The Augustine-Braude Bigelow Survival Debate: A Postmortem and Prospects for Future Directions (in press)

We are excited to announce that Dr. Michael Sudduth―noted philosopher and expert on theories of evidence and the justification of belief (including general and legal epistemology)―spent more than a year preparing an extensive analysis that will soon appear in JSE’s 2024 fall issue. He meticulously studied the published exchange between skeptic Keith Augustine and sympathetic researchers Stephen Braude, Imants Barušs, Arnaud Delorme, Dean Radin, and Helané Wahbeh on the merits and meanings of the evidence presented by winning entries in the 2021 BICS essay contest on the survival hypothesis (see: JSE’s 2022 fall issue).

Sudduth's aim was not to declare a winner to that spirited debate but instead to assess candidly the strengths and weaknesses of the respective arguments in order to extract key learnings and propose recommendations to advance future research in this domain. This was no small feat, so readers can expect a massive (but still a usefully integrative) summary of many foundational issues of evidence and inference with which new students and seasoned researchers alike are encouraged to familiarize themselves. In fact, we think his report will make ideal reading for serious-minded book clubs or discussion groups in parapsychology and consciousness studies.