Today we discuss David Chalmers' conceivability argument against physicalism: the zombie argument.

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The core theory, weak and strong emergence, micro-reductionism, and Sean Carroll’s skeptical argument against everything. Is Dr. Carroll correct in holding that physics has ruled out the afterlife, the soul, fundamental consciousness, parapsychology, and other immaterialist claims? 

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Sean Carroll speaking to the Freedom From Religion Foundation https://youtu.be/40eiycH077A?si=xgg4KC0JPYWnH0fU

Philip Goff: Is physics different in the brain? https://www.youtube.com/live/wlyKdirhOa4?si=RRYXSUbW8As7sRLw

Papers: 

Carroll: Consciousness and the Laws of Physics (2021) https://philarchive.org/archive/CARCAT-33

Goff’s response to critics: https://philpapers.org/archive/GOFPCF.pdf

The Quantum Field Theory on Which the Everyday World Supervenes (2021) https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.07884

Relevant blog posts from Carroll: 

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2013/01/04/the-world-of-everyday-experience-in-one-equation/

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2010/09/23/the-laws-underlying-the-physics-of-everyday-life-are-completely-understood/

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2010/09/29/seriously-the-laws-underlying-the-physics-of-everyday-life-really-are-completely-understood/

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2010/10/01/one-last-stab/

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-effective-field-theory-of-everyday-life-revisited/

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2011/05/23/physics-and-the-immortality-of-the-soul/

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2008/02/18/telekinesis-and-quantum-field-theory/

I recently asked for your questions, and I posted my responses on YouTube here. We touch on compatibilism, NDEs, aliens, euthanasia, abortion, death anxiety as an atheist, idealism, incest, Islam, Mormonism, subjectivism, psychophysical harmony, and more. (For those listening via podcast, I left the introduction in to preserve the timestamps for those who want to skip around to different sections.)

00:00 Intro

00:46 Atheistic platonism?

01:22 Why are you gay?

01:30 Are you still a naturalist?

05:47 What kind of compatibilist are you?

09:41 If I settle your debt with PragerU, will you become a libertarian?

10:12 What’s your biggest gripe with physicalism?

12:42 On the abortion debate, when do you think personhood / full moral status begins?

17:22 Do twinks make better philosophers?

17:56 Are you agnostic about anything in philosophy?

19:37 Why are you such a sucker for spooky stuff?

30:49 Who makes those guitar transitions?

32:34 Favorite music?

34:30 Who are some of your favorite Eastern philosophers?

35:03 Which religion would you choose to be true?

40:54 Who are your favorite theist and atheist philosophers?

42:18 Arguing for dualism from mereological nihilism?

45:48 Euthanasia?

48:43 What are your thoughts on each general era of philosophy?

55:00 Thoughts on Jordan Peterson?

58:55 Have you looked into Islam?

1:03:57 Does your mother know you spend so much time talking to strangers on the internet?

1:04:04 What is your opinion on the resurrection?

1:08:23 The best argument against veganism?

1:21:18 What is the primary goal of adopting panpsychism?

1:23:20 Best defenses of objective morality?

1:24:34 How would aliens affect theism and atheism?

1:30:53 Are you a dualist or a physicalist?

1:31:31 Isn’t solipsism simpler than panpsychism?

1:33:37 Thoughts on idealism?

1:35:41 Which political system do you think is right?

1:39:34 Thoughts on metaethical naturalism?

1:41:52 Is incest wrong?

1:45:27 When will you have some Mormons back on your show?

1:46:34 Why atheist and not agnostic? Where can I find good philrel content?

1:49:54 Would necessitarianism defeat fine-tuning and psychophysical harmony?

1:57:38 Do you accept physical causal closure?

2:00:00 How do you explain psychophysical harmony?

2:02:34 Kant’s transcendental idealism and free will?

2:07:56 Are we obligated to refute false beliefs even if they’re meaningful?

2:13:01 Is there any profound nugget of wisdom that Christianity has first or exclusive ownership of?

2:15:17 Analytic/Continental divide?

2:18:05 “Emmerson”

2:19:03 Does the phenomenal powers view weaken psychophysical harmony?

2:22:04 Is time necessary for consciousness?

2:28:49 If you did reconvert, would you be a Christian or a generic theist?

2:32:20 Finite theism?

2:36:22 Top three philosophers who are wrong about everything?

2:37:57 Moral subjectivism with normally functioning humans as the (collective) observer(s) morality is stance-dependent upon?

2:48:52 Are you afraid of death? How do you cope with death anxiety as an atheist?

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Epiphenomenalism is the view that mental states have no effect on anything. The feeling of pain, counterintuitively, does not cause your aversion, mentally or physically. Beliefs don’t cause behavior. None of our actions occur in virtue of our thoughts, feelings, or sensations.

Inspired by Matthew Adelstein’s post defending epiphenomenalism, I want to explain my opposition to the view. A few times, he referenced a podcast episode / blog post of mine from 2020, which I hadn’t read since it was first posted. I found a few things to disagree with in my own episode, so I thought I’d respond to Matthew and try to offer an updated critique of epiphenomenalism in the process. While epiphenomenalism is probably less wrong than physicalism, the causal efficacy of our mental states is as evident as anything, so the view should still be rejected in favor of panpsychism or interactionist dualism. As Paul Draper once put it, “wild ideas are needed” to explain consciousness, but I don’t think epiphenomenalism is the right wild idea.

After responding to a few key points from Matthew, I offer a few reasons to reject epiphenomenalism:

Transcript

YouTube

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Here's my interview on Shannon Q's YouTube channel where we discuss dualism, panpsychism, personal identity, and other topics in the philosophy of mind! 

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Dr. Michael Huemer joins me to defend interactionist substance dualism, the view that the mind and body are composed of different substances and can exert causal influence over each other. 

Knowledge, Reality, and Value: A Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy 

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Wouldn’t aliens manage to avoid crashing their ships, given how advanced they’d have to be? Aren’t the distances between life-supporting planets too vast to feasibly travel? If figures in the government actually knew something, wouldn’t a cover-up involve too many people to keep the secret for long? 

I’m joined by Jimmy Akin to answer ten common objections to UFO phenomena and alien visitations. In the wake of recent news stories about unidentified aerial phenomena, I heard the same skeptical talking points trotted out over and over again as if UFO believers had never considered them and had no response to them at all. So I’d like to play whatever small part I can in improving the quality of the discourse by advancing the conversation past the initial thoughts that are commonly offered into more interesting territory. This should make skeptics better skeptics, and help agnostics like myself better appreciate the skeptical position. Right now, the skeptics are not sending their best.

Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World

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Today I’m speaking with Dr. Dale Allison, historian and author of Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age. The subtitle of the book notwithstanding, the unusual experiences we discuss are not explicitly religious. They’re usually interpreted through a religious lens (often without any reflection), but almost all of them needn’t be, which is something we return to quite a bit. Flatly disputing the phenomenon is not the only option available to the nonreligious. 

We talk about paranormal and parapsychological phenomena, and two major sources of skepticism towards things that fall into those categories. On the one hand, of course, there’s materialism, conservative naturalism, skepticism (as in, the skeptic community), etc. But Protestant Christianity, I was surprised to learn, has also been a skeptical force in history due to their drive to debunk Catholic miracle stories, or even just extraordinary events documented by the Catholic Church that explicitly or implicitly were used as evidence for Catholicism. 

Since we’re exploring new terrain that involves some quite unusual topics (e.g., clairvoyance, levitation, visions of dead loved ones, etc.) there’s a lot more I want to say, even in this little description box, but I’ll save it for the interview. 

One thing I forgot to mention during the interview: In addition to Dr. Allison’s book, there are a couple podcasts that regularly discuss cases like the ones that came up today in greater depth. “Otherworld” and “Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World” come highly recommended from me. 

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Today, we discuss Agrippa's trilemma and look at our hands. 

Epistemology Playlist 

Understanding Knowledge - Michael Huemer

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Today, we discuss the idea that understanding a concept is not a matter of knowing a definition. As philosopher Michael Huemer argues, our main access to a concept comes “not through directly reflecting on the concept, but through activating the dispositions that constitute our understanding.” 

The Wittgensteinian view of concepts explains how it’s possible that we know how to competently use terms even though it is so hard to successfully analyze them. I can’t provide a perfect conceptual analysis of knowledge (no one can), and yet I have no issue using the term and understanding what it means. Not only can I competently use words that I can’t analyze, I can reject proposed analyses as insufficient, like the justified true belief analysis. That’s because I understand the meaning of the concept, despite the fact that I can’t define it. 

“Indefinability of words is perfectly normal," Huemer argues, "since understanding is not constituted by knowledge of definitions. The best way to convey a word’s meaning is through examples.” 

Language & Meaning: Crash Course Philosophy

Understanding Knowledge - Michael Huemer

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One note from Huemer on the Wittgensteinian view of concepts and the contrasting Lockean view: "I think what I have to say about concepts is like some stuff that Wittgenstein said, but I don’t actually care how well it matches Wittgenstein’s views. I also don’t care, by the way, whether the 'Lockean theory' matches Locke’s views. You have to add in caveats like this whenever you mention a major philosophical figure, because there are always people who have devoted their lives to studying that figure and who, if you let them, will give you all sorts of arguments that the famous philosopher has been completely misunderstood and never really said the things they’re famous for saying."