Increments

#47 (Bonus) - Dualism, Reductionism, and Explanation Pancakes

Listen Later

Second holiday season bonus episode! Vaden joins Chesto on The Declaration podcast to talk about monism, dualism, the reality of abstractions, emergence, and reductionism. This convo was recorded in 2019, but much of the content is evergreen and we think it still makes for interestin' listenin'. Except the sound quality, which leaves much to be desired. Thanks Blue Yeti.

We discuss:

  • The mind-body problem
  • Why Vaden is a filthy pluralist and Chesto is a sober, sane, rational materialist
  • Reductonism vs dualism vs pluralism
  • The reality of abstractions
  • Why explanations are central to science
  • Would you get into a Star Trek transporter?
  • And, a little bit out of left field, some advice for talking about mental health

    • References:

    • Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
    • Beginning of Infinity
    • Chesto's instagram for your eyes and soundcloud for your ears.

      • Errata:

      • In the Domino example from BOI the prime number was 641, not whatever number Vaden said
      • The Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, not 1972

        • Contact us

        • Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani
        • Check us out on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ
        • Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link

          • Are emails real? Tell us at [email protected].

          Photo credit: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/11/07/optimization-dominoes-and-frankenstein/

          Support Increments

          ...more
          View all episodesView all episodes
          Download on the App Store
          IncrementsBy Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani
          • 5
          • 5
          • 5
          • 5
          • 5

          5

          19 ratings

          More shows like Increments

          View all
          Dan Carlin's Hardcore History by Dan Carlin

          Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

          64,086 Listeners

          Very Bad Wizards by Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

          Very Bad Wizards

          2,677 Listeners

          Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

          Making Sense with Sam Harris

          26,384 Listeners

          Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

          Conversations with Tyler

          2,469 Listeners

          Philosophy For Our Times by IAI

          Philosophy For Our Times

          321 Listeners

          Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas by Sean Carroll

          Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

          4,176 Listeners

          ToKCast by Brett Hall

          ToKCast

          94 Listeners

          The Theory of Anything by Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen

          The Theory of Anything

          29 Listeners

          Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

          Dwarkesh Podcast

          548 Listeners

          Hard Fork by The New York Times

          Hard Fork

          5,547 Listeners