Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
We all know what pseudoscience is and why it’s important to fight the good fight. Or do we? While some instances of pseudoscience are obvious (astrology, homeopathy), it turns out that it’s hard to draw a sharp line of demarcation. We want to fight the good fight, but, arguably, we go about it largely in the wrong way.
A dip into rhetoric, for instance, may be more useful than one in science communication. And our ultimate objective, the triumph of science over superstition, is very likely forever unreachable. We should instead pursue the more modest goal identified by Carl Sagan: to keep the light of reason alive, even if surrounded by darkness.
This talk was part of the exciting lineup for CSICon 2024. CSICon is the premiere conference in the US for science and skepticism.
Learn more at: csiconference.org
Massimo Pigliucci is an author, blogger, podcaster, as well as the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. His academic work is in evolutionary biology, philosophy of science, the nature of pseudoscience, and practical philosophy. Pigliucci publishes regular columns in Skeptical Inquirer and Philosophy Now. His books include How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (Basic Books) and Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (University of Chicago Press). Pigliucci’s latest book is The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders (Basic Books). More by Pigliucci at https://newstoicism.org.
This talk took place during CSICon in Las Vegas on October 25, 2024
We all know what pseudoscience is and why it’s important to fight the good fight. Or do we? While some instances of pseudoscience are obvious (astrology, homeopathy), it turns out that it’s hard to draw a sharp line of demarcation. We want to fight the good fight, but, arguably, we go about it largely in the wrong way.
A dip into rhetoric, for instance, may be more useful than one in science communication. And our ultimate objective, the triumph of science over superstition, is very likely forever unreachable. We should instead pursue the more modest goal identified by Carl Sagan: to keep the light of reason alive, even if surrounded by darkness.
This talk was part of the exciting lineup for CSICon 2024. CSICon is the premiere conference in the US for science and skepticism.
Learn more at: csiconference.org
Massimo Pigliucci is an author, blogger, podcaster, as well as the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. His academic work is in evolutionary biology, philosophy of science, the nature of pseudoscience, and practical philosophy. Pigliucci publishes regular columns in Skeptical Inquirer and Philosophy Now. His books include How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (Basic Books) and Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (University of Chicago Press). Pigliucci’s latest book is The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders (Basic Books). More by Pigliucci at https://newstoicism.org.
This talk took place during CSICon in Las Vegas on October 25, 2024
