Rationally Speaking Podcast

Rationally Speaking #6 - Fluffy Thinking


Listen Later

Fluffy Thinking is a peculiar type of uncritical thinking that sounds sophisticated, and is next to impossible to criticize frontally both because it barely has anything to do with empirical evidence, and because it is hard to articulate what, exactly, these people are saying. These people include scientific luminaries like Freeman Dyson and Paul Davies. Also, Karen Armstrong, author of "The Case for God", and Krista Tippett, author of "Einstein's God" and host of National Public Radio's "Speaking of Faith", where scientific notions are regularly distorted and mixed up with barely intelligible mystical "insights" that are put forward as profound truths.

The question is not only whether there is anything interesting in what these people are saying, but rather the much more difficult issue of why it is that smart individuals, who make their living thinking and writing about science and philosophy, are attracted by fluffy thinking.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Rationally Speaking PodcastBy New York City Skeptics

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

704 ratings


More shows like Rationally Speaking Podcast

View all
Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,021 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,482 Listeners

The Joe Rogan Experience by Joe Rogan

The Joe Rogan Experience

228,910 Listeners

Planet Money by NPR

Planet Money

30,680 Listeners

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! by NPR

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

38,842 Listeners

99% Invisible by Roman Mars

99% Invisible

26,233 Listeners

StarTalk Radio by Neil deGrasse Tyson

StarTalk Radio

14,326 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,452 Listeners

Science Vs by Spotify Studios

Science Vs

12,220 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

112,277 Listeners

The Good Fight by Yascha Mounk

The Good Fight

908 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,918 Listeners

Apple News In Conversation by Apple News

Apple News In Conversation

1,682 Listeners