Do logic and rationality have limits? Are there ways to "get outside" of rational thinking? Do altered states caused by psychedelics provide true insight about the world, or are they illusory?

These are the questions I discuss with Dr. Bernardo Kastrup, who shares some of his personal experiments and insights gained psychedelic drugs.

Is everything ultimately mental? Do we need a theory of a physical world at all? Dr. Bernardo Kastrup joins me again to talk about idealism.

This time, we go into great detail, both put our ideas to the test, and the result was one of my favorite interviews ever. I end up asking Bernardo some of the most difficult questions in philosophy. 

Finally, after investigating for more than 20 years, I have a concept of God I can rationally grasp. The idea is one of the oldest in existence, and it turns baroque theological claims into true and important insights.

Dualism is an attractive philosophy with an Achilles' heel. Dualists since Descartes have never given a good answer to the problem of interaction.

Finally, I think I've got one. I have a working resolution to the problem of interaction that I call a theory of indirect interaction, which allows effective interaction between objects in different ontological categories.

Original article here: http://steve-patterson.com/mind-body-dualism-solving-problem-interaction/

Lots of confusion is caused by the nature of language.

This is a narration of the article "There Are No Objective Definitions", which you can read here: http://steve-patterson.com/there-are-no-objective-definitions/

Dr. Doron Zeilberger is the Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University. He's also a math heretic who thoroughly rejects the orthodox conceptions of infinity in modern mathematics. So we got along quite well.

We had a fantastic conversation covering a wide range of topics, including set theory, calculus and limits, pi, irrational numbers like the square root of two, real analysis, and Godel's Incompleteness Theorems.

If you're interested in the philosophy of mathematics, this is a must-listen.

The most requested interview breakdown ever - my conversation with Thaddeus Russell about the postmodern theory of truth. Fun episode!

Can we know that experience is happening?

If somebody denies that they know, is it possible to convince them?

Christopher Langan is an independent intellectual known for having the highest IQ in America - somewhere around 200, which is six standard deviations above the norm.

His story is fascinating. Chris is not working within the academy. Instead, he's splitting his time between ranching and philosophizing.

We spoke about a wide range of topics, including the problems of modern academia, the concept of IQ, and his attempt at a Theory of Everything entitled "The Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" - or the "CTMU".

You can find more information about the CTMU at:

http://hology.org/

You can also find Chris's work and support him on Patreon at:

https://www.patreon.com/CTMU

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? If you've been in the Bitcoin world for a while, you know that's the last question you should try to answer.

However, I've recently come across a story that I find quite plausible, written by Phil Wilson (aka Scronty). Phil documents the thinking-process behind the Bitcoin invention, in addition to providing many historical details around the creation of Bitcoin.

His story also explains the perplexing existence of Craig Wright. It's the only narrative that implies Craig is both a) Part of the Satoshi team, and b) largely fraudulent, at the same time. It explains how Craig was able to convince notable people like Gavin Andreson of being Satoshi, while also explaining his extremely poor writing and communication skills.

It also fits the facts of Satoshi's extremely careful Op Sec - though not in the way you might think.

The story isn't perfect - and Phil admits as much - but taken together, his story is the best I've heard, and worthy of 7 hours of interviewing.

My conversation with Dr. Walter Block about abortion and natural rights, which is one of the trickiest issues in any political philosophy, libertarianism included. He's the creator of a theory called "evictionism," which tries to take a middle ground between pro-life and pro-choice positions.

In my analysis, it's a reasonable compromise. I cannot think of any principled objections from the pro-choice side, and though a pro-lifer might have objections, the core of Block's argument is pro-life at heart and in the long run could result in the universal protection of pre-birth humans.