• HomeSweet home
  • Writingby David Eagleman
    • LivewiredThe Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
    • The Runaway SpeciesHow Human Creativity Remakes the World
    • Brain and BehaviorA Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective
    • The BrainThe Story of You
    • IncognitoThe Secret Lives of the Brain
    • SUMForty Tales from the Afterlives
    • Wednesday is Indigo BlueDiscovering the Brain of Synesthesia
    • The Safety NetSurviving Pandemics and Other Disasters
    • Other WritingEssays and articles
    • Scientific Publications
  • ResearchDavid's Neuroscience
    • Time perception
    • Synesthesia
    • Neurolaw
    • Deep brain recording
    • Sensory Substitution
    • Antiphospholipid Syndrome
    • Other projects
  • BlogLatest Ideas
  • ScheduleWhere to catch David
  • ContactReach Us

Why I am a Possibilian

Why I am a Possibilian Christine Tremoulet

In my opinion, our ignorance of the cosmos is too vast to commit to atheism, and yet we know too much to commit to a particular religion. A third position, agnosticism, is often an uninteresting stance in which a person simply questions whether his traditional religious story (say, a man with a beard on a cloud) is true or not true.

So I call myself a possibilian. Possibilianism emphasizes the exploration of new, unconsidered possibilities. Possibilianism is comfortable holding multiple ideas in mind; it is not interested in committing to any particular story. If you want to know more about this point of view, see the Wikipedia entry on the topic.

Here are a couple of photos from my TEDxHouston talk, "On Uncertainty". In this talk I argued why possibilianism is not only a hopeful position, but the most rational one.

photo courtesy of Blue Lemon Photo
photo by Blue Lemon Photo

And here's a talk on possibilianism that I delivered at the School of Life in London.

 

Not everyone is a fan of possibilianism. After possibilianism began to spread widely on the web, the neo-athiest Sam Harris wrote to ask me if I would like to publically discuss the idea with him. I had read some of Harris' writings and quite liked them, so I agreed. I was interested to understand where our positions were compatible and where they differed. But Harris' response (in the form of a letter to me on his blog) attacked possibilianism on the grounds that I was "confused", an "accomodationist", and "intellectually dishonest". I took the pugilism of his opening salvo as an indicator of the utility that I would get from attempting a meaningful back-and-forth dialog with him. (Strangely, as indicated by a later blog of his, he seemed surprised that I hadn't taken the time to write him back.) It's not that I don't admire his writing (I do), or that I don't value public debate (I welcome it). It's simply that, in this case, Harris' braggadocio appeared to be emblematic of the neo-atheist posture, and confirmed why I don't feel completely at home in that camp. In other words, when I received his overly-aggressive opening shot, I thought: "Tada. This is precisely why a third voice is needed."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Social sharing:
  • Add to Google Buzz
  • Add to Facebook
  • Add to Delicious
  • Digg this
  • Add to StumbleUpon
  • Add to Technorati
  • Add to Reddit
  • Add to MySpace
  • Like this? Tweet it to your followers!
Tagged under
  • Possibilianism
  • TEDx

Related items

  • Possibilianism at PopTech
More in this category: « A note about head shape in mummies Silicon Immortality: Downloading Consciousness into Computers »
back to top

Follow David on Instagram Follow David on Tumblr Follow David on Twitter Follow David on Facebook

From the Blog

  • Your brain constantly re-calibrates its timing.
    Your brain constantly re-calibrates its timing.

    Hear my friend Alan Burdick discuss his new book on time perception...

  • Remembering a trail blazer - Francis Crick
    Remembering a trail blazer - Francis Crick

    Francis Crick, one of the premier biologists of the 20th century, passed away July 28, 2004, in San Diego. On his 88th birthday, I brought him chocolates and spent the day with him in his home in La Jolla.

  • Possibilianism at PopTech
    Possibilianism at PopTech

    I spoke at PopTech on the limits of science, the problems of false dichotomies, and my new movement of possibilianism. See the video.

  • The Science of Waiting
    The Science of Waiting

    For many years I've been studying how human brains perceive the passage of time.

In other news...

NY Times Oped

Read David's Op-Ed piece in The New York Times regarding time and Obama's withdrawal plan.

New York Times bestseller

IncognitoA 26 week New York Times bestseller, Incognito was named a Best Book of the Year by both Amazon and Goodreads. For a taste of the book, see a review in the Wall Street Journal, listen to a conversation on NPR's Fresh Air, or watch a video dialog with Wired Magazine. Reading Incognito now? We'd love to hear feedback!

 

SUM is Book of the Year: Chicago Tribune

SUM was chosen as the best book of 2009 by Chicago Tribune's Pulitzer-winning literary critic Julia Keller.

brain paperback UK
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
DVD
Incognito Cover Eagleman
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
SumBestSeller
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Cover Cytowic Eagleman
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
TheSafetyNetsmall
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
CogNeuroTextbook
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Runaway Species Hardcover
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Livewired Canongate sm2
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

 
CSS Valid | XHTML Valid | Top | + | - | reset | RTL | LTR
Copyright © Youretro 2021 All rights reserved. Custom Design by Youjoomla.com
YJSimpleGrid Joomla! Templates Framework official website
Blog