Philosophies of Doubt and Assorted Dragons | Prof. Massimo Pigliucci
Vedanta Talks - Swami Sarvapriyananda
Vedanta Society of New York
4.8 • 714 Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2025
⏱️ 95 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Prof. Pigliucci's new book, "Beyond Stoicism: A Guide to the Good Life with Stoics, Skeptics, Epicureans, and Other Ancient Philosophers", is available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/fhbr6nl
Professor Massimo Pigliucci is an American philosopher and biologist who is professor of philosophy at the City College of New York, former co-host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast, and former editor in chief for the online magazine Scientia Salon. He is a critic of pseudoscience and creationism, and an advocate for secularism and science education. His recent work has focused on stoicism.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We welcome today again the return of Professor Massimo Piliucci, the K.D. Iranian Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York. |
| 0:32.7 | Professor Piliucci received a doctorate in genetics from the University of Ferrara, Italy, holds a PhD |
| 0:40.3 | in evolutionary biology from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD in philosophy from the University |
| 0:48.3 | of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which recognized |
| 0:58.0 | him for his major contributions to studies of gene environment interactions and his educational |
| 1:06.0 | efforts to counter widespread pseudo-scientific beliefs. |
| 1:11.6 | In 1997, he was awarded the prestigious Dobsansky Prize |
| 1:17.6 | from the Society for the Study of Evolution. |
| 1:21.6 | Pelluch is written regularly for skeptical inquirer on topics such as climate change denial and intelligent design. |
| 1:30.3 | As a philosopher, he is interested in the structure and foundations of evolutionary theory, |
| 1:37.3 | the relationship between science and philosophy, and the relationship between science and religion. |
| 1:48.5 | He became a popularizer of Stoicism and one of the driving forces in Stoicism's resurgence in the United States in the early 21st century. His 2015 essay for the New York Times |
| 2:06.7 | on the topic was one of the most shared articles to date. Besides the times, he's written for the |
| 2:14.1 | Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe, |
| 2:18.1 | The Guardian, Newsweek, the Atlantic, the economist Forbes, Philosophy Now, and Scientific American. |
| 2:25.2 | He's been interviewed by PBS, the BBC, and been a guest on the Colbert Report. |
| 2:32.4 | He has published over 170 technical papers in science and philosophy |
| 2:38.1 | and is the author or editor of 16 books. His latest, Beyond Stoicism, a guide to the good |
| 2:46.7 | life with Stoics, Skeptics, Epicureans and other ancient philosophers was published just this |
| 2:54.1 | last January. He produces a podcast called Stoic Meditations and his writings and musings can be found |
| 3:03.2 | at Massimo Pilucci.org. Today, the subject of his talk is |
| 3:09.7 | Philosophers of Doubt and Plain Weird Philosophers. |
... |
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