Rationally Speaking #45 - Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on Spinoza, Göedl, and Theories of Everything

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2011

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

Our guest Rebecca Newberger Goldstein joins us to talk about Baruch Spinoza and Kurt Gödel, the subjects of her books "The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel" and "Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew who Gave Us Modernity." The topics include the idea of "Spinoza's God" and his concept of a theory of everything, their views on the limits of reason and objective reality, Gödel's theorems and its repercussions in philosophy and mathematics, and his legendary friendship with Albert Einstein. She also talks about her novels and her experience of being both a novelist and a writer of non-fiction works.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein grew up in White Plains, New York, graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College and immediately went on to graduate work at Princeton University where she received her Ph.D. in philosophy. In 2008, she was designated a Humanist Laureate by the International Academy of Humanism, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Emerson College. Currently she is a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology, Harvard University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the coveted MacArthur “Genius Award.” She was named Humanist of the Year 2011 by the American Humanist Association, and she was given the "Freethought Heroine Award" by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 2011. In addition to her non-fiction works, she is the author of a number of novels, including "The Late-Summer Passion of a Woman of Mind; The Dark Sister." Her latest work is "Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God."

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.
0:22.6	For more information, please visit us at NYC Skeptics.org.
0:35.8	Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.
0:41.2	I am your host, Massimo Piliucci, and with me, as always, is my co-host, Julia Galev.
0:46.0	Julia, what are we going to talk about today?
0:48.0	Masma, we have a very special guest with us today in the studio.
0:51.5	Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a philosopher and novelist. She did her PhD
0:55.7	in philosophy at Princeton, and she's the author of several intellectual histories, including
0:59.8	betraying Spinoza, the renegade Jew who gave us modernity, and incompleteness, the proof and
1:05.1	paradox of Kurt Goethe, as well as several novels, including most recently 36 arguments for
1:09.8	the existence of God, a work of fiction. She's also won an impressive slew of awards, including the MacArthur
1:15.5	Genius Grant in 1996. Our first genius. Our first genius, aside from us, of course, our first
1:21.3	accredited genius. And this year, she's won the American Humanist Association's Humanist
1:27.2	of the Year award. And we also just found out she's about to be crowned this year, she's won the American Humanist Association's Humanist of the Year award.
1:28.5	And we also just found out she's about to be crowned this year's Free Thought Heroin by the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
1:34.4	Who did you rescue her? Wow.
1:37.5	Rebecca, welcome. I can only imagine how crowded your trophy shelf must be by now.
1:41.3	Oh, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
1:43.0	If you want to unload any of those extra trophies on anyone, I've got some space.
1:48.1	Yeah, I'm really waiting to see what that Freethought Heroin Award looks like.
1:53.8	Or the Freethought Heroin' Cape. Cape, right. Hopefully. Special powers. So the initial
2:00.5	impetus, actually, for having you on the show was that our producer, Benny, had read your book betraying Spinoza and just raved about it. I actually haven't heard him this enthusiastic about a book in a while. And so maybe as a favorite of Benny, we can launch right in by talking about betraying Spinoza.
	...

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