
Never one to shy away from a good debate, over the years Rupert has locked horns with a number of prominent skeptics and scientists of note.
Arguing Science with Michael Shermer
Now available as a paperback, this debate on the nature of science with professional skeptic Michael Shermer took place on TheBestSchools.org in 2015.
Debate on Genetics
Rupert Sheldrake, Robert Plomin, Anne Bowcock, Bret Weinstein, David Pearce, Güneş Taylor, Jacob Appel, Kári Stefánsson, Matt Ridley, and Natalie Kofler discuss current trends in genetics.
00:00 Introduction
00:38 DNA (Anne Bowcock)
04:46 Nature vs nurture (Robert Plomin, Matt Ridley)
13:44 CRISPR and gene editing (Natalie Kofler, Güneş Taylor, Bret Weinstein)
22:05 Eugenics (David Pearce, Kári Stefánsson, Jacob Appel)
28:36 Sequencing the genome (Rupert Sheldrake)
Can Theories Work Without Evidence? 48:47
Debate with Massimo Pigliucci and CERN physicist Tara Shears
A debate at the 2016 "How The Light Gets In" Festival, at Hay-on-Wye, with Rupert Sheldrake, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and CERN physicist Tara Shears, chaired by Philip Ball.
Does matter exist? 35:26
Debate with Metaphysician John Heil and Philosopher Daniel Stoljar
Rupert debates the existence of matter with American metaphysician John Heil and Australian philosopher of mind Daniel Stoljar, 2015.
Surprise Debate with Daniel Dennett 4:27
This surprise exchange between Daniel Dennett and Rupert Sheldrake at Hay on Wye came at the end of a longer discussion between Rupert, neuroscientist Colin Blakemore and novelist Joanna Kavenna on the machine as metaphor.
Frank Visser's Critique of Morphic Resonance
In 2013, Frank Visser published a critical article on his website Integral World about Rupert's ideas on morphogenetic fields and the "evo-devo" revolution in biology, including a skeptical quote from the developmental biologist Sean B. Carroll, a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. The back and forth here is both deep and revealing.
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Rupert Sheldrake and the Evo-Devo Revolution, by Frank Visser
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Morphogenetic Fields, Reply to Frank Visser
Interview on BBC Radio 4
Rupert describes Morphic Resonance on BBC's Material World, Jan 29, 2009. Bernard Carr, professor of mathematics and astronomy at Queen Mary University of London, responds from a skeptical position.
Professor Lewis Wolpert Debate
The Nature of Life - a Scientific Debate, Cambridge Science Festival, March 20 2009.
The Genome Wager
PDF
After the debate, a wager was made regarding what DNA sequences are capable of describing, which was then announced in New Scientist.
A Debate on Telepathy at the Royal Society of Arts
Further back, in 2004, Rupert and Professor Wolpert held a debate on telepathy which was reported in Nature.
Michael Brooks Debate
A discussion between Rupert and Michael Brooks and Vivienne Parry (chair) at the Institute for Contemporary Arts, London on Jan 27 2009.
Professor Chris French Debate
Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Nov 29, 2006. Chaired by Professor Simon Blackburn.
Peter Atkins Debate
BA Festival of Science, UEA Norwich Sept 2-9th 2006: Rupert's paper on Telephone Telepathy was widely reported in the media and gave rise to a major controversy. Full details, including press comments, audio interviews and discussions, and articles are here... BA Science Festival 2006
The European Skeptics Congress 2005
Rupert was invited to speak at the 12th European Skeptics Congress in Brussels in October 2005 where there was a debate on telepathy with Dr. Jan Willem Nienhuys of the Dutch skeptic organisation.
Sheldrake and his Critics: The sense of being glared at
A special edition of the Journal of Consciousness Studies
In this special edition of JCS (Vol 12 No. 6, 2005) Rupert summarises his case for the 'non-visual detection of staring'. His claims are scrutinised by fourteen critics, to whom Rupert then responds: The Sense of being Stared At Special JCS edition
A Glorious Accident - the PBS Series
In this 1993 documentary on PBS, Journalist Wim Kayzer interviewed Oliver Sacks, Daniel C. Dennett, Stephen Jay Gould, Rupert Sheldrake, Freeman Dyson, and Stephen Toulmin individually before bringing them together for a roundtable discussion to consider a variety of broad questions. A companion book to the PBS series was a best seller.