23 February 2019
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Feb 1, 2019 — Robert Wright & Gideon Rosen
The Wright Show
What’s the philosophical status of materialism?
Gideon’s views about math lead him to reject materialism
Does the existence of consciousness disprove materialism?
Taking the simulation hypothesis seriously
How lucky are we to be alive right now?
Teleology and moral realism
TAGS
consciousness
|
mathematics
|
philosophy
|
physics
Jan 11, 2019 — Robert Wright & John D. Caputo
The Wright Show
John, a theologian and philosopher, explains postmodern Christianity
Why postmodernism is not “linguistic idealism”
Religion’s tendency to literalize
What Paul Tillich and Jacques Derrida thought about “the unconditional”
John: The Scriptures present a poetic, topsy-turvy vision of life
Where do our aspirations come from (if anywhere)?
Have art, literature, and social activism replaced religion?
Is there a link between the unconditional and Buddhism’s “unconditioned”?
TAGS
Buddhism
|
Christianity
|
Paul Tillich
|
philosophy
|
religion
Jan 3, 2019 — Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Travis Smith
Culturally Determined
Travis’s new book,
Superhero Ethics
The Incredible Hulk and the dangers of individualism
Why Wolverine embodies honor and integrity
Batman vs. Spider-Man, dueling reactions to our tragic universe
Family tragedies in the lives of Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker
Why adults should take comic books seriously
TAGS
culture
|
ethics
|
philosophy
Nov 23, 2018 — Robert Wright & John Haught
The Wright Show
The prescience of theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Teilhard’s synthesizing of the “above” and the “ahead”
John: The creation of humans is not the universe’s climax
John: God is “not yet”
Science and faith as different layers of explanation
Searching for God in a scientific age
Why John rejects perennialism
Questions from the live audience
TAGS
Christianity
|
Paul Tillich
|
philosophy
|
religion
|
science
Nov 16, 2018 — Robert Wright & Eddy Nahmias
The Wright Show
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”
TAGS
cognitive science
|
consciousness
|
Daniel Dennett
|
determinism
|
free will
|
philosophy
Nov 11, 2018 — John Horgan & Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Mind-Body Problems
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
TAGS
mind-body problem
|
philosophy
|
religion
|
science
Nov 3, 2018 — John Horgan & Owen Flanagan
Mind-Body Problems
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
TAGS
atheism
|
Buddhism
|
Christianity
|
consciousness
|
ethics
|
evolution
|
free will
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human nature
|
mind-body problem
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philosophy
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psychology
|
religion
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science
Oct 24, 2018 — John Horgan & Deepak Chopra
Mind-Body Problems
Introducing the
Mind-Body Problems
podcast
The controversy around Chopra’s views on healthcare
Does Deepak have an ulterior motive?
Monistic materialism: there’s only matter
Dualism: mind and matter are separate things
Panpsychism: all matter is conscious
Deepak’s consciousness-only theory
TAGS
consciousness
|
mind-body problem
|
philosophy
|
science
Oct 5, 2018 — Robert Wright & Lama Surya Das
The Wright Show
Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion?
Surya Das: “I’m enlightened enough for now”
Attachment, aversion, and “original goodness”
Is an enlightened person by definition a moral person?
Not-self and Emerson’s “transparent eyeball”
The Dzogchen approach to enlightenment
Surya Das: Trump has the spark of Buddha nature (and so do you)
TAGS
Buddhism
|
enlightenment
|
meditation
|
philosophy
|
religion
|
self
Sep 20, 2018 — Nikita Petrov & John Horgan
Mind-Body Problems
John’s new book,
Mind-Body Problems
, is free online
“What are we really, what can we be, and what should we be?”
Robert Trivers, an evolutionary biologist with an affinity for violence
Douglas Hofstadter, a playful writer, but a melancholic person
Why ex-materialist Christof Koch embraced panpsychism
How losing a daughter made Stuart Kaufman study the paranormal
Story time! Nikita and John exchange psychedelic tales
TAGS
biology
|
cognitive science
|
consciousness
|
enlightenment
|
evolution
|
human nature
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meditation
|
mind-body problem
|
philosophy
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psychology
|
religion
|
science
|
spirituality
Aug 31, 2018 — Robert Wright & K. Anthony Appiah
The Wright Show
Anthony’s new book,
The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity
Anthony’s own unusual identity
Cosmopolitanism and its discontents
Patriotism, nationalism, and “legitimate forms of partiality”
Against essentialism in religion
The invention of the idea of a national spirit
Who owns the culture?
How class conflict has changed in the US and UK
TAGS
history
|
nationalism
|
philosophy
Aug 24, 2018 — Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi
The Wright Show
How Bhikkhu Bodhi first encountered Buddhism…
…and how he became a Buddhist monk
Can “secular” Buddhists have spiritual experiences?
Traditional Buddhism, secular Buddhism, and immanent Buddhism
Diving into nirvana: “conditioned arising” and “the unconditioned”
Does Buddhism make you a better person?
TAGS
Buddhism
|
meditation
|
philosophy
Aug 14, 2018 — Daniel Kaufman & Justin Weinberg
Sophia
Justin’s website about the philosophy profession, Daily Nous
What philosophers actually do when they do research
Will we ever solve the big philosophical questions?
What the American Philosophical Association does
Is this a golden age for public philosophy?
Are philosophy departments in danger?
Dan wonders whether there should be a moratorium on new philosophy PhDs
TAGS
philosophy
Aug 10, 2018 — Robert Wright & Tim Maudlin
The Weirdness of Physics
Three fundamental questions about time
Revisiting the famous “twins paradox” thought experiment
Why Tim thinks mainstream physicists are wrong about time
Einstein and determinism
Why Einstein was wrong about quantum entanglement
Non-locality, the weirdest thing in physics
TAGS
philosophy
|
physics
|
time
Jul 31, 2018 — Daniel Kaufman & Brian Leiter
Sophia
To understand Marx, start with Hegel’s dialectics
Why Marx emphasized economic production over Hegelian idealism
Dan: Was Marx’s concept of labor too narrow?
What will happen if technology eliminates most jobs?
Marxism post-WWII: More than college activism and Jefferson Airplane?
Brian: Marx’s predictions were right, but his predicted timeframe was all wrong
Why “diversity blather” is a capitalist wolf in Marxist clothing
TAGS
economics
|
philosophy
|
social science
Jul 13, 2018 — Robert Wright & Thomas Metzinger
The Wright Show
Try this at home: the rubber hand illusion
Out-of-body experiences in VR
Why you will never have a not-self experience
Meditation, capitalism, and political activism
The urgent need to teach meditation in schools
Thomas’s “transparent self” model
TAGS
Buddhism
|
cognitive science
|
democracy
|
human nature
|
meditation
|
philosophy
|
politics
|
psychology
|
science
|
self
Jul 11, 2018 — Robert Wright & Michael Shermer
The Weirdness of Physics
Michael’s controversial
Scientific American
column on the “final mysterians”
Bob’s thought experiment about God and quantum mechanics
The split among philosophers over the free will question
Revisiting Thomas Nagel’s famous essay, “What is it like to be a bat?”
What’s a harder problem, God or consciousness?
What laws should govern a colony on Mars?
Michael reports from inside the Intellectual Dark Web
Deconstructing Jordan Peterson’s appeal
Bob: Life is hard and religion can help
TAGS
consciousness
|
Daniel Dennett
|
free will
|
Islam
|
New Atheists
|
philosophy
|
physics
|
religion
|
Richard Dawkins
|
science
Jul 6, 2018 — Robert Wright & John Haught
The Wright Show
John’s book,
The New Cosmic Story
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and cosmic evolution
What it means to say that “God is more Omega than Alpha”
John: We live in an “awakening universe”
Putting religion in cosmic context
Does “rightness” exist apart from human judgment?
Why John takes comfort in the “unfinishedness” of the universe
Alfred North Whitehead’s influence on John’s worldview
Why John rejects Perennialism
TAGS
philosophy
|
religion
|
science
Jun 26, 2018 — Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
Sophia
Dan and Massimo on ontology: What exists and what doesn’t?
What, if anything, do Saturn’s rings have in common with virtue?
Materialism as a product of scientism
The immaterial features of human life and society
The most important philosopher you’ve never heard of
What does Daniel Dennett mean by “self,” anyway?
Massimo: A single ontology isn’t enough to describe reality
TAGS
ancient philosophy
|
Daniel Dennett
|
mind
|
philosophy
Jun 15, 2018 — Robert Wright & Jim Holt
The Weirdness of Physics
Jim’s new book of essays,
When Einstein Walked with Gödel
The Platonists who believe mathematics is transcendent
Against viewing math as transcendent
The implications of Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem
What’s so special about light? Einstein can explain
Tachyons, the hypothetical particles that travel faster than light
How Jim became a “rigorous dilettante” (with cameos by B.F. Skinner and Bette Midler)
TAGS
consciousness
|
mathematics
|
philosophy
|
physics
May 11, 2018 — Robert Wright & Tamler Sommers
The Wright Show
Tamler’s new book,
Why Honor Matters
Why human dignity is not enough
Collective honor vs. individual honor
The difference between honor and courage
In defense of fighting in sports
Tamler explains the idea of restorative justice
Fighting Ted Cruz by calling him dishonorable
TAGS
human nature
|
philosophy
|
psychology
Mar 23, 2018 — Robert Wright & Massimo Pigliucci
The Wright Show
Massimo’s new edited volume,
Science Unlimited?: The Challenges of Scientism
What is scientism?
Science and the challenge of studying subjective experience
And about those pesky fundamental questions of existence…
How philosophical thought underpins all research methodology
Massimo: Core concepts across science have competing interpretations
The importance of distinguishing “is” from “ought”
What neuroscience can never explain about human consciousness
TAGS
philosophy
|
science
Mar 8, 2018 — Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Pater Edmund Waldstein
Culturally Determined
Why the Mortara case is still provoking argument 150 years later
Pater Edmund offers a defense of Pope Pius IX
Integralism and different conceptions of liberty
What would an integralist Catholic state look like?
How Pater Edmund became a monk (with a blog)
The day-to-day life of a modern meditating monk
TAGS
Christianity
|
history
|
Judaism
|
meditation
|
philosophy
|
religion
|
spirituality
Feb 23, 2018 — Robert Wright & Galen Strawson
The Weirdness of Physics
Why scientific materialism is harder to define than you think
Galen explains panpsychism
What does “mind is all there is to reality” mean?
Is human consciousness epiphenomenal?
Do physical laws come from somewhere?
Is it like something to be a rock? (And is Galen saying it is?)
Galen: Discussion of the mind-body problem was better 100 years ago
TAGS
consciousness
|
mind-body problem
|
philosophy
|
physics
|
science
Feb 18, 2018 — Aryeh Cohen-Wade & David Ottlinger
Culturally Determined
Is Trump a postmodern figure?
Why, despite what you might hear, academia has not embraced postmodernism
Debating Jeet Heer’s argument for viewing Trump as postmodern
Why healthy public debate requires belief in a discoverable truth
Aryeh says Bitcoin is postmodern, but David disagrees
TAGS
media
|
philosophy
|
politics
Jan 4, 2018 — Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
Ancient Wisdom
Dan and Massimo’s dueling essays on the Greek concept of eudaimonia
Who can claim to be truly satisfied with life?
What Kant and the Stoics have in common
Are humans more than their internal moral lives?
Dan: Building moral character requires interaction with society
Is philosophy going corporate?
TAGS
ancient philosophy
|
ethics
|
philosophy
Dec 24, 2017 — Robert Wright & Kieran Setiya
The Wright Show
Midlife and coming to terms with who we aren’t
Is the midlife crisis different for men and women?
Kieran: Disappointment is a given for the mid-career academic
There’s more to life than minimizing suffering
Schopenhauer (and the Buddha): Dissatisfaction is inherent in desire
Bob suggests a familiar culprit: selfhood
TAGS
aging
|
human nature
|
meditation
|
philosophy
Dec 11, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Bryan Van Norden
Sophia
Just how Euro-centric are American philosophy departments, anyway?
Is racism baked into Western philosophy?
A brief account of Western dalliances with Eastern thought
Why new movements in philosophy must kill their ancestors
Why do philosophy departments stay white? Subtle self-selection, Bryan says
Is philistinism killing philosophy as a discipline?
TAGS
Buddhism
|
philosophy
Nov 22, 2017 — Robert Wright & Shaun Nichols
The Wright Show
Pondering free will before Thanksgiving’s excesses
Shaun: Determinism is too complicated to be intuitive
The benefits of blame
Is “free” will just a matter of semantics?
What game theory experiments tell us about moralistic anger
Shaun: It’s okay to use determinism to forgive yourself
Do the “uncaused effects” of quantum physics bear on the free will question?
TAGS
determinism
|
free will
|
philosophy
Oct 31, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
Sophia
How philosopher Arthur Danto attempted to define art
Danto’s preoccupation with Warhol’s Brillo Boxes
Is art just “aboutness”?
Crispin: Danto’s historicity constrained his concept of art
Dan questions Hegel on art’s inherent purpose
Why common crafts may come to replace high art
TAGS
aesthetics
|
history
|
philosophy
Sep 8, 2017 — Josh Summers & Stephen Asma
Stephen’s new book,
The Evolution of Imagination
Are dreams like “proto-consciousness”?
The mind as an extension of the body
Where Stephen thinks “effective altruism” falls short
How to improve your imagination
Trump as a bad improviser
Bringing imagination to a meditation practice
TAGS
altruism
|
cognitive science
|
consciousness
|
Donald Trump
|
dreaming
|
empathy
|
ethics
|
evolution
|
meditation
|
philosophy
Sep 7, 2017 — Robert Wright & Alison Gopnik
The Wright Show
How a personal crisis brought Alison back to David Hume
Hume’s (likely) chance encounter with Buddhism
Lessons learned from 23-year-old Hume’s nervous breakdown
Which ideas might Hume have borrowed from Buddhism?
How meditation disrupts the ‘autopilot’ of adulthood
Is introspection as valuable as neuroscience?
TAGS
atheism
|
Buddhism
|
cognitive science
|
enlightenment
|
meditation
|
philosophy
Aug 10, 2017 — Robert Wright & Ted Chiang
The Weirdness of Physics
How Ted’s
Story of Your Life
became
Arrival
Experiential and theoretical grounds for determinism
If the future is set… Why bother?
The Predictor—an imagined device that will freak you out
Wormholes and time travel
Are free will and determinism compatible?
TAGS
free will
|
literature
|
philosophy
|
physics
|
science
|
technology
|
the future
|
time
Aug 9, 2017 — Robert Wright & Massimo Pigliucci
Ancient Wisdom
Bob’s and Massimo’s complementary new books
Bob and Massimo give Buddhist and Stoic advice on dealing with regret
Buddhist and Stoic recipes for reducing anxiety
Using meditative practices to fight ADD
Building resilience, maintaining compassion
The upside of distraction
TAGS
ancient philosophy
|
Buddhism
|
human nature
|
meditation
|
mindfulness
|
philosophy
Aug 3, 2017 — Josh Summers & Gil Fronsdal
Gil’s new book,
The Buddha before Buddhism
Reaching peace by letting go completely
Why the Buddha didn’t care about religious purity
Practical advice for letting go
Buddhism and civic discourse
TAGS
Buddhism
|
philosophy
|
religion
Aug 1, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Robert Wright
Sophia
Dan and Bob debate the Buddhist idea that the “self” doesn’t exist
Bob’s brush with a “not-self” experience
Is it bad to transcend human nature?
What is “the self”, anyway?
Do our moral intuitions mislead?
TAGS
Buddhism
|
human nature
|
meditation
|
mindfulness
|
philosophy
|
psychology
|
self
Jul 21, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
Sophia
What is knowledge?
What are values made of?
Free will and moral responsibility
Imagining stateless, coercion-free politics
What’s wrong with the left-right dichotomy
The purpose of political philosophy
TAGS
free will
|
philosophy
Jul 16, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
Sophia
Crispin’s new book
Entanglements: A System of Philosophy
Individuals as knots on a thread
Crispin’s materialism: The world is real, but it is “all the ways”
A materialist’s way of understanding social reality
Perception as being penetrated by the world
How distinct from the rest of the world are we?
Knowledge, power, and politics
TAGS
perception
|
philosophy
Jul 13, 2017 — James Hughes & Regina Rini
The Meaning of Future Life
How to raise a good robot
The moral development of machines
The trouble with robots who can reason
Will AI have feelings?
Is it wrong to hurt a zombie?
How AI could shape human morality
TAGS
consciousness
|
ethics
|
human nature
|
philosophy
|
science
|
technology
|
the future
Jun 28, 2017 — Robert Wright & Jay Garfield
The Wright Show
Teaching Buddhist philosophy
Jay’s book,
Engaging Buddhism
Why “you” might not exist
Buddhism and determinism
When clarifying your view of reality makes you a better person
The error of essentialism
TAGS
Buddhism
|
enlightenment
|
ethics
|
free will
|
human nature
|
meditation
|
philosophy
|
religion
|
self
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