ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Damon Horowitz - Philosopher, entrepreneur
Damon Horowitz explores what is possible at the boundaries of technology and the humanities.

Why you should listen

Damon Horowitz is a philosophy professor and serial entrepreneur. He recently joined Google as In-House Philosopher / Director of Engineering, heading development of several initiatives involving social and search. He came to Google from Aardvark, the social search engine, where he was co-founder and CTO, overseeing product development and research strategy. Prior to Aardvark, Horowitz built several companies around applications of intelligent language processing. He co-founded Perspecta (acquired by Excite), was lead architect for Novation Biosciences (acquired by Agilent), and co-founded NewsDB (now Daylife).

Horowitz teaches courses in philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science at several institutions, including Stanford, NYU, University of Pennsylvania and San Quentin State Prison.

Get more information on the Prison University Project >>

More profile about the speaker
Damon Horowitz | Speaker | TED.com
TED2011

Damon Horowitz: Philosophy in prison

Damon Horowitz: Filozofija v zaporu

Filmed:
1,417,089 views

Damon Horowitz uči filozofijo v sklopu projekta Univerza v zaporu ter nudi fakultetna predavanja zapornikom zapora v San Quentinu. V tem kratkem, a sporočilno močnem govoru, spregovori o srečanju s "prav" in "narobe" in kako to hitro postane osebna stvar.
- Philosopher, entrepreneur
Damon Horowitz explores what is possible at the boundaries of technology and the humanities. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:15
MeetIzpolnjujejo TonyTony. He's my studentštudent.
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Spoznajte Tonyja. Moj študent je.
00:17
He's about my agestarost,
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Približno enake starosti sva,
00:19
and he's in SanSan QuentinQuentin StateDržava PrisonZapor.
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le da je on zapornik v San Quentinu.
00:22
When TonyTony was 16 yearslet oldstar,
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Ko je bil Tony star 16 let,
00:25
one day, one momenttrenutek,
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nekega dne, v nekem trenutku:
00:28
"It was mom'smama gunpištolo.
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"Mamina pištola je bila.
00:30
Just flashbliskavica it, scareprestraši the guy. He's a punkpunk.
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Samo pokaži jo. Prestraši tipa. Bedak je.
00:32
He tookvzel some moneydenar; we'llbomo take his moneydenar. That'llDa boste teachučiti him.
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Vzel je nekaj denarja, mi bomo vzeli njegovega. To ga bo izučilo.
00:34
Then last minuteminuto, I'm thinkingrazmišljanje, 'Can't"Ne more do this. This is wrongnarobe.'
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Potem, v zadnjem trenutku, razmišljam: 'Tega ne morem narediti. To je narobe.'
00:37
My buddyprijatelj sayspravi, 'C'mon"C'mon, let's do this.'
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Moj kolega reče: 'Daj že, napravimo to.'
00:39
I say, 'Let's"Let's do this.'"
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Odvrnem: 'Dajmo, storimo to.'"
00:44
And those threetri wordsbesede, Tony'sTony's going to rememberZapomni si,
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In te tri besede si bo Tony zapomnil,
00:46
because the nextNaslednji thing he knowsve, he hearssliši the poppop.
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saj v naslednjem trenutku zasliši pok.
00:48
There's the punkpunk on the groundtla, puddleMlaka of bloodkri.
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Tip je na tleh, poleg njega mlaka krvi.
00:50
And that's felonyzločin murderumor --
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In to je zločinski umor --
00:52
25 to life, paroleparole at 50 if you're luckysrečen,
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od petindvajset let do dosmrtne ječe, pomilostitev pri 50, če imate srečo,
00:54
and Tony'sTony's not feelingobčutek very luckysrečen.
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in Tonyju se ni zdelo, da ima posebno srečo.
00:57
So when we meetsrečati in my philosophyfilozofija classrazred in his prisonzapor
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Ko se srečava na mojem predavanju filozofije v njegovem zaporu
01:00
and I say, "In this classrazred, we will discussrazpravljali the foundationstemelje of ethicsetika,"
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in ko rečem: "Pri tem predmetu bomo razpravljali o osnovah etike,"
01:04
TonyTony interruptsprekinitve me.
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me Tony prekine.
01:06
"What are you going to teachučiti me about right and wrongnarobe?
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"Kaj boš to mene naučil o tem, kaj je prav in kaj narobe?
01:08
I know what is wrongnarobe. I have doneKončano wrongnarobe.
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Vem, kaj je narobe. Napravil sem take stvari.
01:11
I am told everyvsak day,
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Vsak dan mi
01:13
by everyvsak faceobraz I see, everyvsak wallzid I faceobraz, that I am wrongnarobe.
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vsak obraz, ki ga vidim, vsak zid okoli mene, pove, da nimam prav.
01:16
If I ever get out of here, there will always be a markoznačite by my nameime.
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Če bom kdajkoli odšel od tu, bo poleg mojega imena vedno oznaka.
01:19
I'm a convictobsojenec; I am brandedblagovno znamko 'wrong"narobe.'
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Sem obsojenec, označen sem kot "napačen".
01:21
What are you going to tell me about right and wrongnarobe?"
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Kaj boš ti meni govoril o prav in narobe?"
01:24
So I say to TonyTony,
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Zato mu rečem:
01:27
"Sorry, but it's worseslabše than you think.
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"Oprosti, huje je, kot misliš.
01:30
You think you know right and wrongnarobe?
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Misliš, da veš, kaj je prav in kaj narobe?
01:32
Then can you tell me what wrongnarobe is?
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Mi lahko poveš, kaj je narobe?
01:34
No, don't just give me an exampleprimer.
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Ne, ne daj mi samo primera.
01:36
I want to know about wrongnessnepravednost itselfsama, the ideaideja of wrongnarobe.
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Vedeti hočem o "narobe" samem, o ideji tega.
01:39
What is that ideaideja?
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Kaj je ta ideja?
01:41
What makesnaredi something wrongnarobe?
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Kaj povzroči, da je nekaj narobe?
01:43
How do we know that it's wrongnarobe? Maybe you and I disagreene strinjam se.
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Kako vemo, da je narobe? Morda se midva v tem ne strinjava.
01:46
Maybe one of us is wrongnarobe about the wrongnarobe.
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Morda se nekdo od naju moti o tem, kaj je narobe.
01:48
Maybe it's you, maybe it's me -- but we're not here to tradetrgovino opinionsmnenja;
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Morda se ti, morda se jaz -- a nisva tu, da bi izmenjala mnenji;
01:50
everyone'svsakogar got an opinionmnenje.
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vsak ima svoje mnenje.
01:52
We are here for knowledgeznanje.
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Tu sva zaradi znanja.
01:54
Our enemysovražnik is thoughtlessnessnepremišljenosti. This is philosophyfilozofija."
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Ne-razmišljanje je naš sovražnik. Tole je filozofija."
01:58
And something changesspremembe for TonyTony.
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In za Tonyja se nekaj spremeni.
02:03
"Could be I'm wrongnarobe. I'm tiredutrujen of beingbiti wrongnarobe.
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"Morda se motim. Dovolj mi je tega, da se motim.
02:06
I want to know what is wrongnarobe.
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Hočem vedeti, kaj je narobe.
02:08
I want to know what I know."
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Hočem vedeti, kaj vem."
02:10
What TonyTony seesvidi in that momenttrenutek is the projectprojekt of philosophyfilozofija,
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Kar Tony v tem trenutku vidi, je filozofski projekt,
02:13
the projectprojekt that beginsse začne in wonderčudno --
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projekt, ki se začne z začudenjem --
02:15
what KantKant calledpozval "admirationobčudovanje and awestrah
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kar je Kant označil kot "čudenje in spoštovanje
02:17
at the starryzvezdnato skynebo abovenad and the moralmoralno lawzakon withinznotraj."
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zvezdnega neba nad mano in moralnega zakona v meni."
02:20
What can creaturesbitja like us know of suchtako things?
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Kaj lahko bitja, kot smo mi, vemo o takih stvareh?
02:22
It is the projectprojekt that always takes us back to the conditionstanje of existenceobstoj --
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Ta projekt nas vedno vodi nazaj k pogojem obstoja --
02:25
what HeideggerHeidegger calledpozval "the always alreadyže there."
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kar je Heidegger imenoval "vedno že tam".
02:28
It is the projectprojekt of questioningzaslišanje what we believe and why we believe it --
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Ta projekt preizprašuje to, v kar verjamemo in zaradi česar verjamemo --
02:31
what SocratesSocrates calledpozval "the examinedpregledali life."
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po Sokratu je to "preizprašano življenje".
02:33
SocratesSocrates, a man wisemoder enoughdovolj to know that he knowsve nothing.
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Sokrat, možak, ki je bil dovolj moder, da je vedel, da nič ne ve.
02:36
SocratesSocrates diedumrl in prisonzapor,
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Sokrat je umrl v zaporu,
02:39
his philosophyfilozofija intactnedotaknjena.
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njegova filozofija je ostala nedotaknjena.
02:42
So TonyTony startsse začne doing his homeworkDomača naloga.
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Tony začne delati domačo nalogo.
02:44
He learnsuči his whyswhys and whereforeswherefores, his causesvzroki and correlationskorelacije,
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Nauči se o "zakaj" in "čemu", o vzrokih in povezavah,
02:46
his logiclogika, his fallacieszmote.
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logiki in zmotah.
02:48
TurnsIzvijač out, Tony'sTony's got the philosophyfilozofija musclemišice.
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Izkaže se, da ima Tony mišice za filozofijo.
02:50
His bodytelo is in prisonzapor, but his mindum is freeprost.
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Njegovo telo je v zaporu, njegov um pa je svoboden.
02:52
TonyTony learnsuči about the ontologicallyontologically promiscuouspromiskuit,
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Tony se nauči o ontološki promiskuiteti,
02:54
the epistemologicallyepistemologically anxiouszaskrbljeni,
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o epistemološkem strahu,
02:56
the ethicallyetično dubiousdvomljive, the metaphysicallyNadčulno ridiculoussmešno.
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o etičnem dvomu, metafizičnem nesmislu.
02:59
That's PlatoPlato, DescartesDescartes, NietzscheNietzsche
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To so Platon, Descartes, Nietzsche
03:01
and BillBill ClintonClinton.
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in Bill Clinton.
03:03
So when he givesdaje me his finalkončno paperpapir,
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Ko mi torej izroči svoj končni esej,
03:06
in whichki he arguestrdi that the categoricalkategorične imperativenujno
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v katerem trdi, da je kategorični imperativ
03:08
is perhapsmorda too uncompromisingbrezkompromisno
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morda preveč brezkompromisen,
03:10
to dealobravnava with the conflictkonflikt that affectsvpliva our everydayvsak dan
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da bi rešil konflikte, ki vplivajo na naš vsakdan,
03:12
and challengesizzivi me to tell him
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in me izzove, naj mu povem,
03:14
whetherali thereforezato we are condemnedobsojen to moralmoralno failureneuspeh,
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ali smo zato vsi obsojeni na moralni propad,
03:16
I say, "I don't know.
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odgovorim: "Ne vem.
03:18
Let us think about that."
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Razmisliva o tem."
03:20
Because in that momenttrenutek, there's no markoznačite by Tony'sTony's nameime;
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Kajti v tem trenutku poleg Tonyjevega imena ni nobene oznake,
03:22
it's just the two of us standingstoji there.
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samo midva sva, ki stojiva tam.
03:24
It is not professorprofesor and convictobsojenec,
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Nisva profesor in obsojenec,
03:26
it is just two mindsmisli readypripravljen to do philosophyfilozofija.
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samo dva uma, pripravljena na filozofijo.
03:28
And I say to TonyTony,
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In takrat Tonyju rečem:
03:30
"Let's do this."
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"Dajva, storiva to."
03:33
Thank you.
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Hvala.
03:35
(ApplauseAplavz)
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(Aplavz)
Translated by Klavdija Cernilogar
Reviewed by Tilen Pigac - EFZG

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Damon Horowitz - Philosopher, entrepreneur
Damon Horowitz explores what is possible at the boundaries of technology and the humanities.

Why you should listen

Damon Horowitz is a philosophy professor and serial entrepreneur. He recently joined Google as In-House Philosopher / Director of Engineering, heading development of several initiatives involving social and search. He came to Google from Aardvark, the social search engine, where he was co-founder and CTO, overseeing product development and research strategy. Prior to Aardvark, Horowitz built several companies around applications of intelligent language processing. He co-founded Perspecta (acquired by Excite), was lead architect for Novation Biosciences (acquired by Agilent), and co-founded NewsDB (now Daylife).

Horowitz teaches courses in philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science at several institutions, including Stanford, NYU, University of Pennsylvania and San Quentin State Prison.

Get more information on the Prison University Project >>

More profile about the speaker
Damon Horowitz | Speaker | TED.com