Lecture on Radical Humanism - Ronald Hünneman

What would happen if we were to start viewing great philosophers—men like Socrates, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche, and Heidegger—for what they are: primates, not even that distant from chimpanzees and bonobos?

If we take the Big Bang and evolution seriously, philosophers, gurus, and prophets are no longer privileged beings capable of rising above humanity through exceptional mental abilities.

Just like all other mortals, they are potential conversation partners. In doing so, they depend on a language they have learned among people. And they, too, will have to accept that, even at their best, they may be able to slightly adjust the way words are connected to things, but that in doing so they always remain dependent on their fellow human beings.

Just how seriously our guest speaker—the ever-provocative Ronald Hünneman—means this is evident from the birthday gift his wife had made in honor of his 60th birthday: a stained-glass portrait of Ronald as a chimpanzee.