Cultures of the past thought they were doing things ‘right’. But time passes, ideas shift, opinions invert – and now, their ideas seem wrong. How will our current culture hold up? Chuck Klosterman thinks that if we can look back on the present as if it were the distant past, we might be able to see things more clearly. By questioning contemporary certainties – is it possible that we overrate democracy? How seriously should we view the content of our dreams? Is it possible that we’ve reached the end of knowledge? He encourages a more realistic approach to reasoning: “the best hypothesis is the one that reflexively accepts its potential wrongness to begin with”.

Chaired by Marc Fennell, interviewer and host of The Feed SBS.

This conversation was recorded live on stage at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2018.

Cultures of the past thought they were doing things ‘right’. But time passes, ideas shift, opinions invert – and now, their ideas seem wrong. How will our current culture hold up? Chuck Klosterman thinks that if we can look back on the present as if it were the distant past, we might be able to see things more clearly. By questioning contemporary certainties – is it possible that we overrate democracy? How seriously should we view the content of our dreams? Is it possible that we’ve reached the end of knowledge? He encourages a more realistic approach to reasoning: “the best hypothesis is the one that reflexively accepts its potential wrongness to begin with”. Chaired by Marc Fennell, interviewer and host of The Feed SBS. This conversation was recorded live on stage at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2018.

An initiative of UNSW Sydney, the Centre for Ideas is a thought-provoking program of events and digital content from the globe's leading thinkers, authors and artists.

An initiative of UNSW Sydney, the Centre for Ideas is a thought-provoking program of events and digital content from the globe's leading thinkers, authors and artists.

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