Skepticism used to be a way of thinking, but nowadays, it's turned into a fashionable clique. Calling yourself a "skeptic" today means you identify with three core ideas - atheism, physicalism, and empiricism. The "skeptics movement" has crowded out people who dissent, and in the process, they've become more dogmatic than those they criticize.

Consciousness remains a metaphysical mystery. Scientists don't understand it, philosophers don't understand it, and neither does anybody else. Is everything in the universe fundamentally physical, or is there something more? Is the physicalist worldview incomplete? Why should first-person experience exist in the first place? 

Dr. Emrys Westacott is a professor of philosophy at Alfred University. You can read his great introductory book here: http://amzn.to/242NO1B

Is there objective truth, or is everything ultimately subjective? Can we know with certainty? These questions are central in philosophy, and it's where we begin the series. 

Dr. Emrys Westacott is a professor of philosophy at Alfred University. You can get his excellent introductory book Thinking Through Philosophy here: http://amzn.to/242NO1B

Introduction to the show. Who I am and what the show is about. Philosophy and interviews across the world. Talking with intellectuals and professors about big ideas. Covering philosophy, science, religion, politics, economics, mathematics, libertarian theory, and much more.