Rational Realm

In this session, Buddhism expert and PhD candidate, Corey Jackson, explores the intersections between Buddhist practice and the science of mental health. What can 2,500 years of striving for Buddhist enlightenment tell us about mental health in the 21st century? Is there a place for science in the path to enlightenment and a place for Buddhist views in the scientific attempt to understand the mind? Corey enlightens us on why Buddhists still get angry, why psychology can't cure anxiety or depression, and how to strive for long term mental health while still reaping short-term rewards.

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

Effective Altruism (EA) is a new movement around the not so new idea of combining evidence and reasons with charity and altruism. It focuses on using our limited time and resources to do as much good as we can. In this episode, Michael Dello-Iacovo introduces some of the key concepts of Effective Altruism and discusses some examples and the underlying philosophy. He also considers some of the common objections to aspects of Effective Altruism.

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

In this series of sessions, professional counsellor, Caroline Winzenried, delves deeper into various aspects of religious trauma. Religion has very clear-cut explanations for our purpose on earth and for what happens when we die. When you leave a religion, you are suddenly unmoored from those meaning-making frameworks and are given the tremendous task of finding these answers for yourself. Many people feel lost and alone in this search for meaning. In this session, Caroline explores the challenges that religious trauma can pose in making sense of the world.

Bio: Caroline Winzenried is a counsellor in Boronia, Victoria, Australia. She works from an existential-humanistic lens with individuals across the lifespan, from adolescent to older adults, on issues including anxiety, depression and interpersonal relationships. Her areas of special interest include working with religious trauma and grief and loss.

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

In this series of podcasts, professional counsellor, Caroline Winzenried, delves deeper into various aspects of religious trauma. In this session, she explores the concept of "sin" as it is ever-present in many faiths. The emphasis placed on sin and the dire nature of its consequences can plant a pervasive, nagging or overwhelming fear that often follows people long after leaving a religion. Teachings around sin can also cause people to develop a deep-seated sense of shame around the idea that they are inherently "wrong" or "bad." Caroline discusses the traumatic shame and anxiety that can take root from a focus on sin.

Bio: Caroline Winzenried is a counsellor in Boronia, Victoria, Australia. She works from an existential-humanistic lens with individuals across the lifespan, from adolescent to older adults, on issues including anxiety, depression and interpersonal relationships. Her areas of special interest include working with religious trauma and grief and loss.

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

Is artificial superintelligence (ASI) imminent? In this episode, Adam Ford assesses the evidence and ethical importance of artificial intelligence; its opportunities and risks. Drawing on the history of progress in AI and how today it surpasses peak human capability in some domains, he presents forecasts about further progress. Adam also explores the notion of intelligence and what aspects are missing in AI now and how 'understanding' arises in biological intelligence and how it could be realised in AI over the next decade or two. He concludes with takes on ideal AI outcomes and some recommendations for increasing the likelihood of achieving them.

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

Dictionaries often draw a distinction between the modern common meaning of skepticism and its traditional philosophical meaning, which dates from antiquity. The contemporary meaning of 'scientific skepticism' is different again. In this episode, Tim Harding discusses the commonalities and differences between the various meanings. He has a foot in both the scientific and philosophical 'camps'.

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who taught and worked at Cambridge between 1912 and 1947. He is regarded as one of the leading philosophers of the 20th Century, noted for having adopted two very different philosophical stances in his time. Wittgenstein worked primarily in logic and the philosophy of language with an especial focus on language and the world, and secondarily in the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of religion. In this podcast, Mark Newbrook presents a linguist's 'take' on his career and consider questions about language, thought and reality from Wittgenstein's two phases, referred to as W1 and W2. W1 was concerned with the logical relationships between propositions and the world; W2 held that the meaning of words is best understood as their use within a given 'language-game'. Can we really grasp the nature of reality in some kind of objective way as W1 claimed? Or do our linguistic structures determine thought, including our view of the structure of 'reality' and thus we cannot grasp the nature of reality in an objective way as W2 argued?

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

Akiva Quinn presents the case for moral progress and the advance of social justice. He offers reflections on historical and contemporary issues from Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, through Apartheid South Africa and Black Lives Matter, Post-Colonialism, LGBTQI+ and First Nations recognition to ongoing conflict, gender, racial and social inequality. Akiva also draws on examples, films and texts such as Selma (2014), Kenan Malik's "The Quest for a Moral Compass", Michael Shermer's "The Moral Arc", Steven Pinker's "Enlightenment Now" and Malcolm Gladwell's "Talking to Strangers".

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

In this second of a two part session, Usha Sista explores an iconic movie trilogy of our generation, The Matrix. The Matrix juxtaposes and synthesises storytelling, philosophy and cognitive science through the cinematic medium. Usha examines some of the philosophical underpinnings of the trilogy. In this second session, she looks at The Matrix through the lens of contemporary cognitive science and philosophy of mind, such as the brain in the vat argument and simulated reality, free will and freedom.

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

In this first of a two part session, Usha Sista explores an iconic movie trilogy of our generation, The Matrix. The Matrix juxtaposes and synthesises storytelling, philosophy and cognitive science through the cinematic medium. Usha examines some of the philosophical underpinnings of the trilogy. In this first session, she looks at The Matrix through the lens of classical philosophers such as Descartes, Plato, Socrates and others.

Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.