monasteries as a "collective bid for immortality." For me, Scruton's heartfelt passion here opens up Wagner for further exploration. Thanks again.

Strangely enough, I've always said dog breeds are a social construction - a childish essentialist conviction if ever there were one. In fact, for a long time now I have advocated that we do away with all attempts to categorise different states where a continuum may exist between them, such as a 'hills' and 'mountains'.

It was difficult reading the captioning and lipreading what was said. Deaf children need all the language input with/without hearing aids/processors. I still believe including sign language in all aspects is crucial to the development of all deaf/hard of hearing children. Language is all about patterning and expectation in communication process.

As a parent who has chosen a cochlear implant for my child, I agree with the arguments made here.

Why is Schopenhauer not mentioned? Was Richard Wagner impressed by reading Schopenhauer ? Are you saying Wagner comes from Kant found in Schopenhauer?

Thank you for your videos. It truly is wonderful to listen to you doing philosophy like that.

I enjoyed talking about these issues with Sarah-Jane! To see my paper "'I'll Be Glad I Did It' Reasoning and the Significance of Future Desires", click here: www.princeton.edu/~eharman/IllBeGladIDidIt.pdf For an interesting blog post by philosopher Teresa Blankmeyer Burke about the ways in which cochlear implants fall short of a cure for deafness, click here: feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/cochlear-implants-viral-videos-and-sexism/

Well I, of course, agree, that going around convincing people or spreading the idea that women who say no mean yes is evil, of course. I still fail to see what on earth does this have to do with pornography. Even with pornography depicting rape... can't people tell the difference between reality and fantasy? Because the same thing could be said about, say, videogames that are violent and perpetuate the stereotype that brown people are evil or something.

Just for some points of clarification, although violent pornography was frequently mentioned, is pornography as a whole the subject, or specifically pornography that can be seen to propagate those dis-empowerment of elocutionary acts? And does the argument hold in terms of the disparity of power between men and women in society or does this describe a broader process within pornography that could also affect men in the same or similar way?

I don't know if you take requests, but I would love to see a conversation with Martha Nussbaum.