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feltini

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I absolutely love debates. Some of my favorites: Capitalism vs Socialism (Peikoff debate), Christopher Hitchens religious debates and a few others.

I prefere video recorded debates, although I still am willing to listen to audio only debates.

Can anyone recommend any video recorded philosophy debates? I'm really itching for some more.

Thanks!

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You mean on YouTube? You ought to give Michael Shermer a try. There's one with Richard Dawkins from the mid 1980's where he's really on fire going after creationists, but it's audio only. You might try looking for opponents to then find interesting challengers, for example Dinesh D'Souza and William Lane Craig are active debaters who are usually on the opposite side of, well how to put it, the right thinking sort. I say "usually" because there's one with D'Souza vs. Robert Spencer where my sympathies were squarely with D'Souza.

There was, never published to my knowledge, a debate between Harry Binswanger and John Ridpath vs. Christopher Hitchens in the late 80's early 90's. In most such debates, that is capitalism vs. socialism with Objectivists on one side, the opponents don't do their homework and the two sides just talk past each other. The Peikoff debate (I assume you mean the 1984 debate against some Canadian socialist politicians) was like that. Reportedly Hitchens did his homework, and the result? The person who told me about it heard the tape at a conference, and he would always put a spin on this kind of thing, so let's just say: I gather Hitchens surprised them.

Have you tried the debates with people from Demos? There was one with Yaron Brook, and a couple others.

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You mean on YouTube? You ought to give Michael Shermer a try. There's one with Richard Dawkins from the mid 1980's where he's really on fire going after creationists, but it's audio only. You might try looking for opponents to then find interesting challengers, for example Dinesh D'Souza and William Lane Craig are active debaters who are usually on the opposite side of, well how to put it, the right thinking sort. I say "usually" because there's one with D'Souza vs. Robert Spencer where my sympathies were squarely with D'Souza.

There was, never published to my knowledge, a debate between Harry Binswanger and John Ridpath vs. Christopher Hitchens in the late 80's early 90's. In most such debates, that is capitalism vs. socialism with Objectivists on one side, the opponents don't do their homework and the two sides just talk past each other. The Peikoff debate (I assume you mean the 1984 debate against some Canadian socialist politicians) was like that. Reportedly Hitchens did his homework, and the result? The person who told me about it heard the tape at a conference, and he would always put a spin on this kind of thing, so let's just say: I gather Hitchens surprised them.

Have you tried the debates with people from Demos? There was one with Yaron Brook, and a couple others.

It doesn't have to be on YouTube. I'll happily buy some dvd debates or however.

I've seen so much with Dawkins and William Lane Craig that I am pretty burnt out from them :D

Oh man, I would love to see that debate between Harry Binswanger and John Ridpath vs. Christopher Hitchens. Shame it was never published. No way to gain access to it? Thank you for the tip on the Demos debate with Yaron Brook, I found it here in case anyone else is interested.

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You mentioned a couple other noteworthy ones, I can't seem to find them - link some if you will :)

Here's the Dawkins one I mentioned. I should warn you though, some of the other speakers get boring.

http://richarddawkins.net/audio/721-1986-oxford-union-debate

Make a beeline for Dawkins part, he does righteous indignation like no one else.

A YouTube search should serve for the other people I named.

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  • 2 months later...

Someone from the chat (RB I think) posted a link to the oft requested 1988 Peikoff and Ridpath debate on socialism versus capitalism in 14 parts.

Well I'll be...

It's from 1984 to be exact. Someone else posted it to YouTube quite a while back and it didn't stay up for long, a copyright claim was made. So, watch it quick, I certainly recommend it. I can't imagine that this is much of a revenue source for ARI (or whomever), meanwhile it's a good tool for educating people about Objectivism, maybe turning them into donors. I wish they'd make it freely available in a kosher way.

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Thank you for mentioning this. I have sent a message to the Ayn Rand Bookstore letting them know that the debate has been uploaded in full to YouTube, presumably without permission.

There's a sad irony here. A debate on the principle underlying freedom has been made available in violation of those very principles.

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I have sent a message to the Ayn Rand Bookstore letting them know that the debate has been uploaded in full to YouTube, presumably without permission.

screenshot1662.jpg

Of course I don't know that it was done without permission either. I've seen it several times over the last 20 years, I showed it when I ran a campus club, probably more than once. ARI had a lending library, I bet they still do though they've certainly upgraded from VHS by now.

Peikoff really comes across well here, though unfortunately the opponents aren't very good.

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Alex Epstein debated a representative from Greenpeace recently on energy and environmentalism:

http://www.livestream.com/theundercurrent/video?clipId=pla_05433196-7e87-4b44-b225-69a93fd6588c

This video is not a proper debate per say. It's a panel discussion of financial experts with Yaron Brook:

http://arc-tv.com/navigating-the-markets-three-years-after-the-financial-crisis/

ARC recently linked this on ARCTV. It picks up slow, and the first speaker is utterly slow and boring and contributes nothing. The second man is some bureaucrat, and there's a woman involved in company policies who constantly looks like she's about to burst into tears. After they all speak and give their uncontroversial, say-something-that-says-nothing opinions Yaron absolutely steals the show. It's worth listening to the others dry boring opinion just so the contrast is that much better. It nearly borders into debate territory when all three of the other speakers begin looking chided, and seek safety in each others groping support.

The bureaucrat was part of the team that put Dodd-Frank together and gets taken to task properly. He defends it saying "its distilled collectivized wisdom and choices of the market in a law". Oy.

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