On Not Being Sure | Steven Vogel | TEDxDenisonU

In his TED talk, titled “On not being sure”, Dr. Vogel argues that the people who claim to be sure are usually lying, and are often dangerous as well. Through his talk, he hopes to lead the audience to the following questions: If you're not sure that what you believe is right, what gives you the right to believe it? How is it possible to believe something strongly, and to act on that belief, while recognizing that you might be wrong about it? Steve Vogel has been a Professor of the Philosophy Department at Denison since 1984. He teaches courses in continental philosophy, nineteenth-century philosophy, environmental ethics, social and political philosophy, and logic. He has special research interests in environmental philosophy, in the work of Jürgen Habermas and of the Frankfurt School, and in Marxism, Hegel, and Heidegger. He is the author of Against Nature: The Concept of Nature in Critical Theory, published in 1996 by SUNY Press, and has published articles in Environmental Ethics, Environmental Values, Philosophy Today, Rethinking Marxism, Social Theory and Practice, Tikkun, Dissent, and elsewhere. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx