Dawkins & Tyson：自然科学的诗意美境

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He is currently the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. From 2006 to 2011 he hosted the educational science television show NOVA ScienceNow on PBS.

Richard Dawkins (FRS, FRSL) is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.

Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme. In 1982, he introduced into evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms; this concept is presented in his book The Extended Phenotype.

Dawkins is an atheist, a vice president of the British Humanist Association, and a supporter of the Brights movement. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, he argues against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he describes evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion—"a fixed false belief". As of January 2010, the English-language version had sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages.

点击右下边框里第一个雪花键，可以选择高清模式。

特别推荐1:02:48-1:06:00这一段有关哲学已死的提问与回答：
http://youtu.be/UD2f33UE4tg?t=1h2m48s

古风个人的经验是：现实生活中许多受过高等教育的人士，特别是文科类的和从事第三产业的，都犯有情绪泛滥而理智不足的毛病，他们面对客观的事实，都能够“指鹿为马”，死抱着自己意识形态上的观念不放，即可悲也可怜。这个事实本身就说明：现代的文科教育基本上都是垃圾，根本没有好好培养学生的逻辑思维能力，即使仅有的一点点逻辑训练，也产生不出严谨细密的逻辑思考力量来。难怪，现代科学的巨匠，史蒂芬·霍金在其最新的科普著作《The Grand Design》中很肯定地宣称：至二十世纪二十年代以来，哲学已死！那么，建立在哲学基础之上的所有这些文科专业（还包括各类宗教），还能苟活吗？回溯刚刚离去的二十世纪，我们不得不承认一个事实：自然科学已经远行，而人文科学还在迷茫。正所谓：两岸猿声啼不住，轻舟已过万重山。

若您有兴趣继续科普性地深入了解自然科学，下面的八本书是必读的：

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics
by Roger Penrose (1989)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperors-New-Mind-Concerning/dp/0192861980

The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
by Roger Penrose (2005)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Reality-Complete-Universe/dp/0679776311

Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness
by Roger Penrose (1994)
http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Mind-Missing-Science-Consciousness/dp/0195106466

The God Delusion (2006)
by Richard Dawkins
http://www.amazon.com/The-God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0618918248

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (2009)
by Richard Dawkins
http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-Evolution/dp/1416594795

The Selfish Gene (1976)
by Richard Dawkins
http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary----Introduction/dp/0199291152

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2006)
by Daniel C. Dennett
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spell-Religion-Natural-Phenomenon/dp/0143038338

Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanins of Life (1995)
by Daniel C. Dennett
http://www.amazon.com/DARWINS-DANGEROUS-IDEA-EVOLUTION-MEANINGS/dp/068482471X