A Friendly Open Letter to Bill Nye (About Philosophy)

Author's Note: The following is an open letter I wrote to Bill Nye back in 2016 after he posted the Big Think short referenced in the letter. Shortly after I wrote the letter, we met at a conference, discussed the issue, and I shared some of my work on the topic with him. Later, after interacting with my work and others, he changed his mind, graciously telling me via email that he had become a "passionate pro-philosophy philosopher" and that if he were to record the Big Think segment today, he would have "mentioned the importance of philosophy, justified true beliefs" and that he wishes he had "taken one or more formal philosophy or metaphysics courses." I had since taken the following letter down, but am republishing here because I reference it, and our interaction, in the new updated version of the Exploring Metaphysics course I am about to record for The Great Courses.

In other words, here is the letter I wrote to Bill Nye before he graciously and bravely demonstrated intellectual humility (a vital virtue in both science and philosophy) and changed his mind about the value of philosophy. If it helped Bill change his mind, I hope it can help change your mind about the value of philosophy, too. Enjoy, and thanks, Bill!

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Dear Bill Nye,

Recently, in a “Big Think” segment, you were asked your opinion of philosophy. As you might recall, your response was less than generous. Of course, this isn't the first time I've heard criticisms of philosophy from well-respected scientists and science communicators like yourself. But as a philosophy professor, it pains me every time I see and hear such things—and for some reason, this time I felt obligated to respond.

Now let me be clear. I have nothing but respect for your work bringing scientific knowledge to the general population. I celebrate it! I hope one day my two-year-old falls in love with your work. Indeed, I love science and am well-versed in it; you'd be hard pressed to find a more dedicated advocate. I teach a course on scientific reasoning for our physics department; I give lectures on how to recognize medical pseudoscience for our sports medicine department. I emphasize the scientific method heavily in my logic and critical thinking classes. I have lectures on general relativity and quantum mechanics in “Exploring Metaphysics” (one of my courses for The Great Courses). In my academic work, I bring scientific reasoning to bear on as many philosophical questions as I can. I believe that, as a philosopher, it is my duty to champion science.

In other words, Bill, we are on the same side. I often ask myself, shouldn't we be working together towards the same goals? Why doesn't Bill love philosophy like I do?

To be fair, it may be because there are philosophy professors who choose to focus too much in their classes on questions that may not seem practically productive in any real sense. (I apologize, on behalf of philosophers, if this happened to you.) Many spend far too much time on questions raised by Descartes' “dream problem” or Hume’s “problem of induction.” (Can we be certain that we aren’t dreaming or that the sun will rise tomorrow?) As you point out, these are interesting questions. [1] As I point out (in my classes), they aren’t necessarily pointless; they help reveal something about the nature of knowledge: it doesn’t require certainty. (After all, even though we can’t be certain the world is real, we still know that it is...as you rightly pointed out.) But regardless, such questions are not what philosophy is about. At best, they are a starting point.

A good philosophy class will apply such lessons; since knowledge doesn’t require certainty, a wealth of knowledge is possible—like the knowledge we gain through the scientific method. A good philosophy class will also go on to ask questions about things science cannot completely answer: ethics, virtue, politics, etc.[2] It will also go on to make clear how the work of philosophers has influenced the world. The work of John Locke, for example, inspired the Founding Fathers in their formation of the U.S. Constitution. The work of J.S. Mill informed Lincoln’s decision to free the slaves.

Most importantly, however, a good philosophy class should make clear what philosophy is and what it isn’t. It’s not about opinions. There really are right and wrong answers. It’s not about asking unanswerable questions. Indeed, philosophers have answered a great number of questions. It’s just that when they did, the discovery was so important that it ended up spawning its own discipline.

For example, many of the founders of mathematics (Pythagoras, Pascal, Descartes, Leibniz, Laplace) were philosophers. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, was a Philosopher. Computing (and computer science) was made possible by discoveries in logic (a fundamental branch of philosophy) in the 1900s. Most academic disciplines trace back to Plato or Aristotle. There is a reason that the highest educated in just about any field receives the title “Ph.D.” The “Ph” stands for "philosophy."

Science itself was made possible by philosophical discoveries regarding the nature of logic and reasoning and how to reliably test hypotheses—discoveries made by philosophers like Bacon and Descartes.[3] Indeed, science was first called “natural philosophy.”

Which brings me to my main point, Bill—a point I think you'll find somewhat amusing. You are doing philosophy! “Philosophy” just means “love of wisdom.” The philosopher seeks wisdom and knowledge about everything and brings every useful tool to bear in their quest. When you do science, you are simply engaged in philosophical reasoning about the natural world; specifically, you are applying what philosophers have learned about what it takes for a belief to be justified.[4] When you investigate a pseudoscience, you are engaging in philosophy—a kind of applied epistemology—where you apply criteria identified by philosophers (scope, simplicity, fruitfulness) to compare hypotheses.

So, Bill, I want to offer you a friendly challenge to update your understanding of what philosophy is. If you’d like, I’d love to help. To start, I could send you a copy of my Great Courses course “The Big Questions of Philosophy,” which not only addresses what philosophy is and applies the scientific method everywhere it’s applicable but also talks about a great many questions that are both interesting and of practical significance. I think you will be delighted to see how much philosophy and science have in common—and indeed, that science is applied philosophy. I know that you are open to revising your beliefs when the evidence is presented. I’m hoping you are willing to change your mind about philosophy as well. It’s not speculation about useless, unanswerable questions. It’s what lies at the heart of everyone who seeks knowledge, including the scientist.[5]