MeaningofLife.tv

Explaining “compatibilism,” the view that there’s no conflict between free will and determinism ... Without free will, what happens to moral responsibility? ... Eddy tells Bob he errs in saying determinism means events are "inevitable" ... Free will is hard to imagine, but not nonsensical ... Why most philosophers today are compatibilists ... Bob: Compatibilists are just playing word games ... Were prisoners destined from birth to wind up in prison? ... Waiting for the "Einstein of consciousness" ...

Rebecca's path from the Ivy League to an animal shelter ... The science of animal training ... The many reasons why you shouldn't try to be your dog's "alpha" ... What we know about animal personality ... What goes on inside an animal shelter? ... Is there such a thing as a "bad dog"? ... What's actually happening when your pet looks ashamed ... Aryeh and Rebecca debate whether their dog loves them ...

Tanya’s “local theory of mind” ... Harry Potter, prayer, and other “cultural invitations” ... Psychotherapy in the US and witchcraft in Ghana ... American individualism and Asian interdependence ... The differences between hearing God in Ghana and the US ... The Internet as externalized imagination: Pepe and Kek ... A “hyper-real God”: having coffee with Jesus ... Thoughts, perceptions, the world, and the self ...

Rebecca’s childhood: poor, religious, and patriarchal ... How Bertrand Russell helped Rebecca lose her faith ... The problem of beauty ... When Rebecca shared a transcendent moment with a troop of baboons ... From physics to philosophy ... From philosophy to fiction ... Does art better address the mind-body problem than philosophy does? ... Reasons to feel optimistic about the world ...

Daniel's book, How Soon Is Now? ... An example of a modern myth: the GDP ... Can society be reborn into new myths? ... Daniel: We need to devote most of our efforts to sustaining the health of the planet ... Why Daniel calls his beliefs "post-New Age" ... What is "neo-Shamanism"? ...

What role should guns play in a liberal society? ... What American deference to police says about authority and force ... Why we leave justice in the government’s hands ... Defining modern conservatism: Is Matt Lewis a “liberal”? ... Do pro-gun arguments consider the social contract? ... David: Do open-carriers want to live in a Mad Max movie? ... Dan: Grover Norquist’s model citizen isn’t a citizen at all ...

How Brandy came to write an advice column called "Ask a F*ck-Up" ... Young people's problems: depression, alienation, loneliness ... Brandy's central theme: the responsibilities we bear to each other ... Can "bad men" change? ... The different questions men and women ask ... Brandy: A "sex strike" would never work ... In defense of being in your own Twitter bubble ... Why are there so many depressed people on Twitter? ...

Owen's transition from Catholicism to "quiet skepticism" ... The problem of evil ... The hubris of modern philosophers ... Can we live with the scientific image of man? ... The origin of the universe, life, and consciousness ... Owen: Doubt yourself ... Does philosophy lead to practical wisdom? ... Mind-altering chemicals and free will ...

The research on memory that won Eric the Nobel Prize ... The difference between normal memory loss and Alzheimer's ... Eric's new book, The Disordered Mind ... Eric's breakthrough study of marine snails with giant nerve cells ... What it's like to win the Nobel Prize ... Eric's childhood escape from Nazi-ruled Vienna to America ... Why Vienna was a center of intellectual ferment in the early 20th century ...

Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard's most compelling story ... Hubbard as a writer ... Hubbard’s mystical experience during a dental surgery ... “Study tech”: Scientology’s obsession with dictionaries ... Bullbaiting, or pushing one’s buttons ... How Scientology teaches followers to identify enemies ... The Matrix scenario ...