Can Philosophy Save the West?

Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux responds to a listener's inquiry about the effectiveness of his philosophical framework, Universally Preferable Behavior (UPB), in addressing the challenges facing the West. Stefan clarifies that UPB is not a panacea but a rational construct requiring active engagement from individuals. He draws parallels between UPB and established scientific theories, emphasizing that it does not intrinsically change minds but serves as a basis for ethical reasoning. Stefan argues that UPB remains a robust framework for secular ethics, having withstood rigorous scrutiny over nearly two decades, asserting that some actions are universally non-preferable. Additionally, he discusss the necessity of a reasoned ethical system in an age driven by empirical evidence, contending that faith-based moralities cannot suffice. Ultimately, Stefan advocates for a commitment to spreading rational ethics and engaging in critical discussions as essential for fostering positive change.  SUBSCRIBE TO ME ON X! https://x.com/StefanMolyneux  Follow me on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@freedomain1  GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND THE FULL AUDIOBOOK! https://peacefulparenting.com/  Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!  Subscribers get 12 HOURS on the "Truth About the French Revolution," multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material - as well as AIs for Real-Time Relationships, Bitcoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-In Shows!  You also receive private livestreams, HUNDREDS of exclusive premium shows, early release podcasts, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!  See you soon! https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2025

Transcript

00:00All right, good morning, everybody. Stephen Molyneux from Freedomain, 15th of October 2025,

00:07and I have a comment from a fellow. I call him Bob. He emails me on a fairly regular basis with

00:13great feedback, and Bob writes, Hi, Stephen. Why UPB, my theory of ethics, universally preferable

00:18behavior, why UPB will fail the West? I might spend time, he says, elaborating on why UPB will

00:25fail the West, to which your reply would be, thank you for explaining. You have used clear

00:28definitions, and this points to the fact that you don't understand UPB. It's always interesting

00:33when people tell me my side of the conversation, but all right. Likewise, thank you for your talk,

00:38which clearly shows and clarifies, you don't understand evangelical reformed Christianity.

00:43I am not an avid devotee to it either, but what I can tell you is that Christ came into the world,

00:47died, and resurrected so mankind would have life, and have life more abundantly. He didn't die for

00:52Charlie Kirk's sins, so Charlie Kirk could become a politician. He died for Kirk's sins, and for the

00:56sins of the individuals that trust and believe in him, and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

01:01If others want to capitalize on politician Kirk being a Christian, that's up to them,

01:06and if Kirk made the choice to debate Trump haters, then that was his choice.

01:10Being Christian doesn't mean you have a death wish. For me, to live is Christ, and to die,

01:16my sinful ego is gain. Christ came so that we can and do have life more abundantly, regardless of our

01:22material circumstances which non-Christians judge people by. Kind regards and thanks for your

01:26philosophy in that talk. So, I appreciate that, and I think that's good and wonderful and nice

01:36and great, and I will tell you my thoughts. So, I in no way, shape or form, can tell you that UPB

01:48will save the West, because UPB is not some sort of Terminator, Transformer, intergalactic superhero

01:56that takes up the cause of freedom, and acts on behalf of all the myriad inhabitants of the West.

02:02I can in no way, shape or form, tell you that UPB will save the West, because UPB is an inert set of

02:10pixels, and bits and burps, and typing and printing in my basement, and thoughts in my head, and arguments

02:17on the web. It does absolutely nothing on its own, right? E equals mc squared, or the theory of

02:24relativity, or the theory of evolution, do nothing. They don't change anyone's minds, they just are put

02:32out there, they're inert. It is people's choice to listen. It is people's choice to debate, to argue,

02:40and to push ideas on others. That is people's choice. I can't make that happen. I can't force

02:50that to happen, and even if I could, I wouldn't. It is a matter of choice. UPB will not save the West

02:59in and of itself. Somebody who comes up with, let's say, the first person to come up with iron or steel

03:08did not, the iron of steel, the idea or the formula for the metallurgy of iron and steel,

03:17or bronze, somebody who came up with that, the idea did not win any battles, right? The idea did not

03:25change anyone's mind foundationally, and it did not organize troops or conquer geographical regions or

03:33anything like that. It didn't do any of that. It's simply a design, a metallurgical formula for the

03:40creation of iron, bronze, and steel. It doesn't do any of that. In the same way that your car doesn't

03:48drive you anywhere, you have to drive your car. Baby, you have to drive your car. So, UPB isn't

03:55going to do anything foundationally to solve people's lack of freedoms or to advance moral

04:03theories. UPB won't save the West. Now, UPB is valid and true. That I can tell you for sure. I mean,

04:11it's been almost 20 years and professionals and skeptics and religious and fanatics and

04:18socialists, they've all run at UPB and they've all failed because UPB is valid. UPB is true. UPB is

04:29the answer to secular ethics. That's just a fact. There's no escaping it. There's no getting away

04:36around it. Even people most hostile have to accept that rape, theft, assault, and murder can

04:41never be universally preferable behaviors. That's it. Now, what does that mean? It means that we have

04:47the answer to secular ethics, a rational proof of secular ethics. In other words, we have ethics

04:53that you cannot escape simply by disbelieving, right? You can't escape this. You cannot escape UBB

05:03simply by disbelieving. UPB is not a matter of faith. UPB is valid and true.

05:12Now, what you can do is you can say, UPB is valid and true, but I reject reason. So, when I say,

05:22can stealing ever be universally preferable behavior, right? So, the guy yesterday, you know,

05:28everybody does the same thing, right? I said, is it possible to want to be stolen from? No. If you want

05:34your property taken, it's not theft. So, theft can never be universally preferable behavior. It's very

05:38simple. And a three-, four-, five-year-old can understand it. It's very simple. Now, what somebody

05:45could say is, it is true that theft can never be universally preferable behavior, but I reject it

05:52anyway. You can say, it is impossible to want people to steal from you, but I think it's valid

06:01anyway. Except people don't do that. That would be like saying, it is true that Christ is divine,

06:09divine, but I reject Christ's divinity. People don't say that. Now, people can say they reject

06:14Christ's divinity, but they can't also say that he's divine. People don't do that. When faced with

06:19an absolutely stark contradiction, people accept it. And again, religious people have accepted it.

06:25Professors of philosophy have accepted it. People who are hostile to be, like, rationality rules have

06:31accepted it. Socialists have accepted it. Marxists have accepted it. It's just a fact. Now, if the fact

06:37that everyone has accepted it is just because it is proven, it is factual, it is real, it is valid,

06:44it is true. Can't be denied. Again, you can say something completely contradictory. Of course,

06:51anyone can say that, but that tends to be crazy people. So, if someone were to say, it is true

06:58that stealing can never be universally preferable behavior, that is valid, but I reject the proposition

07:06anyway, then they lose all credibility in the intellectual sphere. Right? I mean, they then become

07:14like a kid with chocolate all over his face saying, I didn't touch any chocolate. And even when you show

07:19them chocolate all over the face, they say, that's not me, right? That's just, I mean, that would be

07:24like a sort of a crazy little kid who was really heavily addicted to not being caught eating chocolate,

07:33right? So, everyone accepts it because the price of rejecting UPB is having zero, absolutely zero

07:43credibility in the realm of discussion and debate. And that is the price of rejecting UPB. Because if

07:50you say this is absolutely and irrevocably and universally true, which is what I went over with

07:58the guy yesterday, right? And again, he, you know, he said that, uh, that math is universal and true

08:04and valid. And I told him, is logic universal, true and valid? And he has a logical proposition about

08:10ethics that is universally true. And he was very honorable and very honest. Because of course,

08:15if he had said, if he had said in a debate, you have absolutely proven your point, but I reject it

08:23anyway, your point is absolutely valid and true, but I reject it anyway, then no one will debate with

08:29you, right? No one will debate with you. It won't be, I mean, you'll just be ejected from the realm of

08:36rational debate. I mean, which is debate, right? So, that's, it's really important to understand that

08:41the price of rejecting something you accept as valid is that nobody will debate with you. And nobody has

08:47ever said that to me in my entire life. And I have done thousands of debates, even include sort of

08:53things in, in X, right? So, nobody has ever said to me over the course of my entire life, I agree that two and

09:01two make four, and I reject it, right? I agree that all men are mortal. Socrates is a man, therefore

09:10Socrates is immortal. I accept that, but it's not true. I cannot disprove it, but it is not true. I

09:16accept that it is true, but I reject that it is true. Nobody does that. Like I'm telling you, man,

09:21even crazy people don't do that. They'll fight, they'll twist, like if somebody says, where's the

09:25proof of this? And you provide them a source, and they say, I reject the source. But they don't say,

09:30I reject the source. Sorry, they don't say, I accept that the source is valid, and I disagree

09:40with the conclusion. I accept that the source is valid, I accept the validity of the conclusion,

09:46and I reject the validity of the conclusion. People don't do that. And the fact that, I mean,

09:51this is something that, I mean, it's wild to me. I mean, just maybe because I see things, I guess I see

09:55things that other people don't. But, you know, when I have proven to someone, and this is, this was

10:00true of the, uh, John, the philosophy professor or logic professor who called it, right? So I said,

10:06you know, we have now proven that rape, theft, assault, and murder can never be universally

10:10preferable behavior. And he just kind of blew past that as the guy did yesterday. And I'm like,

10:14whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on. We've just done a very big and important thing.

10:16We've just done a very big and important thing. We haven't done, like the mafia acts in many ways

10:23on Kantian principles. Uh, act as if the proposition of your action is universally true for everyone,

10:29or the morality of your action is universally true for everyone. And the mafia is really good

10:33at violence, and they love violence. And so their argument is, resources should be transferred by

10:39one's willingness to use violence. And given that the average shopkeeper is not willing to use

10:43violence, but the average mafioso is, well, we understand, right? They, uh, but, but UPP,

10:51it cannot be denied, cannot be overturned, cannot be disproven, and can be explained to children,

10:55which is the key thing, right? I mean, you, if you say to the biggest kids, like Kantian imperative,

11:01act as if the principle of your action becomes a general rule for everyone, the biggest and most

11:04aggressive kid on the playground is going to say, well, lunch money should be distributed according

11:08to one's willingness to bully, because he knows he's the biggest kid and the most violent kid,

11:11so he's going to, he's going to get his stuff, say, oh, well, that doesn't benefit you in the long

11:15run. It's like, nope, doesn't, doesn't matter, right? I mean, a compulsive liar who's really

11:22good at lying and has honed his capacity to lie to a fine art is going to love a political system

11:28where lying convincingly is the way to power, because he's really good at it. It'd be like a

11:34chess grandmaster saying that we should distribute resources according to one's ability to play

11:39chess. So, or the tallest guy saying the tallest guy should get the most resources. I'm willing

11:44for that to be universal for everyone. So, UPB isn't going to do anything. It's going to be

11:51dependent upon people's willingness to accept, debate, argue for, and act upon UPB. That's all

12:00what it's about. So, I need, and the world, frankly, needs, desperately needs, an ethical system

12:09you cannot wave away. It's an ethical system you cannot just wave away, right? So, you've got an

12:17ethical system that relies upon accepting the existence of the Old Testament God. Then you can

12:24wave away that moral system just by disbelieving in God. All morals come from God. God is not

12:34rational. God is not proven. God is not empirical. So, if you're rational and empirical, then this has

12:40been the battle, right? So, science has been so incredibly productive in human life that people

12:45can't just say, well, what's the big deal with reason and evidence and universality, right? Human reason

12:52and science have produced almost infinitely more goods to humanity, and not just goods like

12:59the good, things that are helpful and positive, things like air conditioning, which keeps people

13:04alive when it's too hot, things like antibiotics, things like electricity. I mean, it won't go on

13:11and on. We sort of understand it, right? So, human reason has proven to be so amazingly powerful and

13:17competent and good that people can't just, you can't just dismiss reason anymore, right? You can't

13:24just be like, you know, Martin Luther and say, well, you've got to tear reason out by the roots

13:28and destroy it. And like, no, no, reason has proven its value. It's proven its value. You can't, I mean,

13:34everyone who's around, pretty much everyone who's around is alive now because of science,

13:38engineering, free markets, and medicine. I mean, that's it, right? That's why we're here. That's why we're

13:44having this conversation. I can't sit there and say, well, reason is sort of inferior to faith. It's

13:48like, because everything that I used to communicate that is based on reason. I can't be the guy,

13:55like, if there's some guy who spends a lot of money and then says money has no value, it's like,

14:00that's just a performative contradiction, right? Self-detonating argument. If I think that faith is

14:05superior to reason, then I would not do a podcast. I would pray to God to enlighten people, and God would

14:12do the job for me. But the moment I say, well, I'm not going to pray to God to enlighten people,

14:17I'm going to make reasoned arguments and communicate them using the reason-derived

14:21technology, then I can't say that faith is superior to reason. And so, reason and evidence has proven

14:28itself as vastly superior to faith. And this is one of the reasons why people are falling away from the

14:34church, is that in the competition for human benefit between faith and reason, reason has

14:43decisively proven its superiority. And you can say, ah, yes, but it hollows people out of meaning and

14:50then values and virtues. And I get all of that, which is why I worked very hard to create a rational

14:55system of ethics, which will do the same thing to human society and even more benefits than reason did

15:02to the dark ages that the free market did to human flourishing. So, yeah, reason is going to save

15:11the West. UPB isn't going to save the West. But people's dedication to havoc and spreading reason,

15:16that has a pretty good chance. Well, I mean, it's really our only chance. An ethical system that you

15:23cannot deny. You can't. You cannot deny it. Again, without saying, I agree that two and two make four,

15:29but two and two don't make four. I both accept it and reject it. I reject it as valid and proven,

15:35and then I reject it. Well, nobody has any credibility in that. Nobody will believe anybody

15:41about that. So, that's the fact of the matter. That's the reason of the matter. That's the reality

15:49of the matter. It's absolutely true that UPB will not save the West in and of itself. It's inert.

15:55But, we cannot turn back the clock and undo the benefits that reason, science,

16:01empiricism, and the free market have shown to humanity. We cannot simply turn the clock back

16:05and undo that. We've got to go forward with reason. There is no way back to faith alone.

16:11I hope this helps. Freedomain.com.

16:12Session 8. Lots of love. Bye.

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