Speaker
John McWhorter
A linguist and cultural commentator, McWhorter is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of many popular and academic books including Words on the Move, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language and Talking Back, Talking Black. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and host of the Lexicon Valley podcast.
A linguist and cultural commentator, McWhorter is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of many popular and academic books including Words on the Move, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language and Talking Back, Talking Black. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and host of the Lexicon Valley podcast.
John McWhorter Videos
Making Sense of Reality
Do we see what they tell us to see?
Language and power
Is language capable of communicating experience?
Limits of Thought: John McWhorter and Stanley Fish
Can we think outside of language?
More Videos
Philosophy vs Science
On reason and the search for truth
The Reality Illusion
Has perception evolved to trick us?
On Language and Logic
Why language dominates philosophy
Thinking Dangerously, Living Differently
Can philosophy change how we think?
The Word and the World
What are the limits of language?
The Edge of Reality
Where mathematical metaphors meet reality
The Future of the Post-Truth World
Is the era of objective truth over?
Stories to Change the World
On rhetoric, meaning and language
The Laws of the Universe
Are the laws of nature just human constructs?
Making Sense of Reality
Do we see what they tell us to see?
Beyond Experience
What is the nature of reality?
Thinking Across the World
Julian Baggini | Non-western philosophy traditions
Lies and Beauty
Is lying somehow essential to our lives?
The Limits of My World
Was philosophy's linguistic turn a mistake?
In the Beginning Was the Word
Is the world dependent on language?
Language and the World
How does language describe the world?
How do you solve a problem like uncertainty?
A new paradigm of risk
Limits of Thought: John McWhorter and Stanley Fish
Can we think outside of language?
Truth and Beauty
Do beautiful theories really explain the world?
Dreaming the Future
Utopia and the Limits of Thought
Limits of Language
Can we find the right words for everything?
The Known, The Strange and the New
Why does the world remain puzzling and strange?
Beyond the Machine
Metaphors of the body
Heraclitus' Dream
Are particles or processes fundamental?
Unnatural Laws
Are eternal laws an illusion?
Wittgenstein's Collection of Nonsense
After Relativism
The ways forward from post-modernity
The Secrets of the World
Can we have a complete description of reality?
Thinking Differently
Language, gender and sexuality
The Laughing Philosopher
Does comedy hold the key to truth and morality?
Language, Metaphor, and Reality
Methaphors to change the world
Unexplained Events
Does everything have a cause and effect?
Plato Not Prozac
Philosophy's therapeutic power
Fantasy and Reality
Should we 'get real' or embrace fantasy?
The Sex Lives of Philosophers
And what they tell us about their ideas
Fantasies and Lies
Are myths dangerous?
The End of Ideas
Has celebrity obliterated the intellectual?
The Ultimate Map of Reality
Could a metaphysical revival be on the agenda?
Thinking the Unthinkable
The limits of thought
After Postmodernity
Beyond Reality
What are the limits of our understanding?
The Elegant Universe
Is truth always simple?
Everywhere and Nowhere
Are binary oppositions real?
Beyond Truth and Falsehood
What is real?
Stranger Than We Think
Do supernatural beliefs reflect the limits of human understanding?
Dangerously Big Ideas
Do we need grand theories?
This Debate Has No Title
Solving the self-referential paradox
God's Map
Charting the universe
The Call of Silence
The route to understanding
I Think Therefore Iamb
Poetry gives pleasure, distraction and emotional outlet but can it uncover a greater truth?