March 02, 2026

Curt Jaimungal: Why Neil deGrasse Tyson Gets "Belief" Wrong

16 minutes

Curt Jaimungal argues that astrophysicists like Neil deGrasse Tyson and spiritual gurus Deepak Chopra and Thomas Campbell can’t logically claim they don’t hold beliefs. This “Theories of Everything” with Curt Jaimungal episode uses analytic philosophy to show why belief’s vital for understanding physics and consciousness, countering what Thomas Campbell and NASA scientist Nathalie Cabrol say.

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TIMESTAMPS:

- 00:00 - The "No Belief" Fallacy

- 03:00 - Faith vs. Propositional Belief

- 04:57 - Implicit Belief in Hypotheses

- 07:10 - van Fraassen’s Constructive Empiricism

- 11:51 - Fallibilism and Epistemic Virtue

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LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

LINKS MENTIONED:

- Neil deGrasse Tyson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/HhWWlJFwTqs

- Kierkegaard: The Most Terrifying Philosopher I've Encountered [TOE]: https://youtu.be/BWYxRM__TBU

- Curt Interviews NASA Scientist on NPR: https://youtu.be/C8zrfZq1XEs

- Bayesian Epistemology: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology-bayesian/

- Belief: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/belief/

- The Norm Of Assertion: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29684696/

- Truth And Objectivity [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0674910877?tag=toe08-20

- Constructive Empiricism Now [Paper]: https://www.princeton.edu/~fraassen/articles/pdfs/CE_Now.pdf

- Willard Quine: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quine/

SOCIALS:

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt

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Guests do not pay to appear. Theories of Everything receives revenue solely from viewer donations, platform ads, and clearly labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries.

#science

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal features long-form, technically detailed interviews with leading researchers in physics, mathematics, consciousness, and philosophy, exploring topics at the level of active research. For academics, graduate students, and anyone seeking depth beyond popular science.

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