The Known and the Unknown

For much of human history people have held firm - if mistaken - beliefs about the nature of the world and the right course of action. But now a steep decline in religious belief, compounded by doubts about the very possibility of objective truth, has left many in the West profoundly lost. Should we welcome this new uncertainty and revel in the absence of a constricting set of agreed beliefs? Are we only now recognising the limitations of the human condition, which our hubris once obscured or denied? Or must we escape from being lost - even if it means adopting illusory certainties - in order to provide social identity, personal well being and purpose?

Renowned philosopher and ethicist Simon Blackburn, psychoanalyst and sociologist Renata Salecl, and author of Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness Philip Goff try to find their way through the fog of uncertainty.