Can a Tibetan Buddhist and a theoretical physicist find common ground on reality?
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.
videoNature and landscape
Scenes from Aboriginal Australian pottery chart the turn of the seasons
7 minutes
videoMathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes
videoEthics
What’s an idea worth? How prominent thinkers have understood intellectual property
6 minutes
videoMusic
A riveting audiovisual dive into what makes sounds harmonious, or not
28 minutes
videoHistory of science
How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain
26 minutes
videoKnowledge
Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy
10 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child
4 minutes
videoPhilosophy of mind
‘Am I not at least something?’ A surreal dive into Descartes’s Meditations
3 minutes
videoOceans and water
A stunning visualisation explores the intricate circulatory system of our oceans
5 minutes