The Rest is Uncertain

What exactly is AI and how concerned should we be about it? In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter notes the distinction between empirical and more conceptual questions regarding AI, with questions about future employment and dangers relating to who controls it, and what would prevent it from dominating the world, including us. He suggests that at least some of our reservations about AI and t...

Aiming for truth and the dangers of retreating to narratives. In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter invites listeners to think about why they make the decisions and choices that they make, which refers to our capacity for agency, whereby our beliefs and desires cause us to interact with the world deliberately or intentionally. He then broadens the topic to focus on the types of causal explan...

Good thinking and dialogue are more important than ever. In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter begins by reflecting on topics previously discussed, including: social and cultural polarization; the challenge of having dialogue when those involved not only disagree, but show no respect or empathy for their opponents; the positive value of uncertainty; immigration, housing, youth crime, and edu...

Are there different types of dialogues with different aims and structures? In this episode, Dr. Laurance Splitter finally engages in a real dialogue with another person, in this case, Professor Maughn Rollins Gregory, Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children in the USA, and an outstanding scholar and teacher in both education and philosophy. Maughn has written exten...

Tying up some loose ends…. In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter provides further clarification of the concept of quantitative, or strict, identity. Objects and people can and do change – we call this “qualitative change” – but such change makes sense only on the assumption that the objects in question remain “the same objects”, i.e. literally identical. We see this idea in such intuitive ex...

A concept both familiar and puzzling. In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter begins with some examples which reveal that the ideaof identity has been, and is still, used to mean different things. Heraclitus asserted that no man can step into the same river twice, because it is not the same river and he is not the same man; a parent insists that their child can’t wear the same shirt again beca...

Why is the topic of immigration so socially divisive?  In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter begins with several disclaimers, which include avoiding the explicitly political dimensions of immigration (which, inevitably, focus on extreme positions), and also making reference to specific religious or cultural groups. Listeners are invited to make these connections for themselves. Laurance make...

Balancing commonality and diversity in determining the merits of the communities to which we belong.  In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter traces the tensions between individualism and various forms of collectivism, from the end of the Cold War (which heralded “The End of History”, except that it didn’t!), to the present day. The ideal of democratic liberalism became distorted as the result...

How do communities of inquiry work across subjects like philosophy, mathematics, and science? In this episode, Dr. Laurance Splitter shares practical examples of collaborative inquiry with students of different ages, sparked by stories, games, and classroom activities. Discussions range from loyalty and friendship to reasoning, mathematical abstraction, scientific concepts, and ethical questions a...

In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter reflects on the evolution of the podcast’s title from “Puzzlement and Passion without Certainty” to “The Rest is Uncertain: At the Intersection of Philosophy and Public Life.” He explores the challenge of navigating between extreme individualism and unhealthy tribalism, asking what kind of community truly fosters meaningful dialogue.  Drawing on his work...

Is there a gap between educational goals and ideals, on the one hand, and the reality experienced by teachers and students in schools and classrooms, on the other?  In the first of several episodes on education, host Dr. Laurance Splitter distinguishes between schooling, training and education. He then takes a brief journey into past theories of education, citing key ideas of Aristotle, Confucius,...

There are reasons for thinking that all is not well in our schools.  In this episode, host Laurance Splitter explores some of the difficulties experienced by teachers and students in our schools and classrooms. Many teachers are quitting because they are compelled to focus on administrative and assessment tasks, to the detriment of teaching excellence. They are experiencing greater levels of stres...

When it comes to youth crime, simple answers often miss the deeper questions. In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter explores the moral and social complexities surrounding youth crime, punishment, and responsibility in contemporary society. He examines polarized responses from “lock them up” to broader social explanations and asks why societies punish in the first place. By considering agency...

The challenge of balancing our intuitive “elephants” and our reasoning “riders”. In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter expands on the role of dialogue and introduces philosophy’s “three Cs” — concepts that are common, contestable, and central. He cites the absurdist humor behind Monty Python to illustrate what happens when concepts are pushed to their extremes. Enlarging on his central theme...

Certainty feels reassuring but it can also shut down reasonable thinking, dialogue, and better judgment. In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter introduces the central ideas behind The Rest Is Uncertain and explains why certainty can be more limiting than helpful when navigating complex questions and challenges through what he calls a philosophical lens. He emphasizes the importance of  dialog...