Mike's Notes
This video interview came in the latest issue of Aeon.
Resources
- https://aeon.co/videos/why-david-deutsch-believes-good-explanations-are-the-antidote-to-bad-philosophy
- https://youtu.be/3eEffbjzNwE?si=8-rIbS-StzUU6lvx
- https://closertotruth.com
- https://closertotruth.com/contributor/david-deutsch/
References
- Reference
Repository
- Home > Ajabbi Research > Library > Subscriptions > Aeon
- Home > Ajabbi Research > Library > Subscriptions > Closer to Truth
- Home > Handbook > Ajabbi Research > Culture
Last Updated
02/07/2025
David Elieser Deutsch, FRS is a British physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation (CQC) in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford.
Deutsch pioneered the field of quantum computation by formulating a description for a quantum Turing machine, as well as specifying an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer. He is a proponent of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
He was awarded the Dirac Medal and Prize of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in 2017, the Isaac Newton Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics in 2021, and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2022. His popular books The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity have each been translated into 12 languages.
Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy
In this interview from the long-running series Closer to Truth, the British theoretical physicist and philosopher David Deutsch makes the case that understanding the difference between good and bad explanations is central to advancing knowledge. In conversation with the US presenter Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Deutsch outlines what he believes makes for a convincing explanation – primarily, unprejudiced thinking, relevance and specificity. Further, he argues that this framework for explanations is a vital corrective to a century in which what he calls ‘bad philosophy’, including logical positivism, has dominated, constraining the search for good ideas.
