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Welcome to the Infinite Monkey Case,

the show that thinks it thinks therefore it might be.

I think I am Robin Hins, but every now and again,

I do worry there might be a brain in a vat,

so it wasn't enough to worry about already.

And I'm Brian Cox, and as you might have worked out

from the nonsense being spouted there,

today we're talking about philosophy.

Richard Feynman, on arguably one of the greatest physicists

of the 20th century, said that philosophers say

a great deal about what is absolutely necessary for science.

And it is always, as far as one can see, rather naive,

and probably wrong.

So the battle lines are drawn.

Philosophy is dead.

Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science,

particularly physics, scientists have become the bearers

of the torch of discovery and our quest for knowledge.

These were the much-publicised words of Stephen Hawking

in his most recent book, The Grand Design.

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