love & philosophy

Send a love message

 Janet Levin on Physicalism, Zombies, and Changing Minds

 Andrea hosts philosopher Janet Levin, newly retired after 40 years at USC and the department’s first tenure-track woman hire, to discuss a life in analytic philosophy and debates about mind and consciousness. Levin recounts stumbling into philosophy at the University of Chicago with Ted Cohen and later studying at MIT amid figures like Jerry Fodor, Noam Chomsky, and advisor Ned Block, and writing the Stanford Encyclopedia entry on functionalism. They contrast dualism and physicalism, explain metaphysics as inquiry into what exists and what is possible, and examine thought experiments such as Descartes’ arguments, Jackson’s knowledge argument, and Chalmers’ zombie case. Levin holds that our feelings and experiences are nothing over and above physical processes in the body, primarily the brain and central nervous system. The conversation closes on teaching, women in philosophy, and how openness, identity, and social forces affect willingness to change one’s mind and pursue truth.

The Road Taken APA Talk

Janet Levin

Time Stamps:
00:00 Big Questions on Mind Change
01:47 Consciousness and Zombies
02:11 Welcome and Season Setup
03:22 Meet Janet Levin
07:31 Stumbling Into Philosophy
08:25 Why Minds Change Slowly
11:10 Synthetic Hippocampus and Extended Mind
12:57 Chicago Origins With Ted Cohen
18:02 MIT Era and Cognitive Revolution
22:01 From Behaviorism to Functionalism
26:17 Defining Physicalism and Supervenience
29:23 What Is the Mind Really
34:46 Cognitive Phenomenology Debate
37:31 What Metaphysics Studies
40:02 Classic Metaphysics Puzzles
43:15 Free Will and Determinism
46:34 Descartes and the Self
51:41 Conceivability and Zombie Arguments
58:40 Dualism’s Causation Problem
01:11:40 Type B Physicalism and Phenomenal Concepts
01:22:46 Water Lightning Mind
01:24:15 Identity Theory Pushback
01:27:51 Physicalism Explained Broadly
01:30:05 Phenomenal Concepts Introspection
01:32:17 Introspection As Skill
01:34:44 Defending Armchair Philosophy
01:37:22 Armchair Near Window
01:39:10 How Minds Change
01:43:55 Bias Identity And Windows
01:45:35 Women In Philosophy Shifts
01:50:28 Grad Training Mentorship
01:54:43 Teaching Confidence Bloomers
01:57:42 Love Retirement Future Questions
02:02:12 Host Outro Waymaking

Giving Page

Longer Show Notes and PDF of APA talk

Janet Levin is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, where she was a longtime faculty member in the School of Philosophy. Her research focuses on epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from MIT and her B.A. from the University of Chicago. 

Much of her work engages with one of the hardest problems in philosophy: how to account for the subjective, felt quality of conscious experience within a broadly physicalist framework. She has also written the entry on functionalism for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — the view that what makes something a mental state depends not on its physical makeup, but on the functional role it plays in a larger system. Levin holds that our feelings and experiences are nothing over and above physical processes in the body, primarily the brain and central nervous system.

In her 2022 book The Metaphysics of Mind, published by Cambridge University Press, Levin surveys the major contemporary theories of mind — including dualism, type-identity theory, role functionalism, Russellian monism, and eliminativism — assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each.

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

Love and Philosophy Beyond Dichotomy: Way Making, Care, and a New Season

Andrea Hiott introduces Love and Philosophy Beyond Dichotomy and reflects on how a late-2023 research project became a podcast shaped by the guiding question of “way making”: how we find our way and how our way makes us. Drawing from philosophy, neuroscience, urban planning, ecology, biology, and navigability heuristics, she reframes life’s most crucial action as care, challenging fixed separations like ontology, epistemology, and axiology and emphasizing “constellation” or kaleidoscopic thinking over either/or dichotomies. She previews more rigorous work addressing questions about consciousness, representation, agency, self, mind, and technology through the lens of care, and mentions an upcoming book, Holding Paradox. A new season begins tomorrow March 17 with philosopher Janet Levine, releasing monthly episodes on the 17th, with show notes summarizing key ideas from the past two years.

Give here: https://loveandphilosophy.com/giving-page

Here is a link to the free Love & Philosophy Field Guide which comes to your email: https://making-ways.kit.com/01025445f6

or

find it here: https://lovephilosophy.substack.com/p/focusing-on-care-field-notes-and

00:00 Welcome and Project Update
00:27 Waymaking as Core Question
01:03 Care as Life’s Foundation
03:48 Beyond Either Or Thinking
04:49 Books and Rigorous Philosophy Ahead
06:38 New Season Schedule and Thanks
07:15 Support the Work
07:43 The Hard Parts and Staying in Care
08:31 Show Notes Summary and Closing Good Wishes

Field Notes at https://making-ways.kit.com/01025445f6

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

From the archive.

Giving Page

Andrea introduces an archive episode of Love and Philosophy featuring Perry Zurn, provost and associate professor of philosophy at American University about the book Curious Minds, coauthored with Dani Bassett. The intro previews an upcoming season launch with Janet Levin. 

In the following conversation, Perry links curiosity to desire and love, arguing love can guide curiosity away from appropriative or objectifying inquiry. Zurn reframes curiosity not as an individual desire to fill information gaps but as a social practice and a “capacity to connect,” drawing on network science, complexity, and ecological aesthetics through the idea of “edge work.” Andrea and Perry discuss diverse styles of curiosity (busy body, hunter, dancer), curiosity’s role in shifting knowledge networks and methods, interdisciplinary resistance, and how breaking “edges” or “cracks” can be both destructive and creative, relating curiosity to hope and to more-than-human ecologies. Perry also describes the book’s artwork by Poonam Mistry and the dedication to children who ask whether things must be this way.

Perry Zurn's website

Curious Minds: Buy the book

00:00 Archive Season Preview
00:56 Why Curiosity Matters
03:19 Support And Welcome
03:53 Love And Curiosity
06:28 Origins Of Curious Minds
08:51 Curiosity As Practice
11:24 Edge Work Explained
15:18 Pioneering And Ethics
17:39 Complexity And The Brain
21:27 Styles Of Curiosity
26:08 Curiosity Across Divides
30:12 Walking As Knowing
32:31 Methods As Paths
36:34 Why New Paths Threaten
39:38 Dead Ends And Branching
40:33 Connectional Curiosity
42:48 More Than Human Curiosity
47:29 Cracks Hope And Destruction
51:35 Daring To Disturb
53:47 Art And Dedication
56:45 Closing Reflections

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

 From the archive. First aired in Jan of 2025. A conversation about Hegel. Andrea talks with Karen Ng, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. The discussion delves into Hegel's ideas on contradiction, self-consciousness, life, and love, revealing how these notions are intricately intertwined in his work. Karen Ng brings forward her insights from her award-winning book 'Hegel's Concept of Life,' highlighting the radical nature of Hegel's thought and its relevance in modern contexts. Together, they explore deeply challenging philosophical concepts, making connections to contemporary issues in philosophy, environmental science, and cognitive theory. Join us as we navigate through Hegel’s complex ideas and uncover their enduring significance.

00:00 Hegel's Contradictory Philosophy
00:47 The Machine Model vs. Organic Unity
02:55 Introduction to Karen Ng and Her Work
06:40 Karen Ng's Journey with Hegel
16:17 Kant's Influence and the Copernican Turn
24:57 The Concept of Life and Internal Purposiveness
39:55 Exploring the Conditions for Intelligibility
40:27 Hegel's Radical Thought on Life and Meaning
41:44 Primitive and Sophisticated Sense-Making
42:09 Self-Conscious Forms of Life
42:37 Hegel's Connection Between Life and Meaning
43:56 The Speculative Identity Thesis
44:41 The Shock of Hegel's Absolute Idea
45:53 Thinking and Corporeality
47:51 The Radical Nature of Self-Conscious Life
48:52 Challenging Cartesian Dualism
49:38 Kant's Dualism and Moral Philosophy
50:37 The Speculative Identity Thesis and Cognition
52:42 The Radical Connection Between Life and Cognition
53:05 Contemporary Philosophers on Life and Mind
53:32 Hegel's Influence on Modern Thought
01:06:06 The Importance of Teaching Philosophy
01:07:46 Hegel's Thoughts on Love and Life
01:09:12 The Concept of Free Love
01:10:03 The Role of Love in Hegelian Philosophy
01:13:26 Concluding Thoughts on Hegel and Love

Andrea Hiott is a philosopher and cognitive scientist developing the navigational approach to mind — the view that mind is “the body’s navigational action in all spaces of life, from the geographical to the emotional to the social to the virtual.” She hosts the Love & Philosophy (Beyond Dichotomy) podcast and Substack, and her work draws on hippocampal research, 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, extended, enactive), and the ecological tradition. Her book Holding Paradox: A Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness is forthcoming. Her recurring interests — holding apparent contradictions open, “way-making,” the importance of care and 'mattering', constellation/kaleidoscopic thinking, and moving beyond either/or — frame her questions throughout.

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

 Love, Science, and the Dynamics of Change: From the Archive

This is a replay of an earlier conversation with Richard Watson (which was already an unpublished conversation we'd had earlier, so there's lots of nesting here). Initially focusing on Universal Darwinism and its limitations, the discussion evolves into a broader examination of alternative mechanisms like learning and mutual transformative change. Andrea and Richard delve into nuanced definitions of individuality and agency, challenging the reductionist view in favor of a more integrative approach. They explore the intersection of science and subjectivity, positing that love, characterized as 'deeply vulnerable mutual knowing,' plays a critical role in understanding relationships and evolutionary processes. This thought-provoking dialogue highlights the dynamic interplay of biological systems and the potential for a more compassionate and creative understanding of life's complexity.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:27 Andrea's Reflections and Richard Watson's Work
00:56 Defining Individual and Body
01:14 Evolutionary Units and Mutual Transformative Change
01:41 Academic Ideas on Evolution and Cognition
03:27 Richard Watson's Background and Research
05:22 Natural Selection and Adaptation
12:02 Learning Processes vs. Natural Selection
21:08 Cooperation and Competition in Biology
28:53 Individuality and Agency in Living Systems
39:20 Bioelectricity and Gene Expression
40:51 The Bidirectional Relationship of Cells and Genes
41:34 The Limits of Natural Selection
42:55 Love as a Scientific Concept
47:06 Evolutionary Algorithms and Their Shortcomings
50:00 The Evolution of Cooperation and Individuality
54:09 The Role of Love in Evolution
59:25 The Dance of Relationships and Resonance
01:07:33 The Creative Process of Evolution
01:18:01 The Balance of Love and Fear

Richard Watson

What's Love Got To Do with It

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

Trust, Agency, and the Art of Games with C. Thi Nguyen

Revisting a conversation from late 2023 with philosopher C Thi Nguyen. The discussion delves into the philosophical aspects of games, how they shape our agency, and the profound impact they have on our cognition and perception of reality. Thi explores the intersection of love, trust, and philosophical inquiry, highlighting the intricate ways games influence our societal interactions and personal experiences. The episode also touches on how games can be a lens for understanding broader human behaviors and the nature of agency itself. Join us as we navigate these complex ideas and reflect on the role of games in our lives.

00:00 Introduction to Love and Philosophy
00:54 Navigational Mind and Upcoming Conversations
01:36 Revisiting the Conversation with C Thi Nguyen
01:49 Games and Sculpted Agency
03:03 Trust and Agency in Games
07:39 Philosophy, Writing, and Personal Journey
21:16 Games as Art and Medium of Agency
30:57 Art, Porn, and Sentimental Art
36:08 The Role of Games and Art in Emotional Release
36:29 Aesthetic Approaches and Viewer Attitudes
37:10 Games as Tools for Different Experiences
38:02 Personal Reflections on Sports and Dance
39:46 Agency and Game Design
41:10 The Power and Danger of Games
45:06 Virtual Reality and Games
46:58 The Concept of Play vs. Games
56:08 Games and Trust
59:09 The Impact of Games on Perception and Behavior
01:04:04 Final Thoughts and Reflections
01:05:17 Support and Farewell

Trust and Anti-trust

Games, Agency as Art

The Score

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

AI, Suffering, Remedy and Love as the voluntary suspension of habitual responses into awareness: This episode is with philosopher and cognitive scientist Thomas Metzinger, a Professor Emeritus at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and a member of the German National Academy Leopoldina. He has worked mainly in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and applied ethics, particularly focusing on neurotechnology, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. The conversation explores a wide range of topics including the critical intersection of philosophy, neuroscience, meditation, and artificial intelligence. Metzinger shares his skepticism about separating deep philosophical inquiries from meditation and psychedelics, and the dialogue touches upon the impact of AI on human cognition, the concept of suffering in both humans and machines, and the responsibility of philosophers in an age of epistemic crisis. The discussion underscores the need for a balanced and multifaceted approach to understanding consciousness and suggests that new paradigms may emerge from current technological and philosophical shifts. This episode aims to foster an expansive and hopeful outlook as we move into the new year. The idea of pure consciousness as used in phenomenology via Husserl is to be discussed later.

00:00 Introduction to Fundamental Issues and Meditation
00:44 Epistemic Crisis and AI Concerns
01:15 Buddhism and Suffering
02:09 Philosophical Insights on Suffering and Awareness
04:47 Welcome to Love and Philosophy
05:43 Introducing Thomas Metzinger
07:43 Thomas Metzinger's Contributions to Philosophy and AI
09:53 Exploring Minimal Phenomenal Experience (MPE)
13:49 Narrative and Pure Awareness
22:09 Philosophical and Scientific Exploration of Consciousness
29:30 Thomas Metzinger's Personal Journey in Philosophy
56:11 Criticism and Meditation
56:55 Epistemic Authority and Consciousness
59:27 Embodiment in AI and Philosophy
01:01:52 Challenges in Academia
01:05:31 AI, Critical Thinking, and Future Concerns
01:15:29 The Nature of Suffering
01:22:50 Compassion and Love
01:44:12 Closing Thoughts and Reflections
01:44:30 A Poetic Farewell

Thomas Metzinger

phenomenology of 'pure' consciousness

Link to Elephant and the Blind full book

New book Bewusstseinkultur

MPE discussion mentioned in Intro

MPE project

Philosophy Babble conversations

Beyond Nondual

Thomas Metzinger (*1958 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany) was Full Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz until 2019. He is past president of the German Cognitive Science Society (2005-2007) and of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (2009-2011). As of 2011, he is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, a co-founder of the German Effective Altruism Foundation...

Andrea Hiott is a philosopher and cognitive scientist developing the navigational approach to mind — the view that mind is “the body’s navigational action in all spaces of life, from the geographical to the emotional to the social to the virtual.” She hosts the Love & Philosophy (Beyond Dichotomy) podcast and Substack, and her work draws on hippocampal research, 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, extended, enactive), and the ecological tradition. Her book Holding Paradox: A Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness is forthcoming. Her recurring interests — holding apparent contradictions open, “way-making,” the importance of care and 'mattering', constellation/kaleidoscopic thinking, and moving beyond either/or — frame her questions throughout. 

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

 with philosopher Esther Lightcap Meek, Professor of Philosophy emerita at Geneva College, in Western Pennsylvania

exploring from-to fractals, Michael Polanyi, Meek's Indeterminate Future Manifestations, the difference between information and knowledge, epistemological therapy... and all with some laughter and good cheer

Happy holidays! These conversations are part of research: to skip the research ramble, go to 26:30. This episode explores the intricate relationships between knowledge, information, reality, and love with guest Esther Lightcap Meek. Building on the ideas of Michael Polanyi, Esther and Andrea delve into the concept of ‘subsidiary focal integration’ and its implications for how we understand reality. The conversation addresses the limitations of viewing knowledge merely as information, the importance of bodily cognition, and how love and communion with the real are fundamental to genuine knowing. It shows how philosophy can be understood as therapeutic, a dynamic process that connects us deeply with ourselves, each other, and the world.

00:00 Introduction to the Concept of Reality and Information

01:46 The Role of Subsidiary Focal Integration

03:36 Exploring Covenant Epistemology

04:54 Understanding Bodily Cognition

06:44 Introducing Esther Lightcap Meek

08:50 The Journey of a Philosopher

10:46 The Importance of Subsidiary Focal Integration

13:02 Practical Applications and Everyday Philosophy

16:40 The Role of Philosophy in Real Life

26:31 A Conversation with Esther Lightcap Meek

49:34 Integrative Knowledge and Liberation

50:25 Epistemological Therapy and Embodied Cognition

52:37 The Role of Subsidiary Focal Integration

54:58 Daisy of Dichotomies and Modernity

57:54 The Interpersonal Nature of Knowledge

01:11:20 Covenant Epistemology in Education

01:18:35 AI, Tools, and the Real

01:29:14 The Role of Love in Knowing 

Tacit Knowledge

Michael Polanyi

Support us if you can.

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

Maybe memory is a way we communicate with ourselves and the world at various layers, a bridging experience of what we call time and space.

In this episode, Andrea Hiott and Lynn Nadel continue their ongoing talks about memory. This time they explore the intricate workings of the hippocampus, focusing on its role in bridging spatial and temporal gaps. They delve into how memory, navigation, and cognitive maps are interconnected, challenging traditional views and opening up discussions on the dynamic nature of memory. 

Lynn shares insights from this paper, discusses how past research has evolved, touching upon philosophical perspectives from Kant and modern neuroscience findings. The conversation also briefly touches on the broader implications, including how understanding the hippocampus might extend to broader cognitive functions and societal interactions. There’s an in-depth ‘research ramble’ from Andrea at the beginning for those interested in the wider themes of this whole project, but you can also skip past that and go to the main conversation if you wish.

The main paper discussed here is The Hippocampal Formation and Action at a Distance

Previous conversations with Lynn and Andrea

Support the show

The Hippocampal Formation and Action at a Distance

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Give

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message

 Hey everybody. This podcast is about seemingly impossible combinations and this one is the doozy of love and power. It’s about the politics of care. Or love in politics. Can you hold those words at once? Can we? We might be surprised by ourselves.

This episode, hosted by philosopher and cognitive scientist Andrea Hiott, delves into the intersection of love and power in political and personal realms. Guest Jamie Bristow, with his extensive experience in the British Parliament and the UN, explores how mindfulness, consciousness, and inner transformation can reshape politics and society. Through discussing concepts like Eros, resilience, and ontological meta modernism, the conversation examines how personal and societal change can be navigated, holding love and power together to create meaningful transformation. The episode also touches on Jamie's journey from a corporate advertising executive to a 'legitimizing agent' for contemplative practices in politics, highlighting the role of faith, trust, and the evolving nature of consciousness.

Jamie is a policy advisor working at the intersection of inner & outer transformation, resilience and sustainability

Find Jamie and his work here

*Also the episode with Fotis and Johannes that also touches on themes of metamodernism

00:00 The Sacred Nature of Power
02:05 Introduction to Love and Philosophy
02:25 Exploring Love and Power in Politics
03:14 Jamie Bristow's Journey
08:41 Mindfulness in Parliament
18:38 The Intersection of Inner and Outer Worlds
31:51 The Role of Love and Power in Society
43:45 Exploring the Concept of Eros
44:23 The Broader Implications of Eros
46:33 Love as a Cosmic Force
47:43 Resilience and the Role of Love
52:51 Trust and Faith in Personal Growth
55:43 The Politics of Love
01:14:06 Navigating Modernity and Postmodernity
01:19:18 The Middle Way and Superposition
01:27:50 Closing Reflections on Love and Philosophy

The System Within: addressing the inner dimensions of sustainability and systems transformation
Mindfulness in Westminster: Reflections from UK Politicians
Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out
The Conscious Food Systems Alliance (UNDP) 
Power & Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change by Adam Kahane
Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice - Martha Nussbaum

join the newsletter to support us ♥️

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Support the show

Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott

Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.

Please rate and review with love.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.