100 episodes

Closer To Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions in Cosmos, Consciousness, and Meaning.

Closer To Truth Closer To Truth

    • Education
    • 4.7 • 198 Ratings

Closer To Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions in Cosmos, Consciousness, and Meaning.

    Eastern Traditions: What is World? What is Reality?

    Eastern Traditions: What is World? What is Reality?

    How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions, Hinduism and Shintoism addresscausality, consciousness, energies, God, ultimate reality? What is non-dualism? How is the world interconnected? How are metaphysics andmorality related?
     
    Featuring interviews with Venerable Dr. Yifa, Jay Garfield, Yujin Nagasawa, Swami Sarvapriyananda, Swami Medhananda, Franklin Perkins, and Helen De Cruz.
     
    Get subscriber-only benefits like early access to episodes by registering for a free membership at closertotruth.com.

    • 27 min
    Nick Bostrom on Superintelligence and the Future of AI

    Nick Bostrom on Superintelligence and the Future of AI

    Philosopher Nick Bostrom discusses his new book, Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World, where he asks: In the face of incredible technological advances, what is the point of human existence? Will AI make our life and labor obsolete? In a "solved world," where would we find meaning and purpose?
     
    Bostrom's book, Deep Utopia, is available for purchase now.
     
    Nick Bostrom is a Professor at Oxford University, where he is the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute. He is the world's most cited philosopher aged 50 or under.

    • 1 hr 11 min
    Paul Thagard on AI, Animal Consciousness, and Human Intelligence

    Paul Thagard on AI, Animal Consciousness, and Human Intelligence

    How do animals and smart machines measure up to human intelligence? Can fish feel pain and do dogs get jealous? Paul Thagard—a philosopher and cognitive scientist—explores hotly debated issues about animal and artificial intelligence to conclude that current bots and beasts fall far short of human capabilities.
     
    Thagard's book, Bots and Beasts: What Makes Machines, Animals, and People Smart?, is available for purchase now.
     
    Paul Thagard is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of many books and writes a popular blog for Psychology Today.

    • 1 hr 12 min
    Helen De Cruz on What Makes Life Worth Living

    Helen De Cruz on What Makes Life Worth Living

    Philosopher Helen De Cruz discusses her new book, Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think. De Cruz explores the transformative role of wonder and awe in an uncertain world and reveals how they are catalysts that can help us reclaim what makes life worth living and preserve the things we find wonderful and valuable in our lives.
     
    Helen De Cruz is a Belgian philosopher and Danforth Chair in the Humanities at Saint Louis University who specializes in philosophy of religion, experimental philosophy, and philosophy of cognitive science.
     
    Watch more Closer To Truth Chats here.

    • 57 min
    Why Philosophy of Biology?

    Why Philosophy of Biology?

    Get 20% off tickets to this year's HowtheLightGetsIn Hay Festival with code CTT24 at checkout.
     
    Philosophy of biology has two sides: the process of science and the content of biology. We address key questions. What is the nature of life? How does evolution work and what are its challenges? How to consider race, sex/gender, cognition, culture, morality, healthcare, religion, alien life, and alien intelligences.
     
    Featuring interviews with Michael Ruse, Elliot Sober, Elisabeth Lloyd, Peter Godfrey-Smith, John Dupré, Paul Griffiths, Richard Dawkins, Josh Swamidass, Quayshawn Nigel Julian Spencer, Denis Noble, Alexander Rosenberg, Samir Okasha, Massimo Pigliucci, Alan Love, and Philip Kitcher.

    • 27 min
    Marcelo Gleiser on Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience

    Marcelo Gleiser on Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience

    Theoretical physicist and astronomer Marcelo Glesier offers compelling argument for including the human perspective within science, and for how human experience makes science possible. He discusses his new book, The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience, which urges us to create a new scientific culture that views ourselves both as an expression of nature and as a source of nature's self-understanding, so that humanity can flourish in the new millennium.
     
    The Blind Spot is available for purchase now: https://shorturl.at/ghu34
     
    Marcelo Gleiser is the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy at Dartmouth, the 2019 Templeton Prize laureate, and author of seven widely translated books.
     
    Get free subscriber-only exclusives with a Closer To Truth membership: https://closertotruth.com/register/

    • 1 hr 13 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
198 Ratings

198 Ratings

JoboF IV ,

Wonderful

Consistently fascinating and very accessible.

walterlouis422 ,

Listen again and again.

I've been listening to this program for decades and saved and studied many episodes. The latest; Samuel Lebens on Jewish Philosophy is going to be saved and studied as well. I can think of no other program that has presented such excellent existential inquiry for so long. Congratulations and thank you.

Flameonyou ,

Demons & angels episode

I’m as gobsmacked as Robert. This Dr trying to say children in Africa see angels. Yeah, while eating dirt & the flies are swarming. Maybe from being delusional from malnutrition. Cant wait to listen to the rest! Whatever you find comfort in👌🙄

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