You Have a Right to Believe That Your Daughter Will Recover

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The author's aunt was a neonatologist in the neonatal infant care unit. She says there are certain beliefs that you have to believe against all odds for them to come true. The decision to, there are consequences to continuing to hold out hope.

David and Tamler argue about William James' classic essay "The Will to Believe." What's more important - avoiding falsehood or discovering truth? When (if ever) is it rational to believe anything without enough evidence? What about beliefs that we can't be agnostic about? Are there hypotheses that we have to believe in order for them to come true? Does James successfully demonstrate that faith can be rational?

Plus, a philosopher at Apple who's not allowed to talk to the media - what are they hiding? And why are academics constantly telling students that academia is a nightmare?

Support Very Bad Wizards

Links: