• 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

  • British musician Jarvis Cocker reads from Sum
    British musician Jarvis Cocker reads from Sum

    Hear British rocker Jarvis Cocker read the short story "Descent of Species" from Sum.

  • Schwarzenegger on Incognito
    Schwarzenegger on Incognito

    What a wonderful shot of caffeine it was to find my childhood hero lauding my book in the New York Times.

  • Radiolab fan? We are too.
    Radiolab fan? We are too.

    We love NPR's Radiolab. If you haven't listened to it yet, you should.  Check out several episodes featuring David's science or writing.

  • NeoSensory and the science of sensory substitution
    NeoSensory and the science of sensory substitution

    Want a quick overview about what we're doing at NeoSensory?

In other news...

Emily Blunt reads for the Sum audio book

Hear the actress Emily Blunt (Young Victoria, Devil Wears Prada) read "The Cast" from Sum. She is one of the dozens of terrific actors who read for the audio book.

NY Times Oped

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

New Yorker magazine profile

Read a profile of David in The New Yorker: The Possibilian: What a brush with death taught David Eagleman about the mysteries of time and the brain by Burkhard Bilger.
Eagleman in the New Yorker

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