Philosophy

Based on an appearance on the Pascal’s Wager podcast, November 2024. This is not a transcript but a reconstruction of the main ideas from the conversation. Video: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LINK Rationality as a Bludgeon Start with an uncomfortable observation: the word “rationality” is today most often deployed irrationally. In media discourse it has become a weapon — a way to stigmatise opponents rather than describe a genuine quality of thought. The people who shout loudest about rationality typically make no effort to justify their use of the term or to build even a minimal conceptual framework. ...

Based on a video lecture. Video lecture: YouTube On April 24, 1929, Albert Einstein received a telegram from New York rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, and the question was direct: “Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid. Fifty words.” Einstein used fewer than half his allotted words: “I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.” ...

Based on a video lecture. Video lecture: YouTube Today I want to talk about agnosticism. At first glance, it’s a simple topic: ask anyone with an interest in philosophy or religion what agnosticism is, and they will confidently tell you it is the position that one cannot know for certain whether god exists or not. Neither believer nor atheist: a person allows for some higher power without asserting either way. The answer is broadly correct, just far from complete. ...