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Are the mysteries of reality within the grasp of science? Or does a strictly empirical, Western materialist approach fail to properly consider the role of humans as observers? In this video from the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth (ICE), the US theoretical physicist Sean Carrol argues that, through scientific enquiry, a comprehensive understanding of reality is within our reach. Indeed, one layer of our reality – the world of elementary particles and forces – has already been entirely accounted for. Countering him, the US scholar of Tibetan Buddhism B Alan Wallace argues that such a materialist account of our Universe fails to fully account for both the complexities of the human mind and the world outside it.
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History of science
How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain
26 minutes
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Knowledge
Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy
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Childhood and adolescence
‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child
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Philosophy of mind
‘Am I not at least something?’ A surreal dive into Descartes’s Meditations
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Oceans and water
A stunning visualisation explores the intricate circulatory system of our oceans
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History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
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Computing and artificial intelligence
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Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
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Metaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
55 minutes