Love & Philosophy

Send a love messageFacing Reality with Clear Eyes but without Desperation: Scilla Elworthy on Listening with the Heart to Transform Conflict Three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Scilla Elworthy reflects on 70 years of work with conflict and war, beginning at age 12 after seeing tanks in Budapest and being sent to help concentration camp survivors. She describes how others’ suffering “hit” her heart and led her to action in Algeria, the Congo, and South Africa, where she worked on starvation relief, shipped milk powder, and supported education, noting the central role of women in community resilience. Elworthy emphasizes “listening with the heart” to discern what people truly need beyond narratives, and explains how turning to the heart helps release harsh self-criticism. She also shares practical self-nourishment through nature and gardening, and recounts using humanizing, vulnerable moments—like discussing children—to soften high-stakes meetings, including military dialogues in China, as a way to build connection and “power with” others."Triple nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics from 1983-2003. Founded Peace Direct in 2002, awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003, the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2020, the GOI Peace Award in 2023. Founded The Business Plan for Peace  based on her latest books - The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War (2017), The Mighty Heart: how to transform conflict (2020), and The Mighty Heart in Action (2022)."Find all Scilla's work here.Kyla Scanlon's post mentioned here00:00 Why We Still Kill00:55 Action Over Apathy01:07 Heart As Guide01:39 Inner Critic Quieted03:23 Podcast Introduction07:03 Meet Scilla Elworthy08:17 Tanks In Budapest11:32 Early War Witnessing14:33 Africa Conflict Journeys17:47 Women Leading Change19:52 Listening With Heart22:29 Defining The Heart25:31 Nature As Nourishment29:35 Self Inspection To Embodiment32:41 Taming The Inner Critic34:04 Heart Led Self Compassion35:54 Daring Diplomacy With Generals36:49 Breaking The Ice With Humanness42:48 Power With Vulnerability47:24 Courage In The Moment51:07 Love In The Garden53:03 Closing Thanks And Future Fears53:55 Listener Note And NYC EventSupport the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message Janet Levin on Physicalism, Zombies, and Changing Minds Andrea hosts philosopher Janet Levin, newly retired after 40 years at USC and the department’s first tenure-track woman hire, to discuss a life in analytic philosophy and debates about mind and consciousness. Levin recounts stumbling into philosophy at the University of Chicago with Ted Cohen and later studying at MIT amid figures like Jerry Fodor, Noam Chomsky, and advisor Ned Block, and writing the Stanford Encyclopedia entry on functionalism. They contrast dualism and physicalism, explain metaphysics as inquiry into what exists and what is possible, and examine thought experiments such as Descartes’ arguments, Jackson’s knowledge argument, and Chalmers’ zombie case. Levin holds that our feelings and experiences are nothing over and above physical processes in the body, primarily the brain and central nervous system. The conversation closes on teaching, women in philosophy, and how openness, identity, and social forces affect willingness to change one’s mind and pursue truth.The Road Taken APA TalkJanet LevinTime Stamps:00:00 Big Questions on Mind Change01:47 Consciousness and Zombies02:11 Welcome and Season Setup03:22 Meet Janet Levin07:31 Stumbling Into Philosophy08:25 Why Minds Change Slowly11:10 Synthetic Hippocampus and Extended Mind12:57 Chicago Origins With Ted Cohen18:02 MIT Era and Cognitive Revolution22:01 From Behaviorism to Functionalism26:17 Defining Physicalism and Supervenience29:23 What Is the Mind Really34:46 Cognitive Phenomenology Debate37:31 What Metaphysics Studies40:02 Classic Metaphysics Puzzles43:15 Free Will and Determinism46:34 Descartes and the Self51:41 Conceivability and Zombie Arguments58:40 Dualism’s Causation Problem01:11:40 Type B Physicalism and Phenomenal Concepts01:22:46 Water Lightning Mind01:24:15 Identity Theory Pushback01:27:51 Physicalism Explained Broadly01:30:05 Phenomenal Concepts Introspection01:32:17 Introspection As Skill01:34:44 Defending Armchair Philosophy01:37:22 Armchair Near Window01:39:10 How Minds Change01:43:55 Bias Identity And Windows01:45:35 Women In Philosophy Shifts01:50:28 Grad Training Mentorship01:54:43 Teaching Confidence Bloomers01:57:42 Love Retirement Future Questions02:02:12 Host Outro WaymakingGiving PageLonger Show Notes and PDF of APA talkJanet Levin is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, where she was a longtime faculty member in the School of Philosophy. Her research focuses on epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from MIT and her B.A. from the University of Chicago. Much of her work engages with one of the hardest problems in philosophy: how to account for the subjective, felt quality of conscious experience within a broadly physicalist framework. She has also written the entry on functionalism for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — the view that what makes something a mental state depends not on its physical makeup, but on the functional role it plays in a largerSupport the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love messageLove and Philosophy Beyond Dichotomy: Way Making, Care, and a New SeasonAndrea Hiott introduces Love and Philosophy Beyond Dichotomy and reflects on how a late-2023 research project became a podcast shaped by the guiding question of “way making”: how we find our way and how our way makes us. Drawing from philosophy, neuroscience, urban planning, ecology, biology, and navigability heuristics, she reframes life’s most crucial action as care, challenging fixed separations like ontology, epistemology, and axiology and emphasizing “constellation” or kaleidoscopic thinking over either/or dichotomies. She previews more rigorous work addressing questions about consciousness, representation, agency, self, mind, and technology through the lens of care, and mentions an upcoming book, Holding Paradox. A new season begins tomorrow March 17 with philosopher Janet Levine, releasing monthly episodes on the 17th, with show notes summarizing key ideas from the past two years.Give here: https://loveandphilosophy.com/giving-pageHere is a link to the free Love & Philosophy Field Guide which comes to your email: https://making-ways.kit.com/01025445f6orfind it here: https://lovephilosophy.substack.com/p/focusing-on-care-field-notes-and00:00 Welcome and Project Update00:27 Waymaking as Core Question01:03 Care as Life’s Foundation03:48 Beyond Either Or Thinking04:49 Books and Rigorous Philosophy Ahead06:38 New Season Schedule and Thanks07:15 Support the Work07:43 The Hard Parts and Staying in Care08:31 Show Notes Summary and Closing Good WishesField Notes at https://making-ways.kit.com/01025445f6Support the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love messageFrom the archive.Giving PageAndrea introduces an archive episode of Love and Philosophy featuring Perry Zurn, provost and associate professor of philosophy at American University about the book Curious Minds, coauthored with Dani Bassett. The intro previews an upcoming season launch with Janet Levin. In the following conversation, Perry links curiosity to desire and love, arguing love can guide curiosity away from appropriative or objectifying inquiry. Zurn reframes curiosity not as an individual desire to fill information gaps but as a social practice and a “capacity to connect,” drawing on network science, complexity, and ecological aesthetics through the idea of “edge work.” Andrea and Perry discuss diverse styles of curiosity (busy body, hunter, dancer), curiosity’s role in shifting knowledge networks and methods, interdisciplinary resistance, and how breaking “edges” or “cracks” can be both destructive and creative, relating curiosity to hope and to more-than-human ecologies. Perry also describes the book’s artwork by Poonam Mistry and the dedication to children who ask whether things must be this way.Perry Zurn's websiteCurious Minds: Buy the book00:00 Archive Season Preview00:56 Why Curiosity Matters03:19 Support And Welcome03:53 Love And Curiosity06:28 Origins Of Curious Minds08:51 Curiosity As Practice11:24 Edge Work Explained15:18 Pioneering And Ethics17:39 Complexity And The Brain21:27 Styles Of Curiosity26:08 Curiosity Across Divides30:12 Walking As Knowing32:31 Methods As Paths36:34 Why New Paths Threaten39:38 Dead Ends And Branching40:33 Connectional Curiosity42:48 More Than Human Curiosity47:29 Cracks Hope And Destruction51:35 Daring To Disturb53:47 Art And Dedication56:45 Closing ReflectionsSupport the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message From the archive. First aired in Jan of 2025. A conversation about Hegel. Andrea talks with Karen Ng, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. The discussion delves into Hegel's ideas on contradiction, self-consciousness, life, and love, revealing how these notions are intricately intertwined in his work. Karen Ng brings forward her insights from her award-winning book 'Hegel's Concept of Life,' highlighting the radical nature of Hegel's thought and its relevance in modern contexts. Together, they explore deeply challenging philosophical concepts, making connections to contemporary issues in philosophy, environmental science, and cognitive theory. Join us as we navigate through Hegel’s complex ideas and uncover their enduring significance.00:00 Hegel's Contradictory Philosophy00:47 The Machine Model vs. Organic Unity02:55 Introduction to Karen Ng and Her Work06:40 Karen Ng's Journey with Hegel16:17 Kant's Influence and the Copernican Turn24:57 The Concept of Life and Internal Purposiveness39:55 Exploring the Conditions for Intelligibility40:27 Hegel's Radical Thought on Life and Meaning41:44 Primitive and Sophisticated Sense-Making42:09 Self-Conscious Forms of Life42:37 Hegel's Connection Between Life and Meaning43:56 The Speculative Identity Thesis44:41 The Shock of Hegel's Absolute Idea45:53 Thinking and Corporeality47:51 The Radical Nature of Self-Conscious Life48:52 Challenging Cartesian Dualism49:38 Kant's Dualism and Moral Philosophy50:37 The Speculative Identity Thesis and Cognition52:42 The Radical Connection Between Life and Cognition53:05 Contemporary Philosophers on Life and Mind53:32 Hegel's Influence on Modern Thought01:06:06 The Importance of Teaching Philosophy01:07:46 Hegel's Thoughts on Love and Life01:09:12 The Concept of Free Love01:10:03 The Role of Love in Hegelian Philosophy01:13:26 Concluding Thoughts on Hegel and LoveSupport the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love message Love, Science, and the Dynamics of Change: From the ArchiveThis is a replay of an earlier conversation with Richard Watson (which was already an unpublished conversation we'd had earlier, so there's lots of nesting here). Initially focusing on Universal Darwinism and its limitations, the discussion evolves into a broader examination of alternative mechanisms like learning and mutual transformative change. Andrea and Richard delve into nuanced definitions of individuality and agency, challenging the reductionist view in favor of a more integrative approach. They explore the intersection of science and subjectivity, positing that love, characterized as 'deeply vulnerable mutual knowing,' plays a critical role in understanding relationships and evolutionary processes. This thought-provoking dialogue highlights the dynamic interplay of biological systems and the potential for a more compassionate and creative understanding of life's complexity.00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview00:27 Andrea's Reflections and Richard Watson's Work00:56 Defining Individual and Body01:14 Evolutionary Units and Mutual Transformative Change01:41 Academic Ideas on Evolution and Cognition03:27 Richard Watson's Background and Research05:22 Natural Selection and Adaptation12:02 Learning Processes vs. Natural Selection21:08 Cooperation and Competition in Biology28:53 Individuality and Agency in Living Systems39:20 Bioelectricity and Gene Expression40:51 The Bidirectional Relationship of Cells and Genes41:34 The Limits of Natural Selection42:55 Love as a Scientific Concept47:06 Evolutionary Algorithms and Their Shortcomings50:00 The Evolution of Cooperation and Individuality54:09 The Role of Love in Evolution59:25 The Dance of Relationships and Resonance01:07:33 The Creative Process of Evolution01:18:01 The Balance of Love and FearRichard WatsonWhat's Love Got To Do with ItSupport the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love messageTrust, Agency, and the Art of Games with C. Thi NguyenRevisting a conversation from late 2023 with philosopher C Thi Nguyen. The discussion delves into the philosophical aspects of games, how they shape our agency, and the profound impact they have on our cognition and perception of reality. Thi explores the intersection of love, trust, and philosophical inquiry, highlighting the intricate ways games influence our societal interactions and personal experiences. The episode also touches on how games can be a lens for understanding broader human behaviors and the nature of agency itself. Join us as we navigate these complex ideas and reflect on the role of games in our lives.00:00 Introduction to Love and Philosophy00:54 Navigational Mind and Upcoming Conversations01:36 Revisiting the Conversation with C Thi Nguyen01:49 Games and Sculpted Agency03:03 Trust and Agency in Games07:39 Philosophy, Writing, and Personal Journey21:16 Games as Art and Medium of Agency30:57 Art, Porn, and Sentimental Art36:08 The Role of Games and Art in Emotional Release36:29 Aesthetic Approaches and Viewer Attitudes37:10 Games as Tools for Different Experiences38:02 Personal Reflections on Sports and Dance39:46 Agency and Game Design41:10 The Power and Danger of Games45:06 Virtual Reality and Games46:58 The Concept of Play vs. Games56:08 Games and Trust59:09 The Impact of Games on Perception and Behavior01:04:04 Final Thoughts and Reflections01:05:17 Support and FarewellTrust and Anti-trustGames, Agency as ArtThe ScoreSupport the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

In this conversation, philosopher and cognitive scientist Thomas Metzinger explores the intricate relationship between consciousness, AI, and suffering. Known for his work on the self-model theory, he discusses how meditation intersects with deep philosophical inquiries. Metzinger warns about the epistemic crisis fueled by AI, emphasizing the importance of a precise theory of suffering in AI design. He advocates for blending philosophical rigor with contemplative practices, urging a balanced perspective on human cognition and responsibility in the age of technology.

Send a love message with philosopher Esther Lightcap Meek, Professor of Philosophy emerita at Geneva College, in Western Pennsylvaniaexploring from-to fractals, Michael Polanyi, Meek's Indeterminate Future Manifestations, the difference between information and knowledge, epistemological therapy... and all with some laughter and good cheerHappy holidays! These conversations are part of research: to skip the research ramble, go to 26:30. This episode explores the intricate relationships between knowledge, information, reality, and love with guest Esther Lightcap Meek. Building on the ideas of Michael Polanyi, Esther and Andrea delve into the concept of ‘subsidiary focal integration’ and its implications for how we understand reality. The conversation addresses the limitations of viewing knowledge merely as information, the importance of bodily cognition, and how love and communion with the real are fundamental to genuine knowing. It shows how philosophy can be understood as therapeutic, a dynamic process that connects us deeply with ourselves, each other, and the world.00:00 Introduction to the Concept of Reality and Information01:46 The Role of Subsidiary Focal Integration03:36 Exploring Covenant Epistemology04:54 Understanding Bodily Cognition06:44 Introducing Esther Lightcap Meek08:50 The Journey of a Philosopher10:46 The Importance of Subsidiary Focal Integration13:02 Practical Applications and Everyday Philosophy16:40 The Role of Philosophy in Real Life26:31 A Conversation with Esther Lightcap Meek49:34 Integrative Knowledge and Liberation50:25 Epistemological Therapy and Embodied Cognition52:37 The Role of Subsidiary Focal Integration54:58 Daisy of Dichotomies and Modernity57:54 The Interpersonal Nature of Knowledge01:11:20 Covenant Epistemology in Education01:18:35 AI, Tools, and the Real01:29:14 The Role of Love in Knowing A professional philosopher, author and speaker, Esther offers her own distinctive, down-to-earth, approach to the philosophical matters that ground and permeate our lives: humanness, meaning, reality, knowing. The book Andrea and Esther discuss here is Loving to Know.Link here to Esther’s work and books: https://www.estherlightcapmeek.comTacit KnowledgeMichael PolanyiSupport us if you can.Support the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

Send a love messageMaybe memory is a way we communicate with ourselves and the world at various layers, a bridging experience of what we call time and space.In this episode, Andrea Hiott and Lynn Nadel continue their ongoing talks about memory. This time they explore the intricate workings of the hippocampus, focusing on its role in bridging spatial and temporal gaps. They delve into how memory, navigation, and cognitive maps are interconnected, challenging traditional views and opening up discussions on the dynamic nature of memory. Lynn shares insights from this paper, discusses how past research has evolved, touching upon philosophical perspectives from Kant and modern neuroscience findings. The conversation also briefly touches on the broader implications, including how understanding the hippocampus might extend to broader cognitive functions and societal interactions. There’s an in-depth ‘research ramble’ from Andrea at the beginning for those interested in the wider themes of this whole project, but you can also skip past that and go to the main conversation if you wish.The main paper discussed here is The Hippocampal Formation and Action at a DistanceLynn Nadel is an American psychologist who is the Regents’ Professor of psychology at the University of Arizona. Nadel specializes in memory, and has investigated the role of the hippocampus in memory formation. Together with John O’Keefe, he coauthored the influential 1978 book The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map.00:00 Introduction to Hippocampal Function02:07 The Role of Memory and Space11:38 Philosophical Insights on Space and Time15:50 Quantum Entanglement and Memory28:48 Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map43:43 Encouragement and Introduction to Lynn Nadel44:30 Discussing the Paper: The Hippocampal Formation and Action at a Distance44:55 Linking Time and Space: The Role of the Hippocampus47:21 Memory and Cognitive Maps49:59 The Evolution of Cognitive Map Theory51:34 Intertwining Memory and Navigation01:04:30 Philosophical Perspectives on Space and Time01:09:37 Innate Structures and Evolutionary Adaptations01:16:08 Plant Cognition and Tropisms01:16:59 The Importance of Memory01:17:39 Cognitive Maps in Animals01:17:57 Symposium and Research Updates01:19:08 Locomotion and Cognitive Needs01:20:54 Internal Models and Memory01:23:27 Temporal Contiguity vs. Contingency01:29:26 Dynamics of Memory01:35:11 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans01:36:34 Hippocampus and Social InteractionsPrevious conversations with Lynn and AndreaSupport the showThe Hippocampal Formation and Action at a DistancePlease rate and review with love.YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.Support the showPlease rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.