The world is bidding farewell to Tom Stoppard, one of the greatest playwrights of our age, who passed away at the age of 88. His obituary in the New York Times notes that he "entwined erudition with imagination, verbal pyrotechnics with arch cleverness, and philosophical probing with heartache and lust in stage works that won accolades and awards on both sides of the Atlantic, earning comparisons to Shakespeare and Shaw."
I was lucky to interact with Tom over a period of several months in 2015. His new play The Hard Problem drew upon my work on altruism with the philosopher Elliott Sober. My new book titled Does Altruism Exist? was being published by Yale University Press. A conversation was therefore arranged that took place in London, with excerpts published in The Guardian. While there, I attended a performance of The Hard Problem and had dinner with Tom and his wife Sabrina.
The 90-minute conversation was among the most stimulating and challenging that I have ever had. The Guardian article was just the tip of an iceberg, so I published a full transcript on This View of Life, the only place that it is available. I also wrote a reflection titled Tom Stoppard's Hard Problems. Both are as relevant today as when they were written.
For me, Tom's greatest talent was his ability to make the hard problems of philosophy and science come alive for everyone, not just highly trained experts. The need for this kind of talent has never been greater. I therefore encourage artists and storytellers of all stripes to follow Tom's example and offer the virtual pages of This View of Life as a stage for their productions.
