Intelligence Squared Podcast Summary

Episode: How Philosophy Explains Our World, with Julian Baggini (Part One)
Host: Richella Shah
Guest: Julian Baggini (Philosopher and Author)
Date: December 28, 2025

Episode Overview

In this live event recorded at Conway Hall, philosopher Julian Baggini discusses the practical value of philosophy in understanding and navigating today’s polarized and turbulent world. Hosted by Richella Shah, the conversation centers on philosophical habits—attention, humility, evidence-seeking, and collaboration—and how these tools can help us confront issues like truth, groupthink, conspiracy theories, and the challenges posed by so-called post-truth politics.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Philosophy’s Accessibility and Everyday Relevance

[03:34]

• Misconceptions Addressed:
  Shah opens by noting that many see philosophy as academic or inaccessible.
• Baggini’s Response:
  • Acknowledges the historical snobbery but stresses its evolution:

    “For most people at least, philosophical questions at some point become inescapable. Most people ask them… big questions like ‘How should I live?’ ‘What’s it all about?’ But also other things… a big theme at the moment is truth. You know, what is truth? What is opinion? How can we know anything? These are foundational philosophical questions…” (05:16)

2. The Role of Philosophy in Decision-Making and Crisis

[05:59]

• Philosophy’s Limits:
  • Baggini emphasizes it’s not always about thinking like a philosopher:

    “Philosophical thinking isn’t always the best way of thinking… But it has its place.” (06:21)

• Truth and Skepticism:
  • Warns that dabbling in philosophical skepticism can lead to relativism:

    “A little bit of bad philosophy can really lead us astray.” (07:09)

  • There are still crucial differences between truth and falsehood.

3. Good Thinking: The ACDC Acronym

[08:24]

• A.C.D.C. Framework (Attend, Clarify, Deconstruct, Connect):
  • Developed to summarize philosophical habits of mind.
• The Importance of “Attend”:
  • It’s not just logic, but paying attention:

    “People have great processing power, their brains, but you’ve got to have… epistemic virtue... If you want to think about something and you are determined to be accurate, to get the facts right, and you are sincere in wanting to know how things are and not just defend your own view, just simply having those attitudes... is going to improve the quality of your thinking.” (09:51)

  • Being attentive avoids “easy mistakes” that are often just failures to notice.

4. Thinking for Yourself—And Not By Yourself

[12:39]

• Individual vs. Collective Cognition:
  • “If you think for yourself badly, that’s worse than not thinking for yourself.” (13:23)
  • Blind skepticism can lead to conspiracy:

    [On flat-Earthers:] “They’ve thought for themselves, but unfortunately they’re thinking themselves quite badly, and that’s leading them to absurd, absurd conclusions.” (14:11)

  • Encourages dialogical thinking—philosophy done in groups:

    “Think for yourself, not by yourself.” (15:23)

  • Cites historical examples: Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum, Descartes’ correspondences.
• Psychology Evidence:
  • “People perform better … if they can think about things together than if they think… just by themselves.” (15:51)

5. Groupthink vs. Wisdom of Crowds

[16:25]

• The Balance:
  • Good thinking requires independent thought but also challenge from others.

    “A group that doesn’t challenge its internal members will end up in all sorts of trouble…” (17:17)

  • Groupthink occurs when challenge is absent, e.g. organizations appointing “naysayers” to avoid it.

6. Groupthink and Political Ideology

[18:02]

• Universality of Groupthink:
  • It affects both right and left—no ideology is immune.
  • On the left, moral conviction can “make challenge feel like a moral offense,” discouraging open review of policies (19:31).

    “…a lot of people who promote [diversity and equality] causes have not helped themselves by not being open to the fact that some of the things they’ve done may not have actually had the effect they wanted to have.” (19:59)

7. Approaching Facts and Statistics Thoughtfully

[23:32]

• Establishing Facts:
  • Cautions against uncritical acceptance of information, especially on social media:

    “People are very easy to believe something to be true if it fits what they’re expecting to be true... So there is that fundamental question of making sure the fact is a fact.” (24:18)

• Interpreting Facts:
  • Context matters—facts can be misleading if misunderstood.
  • “Facts rarely speak for themselves.” (24:47)
• No Cognitive “Hacks”:
  • Advocates for “cognitive speed bumps,” slowing down, rather than shortcuts:

    “The key thing about good thinking is there are no hacks. You don’t want cognitive hacks, you want cognitive speed bumps.” (27:13)

8. Awareness of One’s Own Bias

[28:02]

• Bias is Unavoidable:
  • Self-questioning helps mitigate it, even if perfection is impossible.
  • The goal is progress, not total objectivity:

    “…the absence of the impossibility of perfection is not an argument for trying to do better.” (29:23)

  • Humility is essential:

    “Have that little bit of humility to accept the fact that you could be wrong about anything.” (30:30)

9. Polarization and Binary Thinking

[30:42]

• Is This the Most Polarized Age?
  • Polarization exists but is nuanced; much of the “hostility” is at the extremes and amplified by social media.

    “What’s really increased is not so much polarization as hostility.” (32:12)

  • Most people occupy the spectrum, not the extremes:

    “For most things, if you find yourself… with people saying A or B, don’t think of them as two binary choices, think of a spectrum… That’s a more nuanced way of thinking, but it generally leads to… more clarity.” (33:34)

10. The “Post-Truth” Phenomenon

[34:11]

• Philosophical Roots:
  • The attack on “truth” was once emancipatory, meant to challenge power-held definitions.
  • Misinterpretation led to the idea that “truth” no longer matters.
  • “No one seriously believes that there’s no such thing as truth… People are very, very capable of recognizing… truth and falsehood, and they hate being lied to.” (35:33)
• Erosion of Trust in Authorities:
  • The real crisis is not truth itself, but confidence in sources of truth:

    “It’s become problematized… what is a reliable source of truth? A lot of people don’t trust the mainstream media anymore. They don’t trust a lot of experts, scientists…” (36:21)

11. Trump, Trust, and Gut Instinct

[37:16]

• Distrust Across the Spectrum:
  • For some, it’s no longer about truth/lie, it’s about who stands for “us.”
  • When all authority is doubted, “people are being rational given their premise”—they just go with their gut.

    “If it were genuinely the case that there was no way of establishing the truth independently... the only thing left would be your gut.” (39:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Good Thinking:

  “Think for yourself, not by yourself.”
  — Julian Baggini, (15:23)

• On the Value of Attention:

  “Most of the time… it isn’t because you made a deductive error, it’s because you weren’t paying attention.”
  — Julian Baggini, (11:18)

• On Groupthink in Politics:

  “No group is immune from groupthink… On the left, the danger comes often from moral conviction.”
  — Julian Baggini, (19:18)

• On Facts and Interpretation:

  “Facts rarely speak for themselves. You really have to ask, what does that fact really mean?”
  — Julian Baggini, (24:47)

• On Cognitive Shortcuts:

  “The most important thing you do is take your time, think, ask the extra question… you want cognitive speed bumps.”
  — Julian Baggini, (27:13)

• On the Impossibility of Perfect Objectivity:

  “The absence of the impossibility of perfection is not an argument for trying to do better.”
  — Julian Baggini, (29:23)

• On Polarization:

  “What’s really increased is not so much polarization as hostility.”
  — Julian Baggini, (32:12)

• On “Post-Truth”:

  “The crisis of truth is more crisis of, as it were, authority about where people will accept their truth from.”
  — Julian Baggini, (36:34)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [03:34] – Philosophy’s accessibility and the inevitability of big philosophical questions
• [08:49] – The ACDC habits of thinking well (Attend, Clarify, Deconstruct, Connect)
• [12:39] – The dangers and benefits of “thinking for yourself,” conspiracy theories, and collaborative thinking
• [16:25] – Groupthink vs. challenge and wisdom of crowds
• [18:30] – Groupthink on the left and right, with examples from diversity/equality politics
• [23:32] – How to treat facts and statistics; caution against shortcuts and hacks
• [28:22] – Recognizing and mitigating bias through self-questioning and humility
• [31:00] – Are we really more polarized? Hostility, spectrum thinking, and the myth of binary choices
• [34:22] – The “post-truth” phenomenon, trust in sources, and why reality isn’t so simple
• [37:22] – Trump, loss of trust in all authorities, and decision-making by instinct

Summary Conclusion

Julian Baggini persuasively argues that while the world may seem uniquely chaotic or polarized, philosophy offers tools—not simply abstraction, but habits of attentiveness, humility, and collaboration—that help us navigate confusion. There are no shortcuts to clarity and truth; we must slow down, question ourselves, and work together. Rather than swallowing the myth of a hopelessly “post-truth” society, Baggini encourages spectrum thinking, constant challenge, and a sober approach to information in a noisy age.