Steven Novella

speaker

1,536 appearances 3 recordings 2 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 4 Jul

Steven Novella’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe · The Skeptics Guide #1095 - Jul 4 2026 · 4 Jul 2026 podcast

You could frame it as, well, what's the goal?

And I think that's what you're talking about.

The goal is to only believe things that are true and not believe things that are not true.

Or, as T.H.

Huxley said, a quote that I like, to portion your belief to the evidence, right?

We don't want to believe things just because they feel good or because they're popular or because somebody told it to us or we're trapped in some narrative or there's some secondary gain, right?

We want to believe things because it's actual reality and we're constantly questioning what we think to make sure that it's as close as possible.

But how do we do that, right?

So that's the goal.

And I think most people go, yeah, I want to believe things that's true.

You know, although in practice they don't do that, you know, they state they want to do that, but then they just, they believe lots of things that aren't true.

So there is an epistemological basis to scientific skepticism that we follow.

And epistemology is basically the philosophy of how we know what we know, right?

So it's how do we know things?

And the epistemology of scientific skepticism is, well, there's one reality out there.

It actually exists.

You know, there is a reality.

And it is knowable.

And the only way to have any kind of reliable actual knowledge about it is what we call methodological naturalism.

Some people also take that to the next step, which is philosophical naturalism.

Showing 81–100 of 1,536 · page 5 of 77