The Dissenter

Ricardo Lopes

My name is Ricardo Lopes, and I’m from Portugal. Thank you for visiting my podcast.

Over the past few years, I have conducted and released more than 900 interviews and talks with experts and academics from a variety of areas and disciplines, ranging from the Arts and Philosophy to the Social Sciences and Biology. You will certainly find a subject of your interest covered here.

New interviews are released on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Episodes

Mentioned books

Apr 24, 2019 • 1h 21min

#58 April Bleske-Rechek: The Psychology of Friendship, Mate Selection, Modern Psychology

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. April Bleske-Rechek is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. As a researcher, she focuses on human mating, friendship, cognitive abilities and intellectual giftedness, and science literacy. In this episode, the conversation revolves around the evolutionary psychology of friendship and mate selection. She gives a personal account of the development and importance of evolutionary psychology. And then we move on to talk same-sex and opposite-sex friendship; friendship rivalry and its bases; the evolutionary bases of friendship; sex differences in friendship initiation and dissolution; the studying of friendship and mate preferences; cues and signals in mate selection, and clarifying the difference between waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index; exaggerated physical cues and pornography; the effects of pornography in men’s minds; advantages and disadvantages of sex robots; assortative mating, and its evolutionary advantages; a specific study of Dr. Bleske-Rechek’s involving the trolley problem; the contribution of evolutionary psychology to human relationships; if evolutionary psychology should be the core theory of modern Psychology, and why; if Psychology should be looked at as a branch of Biology; and the relationship between Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Genetics. Time Links: 00:32 Dr. Bleske-Rechek’s personal account of the development and importance of evolutionary psychology 05:45 Studying friendship from an evolutionary perspective 10:17 Friendship rivalry and its bases 15:50 Do women prefer uglier friends? 18:13 Do opposite-sex friendships fail often? 20:43 Why do people seek friends of the other sex? 23:04 Sex differences in friendship initiation 25:32 Friendship dissolution 27:11 The studying of friendship and mate preferences 31:41 Clarifying waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index 34:56 Cues and signals in mate selection 41:18 Exaggerated physical cues and pornography 49:20 Sex robots: yes or no? 53:29 Assortative mating 56:32 People save 1 person in the trolley problem if they are young, genetically related, or a romantic partner 1:03:21 Can you learn to deal better with other people with help from evolutionary psychology? 1:09:38 Should evolutionary psychology be the core theory of modern psychology? 1:11:57 Psychology as a branch of Biology? 1:15:17 The relationship between Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Genetics 1:19:14 Follow Dr. Bleske-Rechek’s work -- Follow Dr. Bleske-Rechek’s work: Website: http://bleske-rechek.com/ Faculty page: https://www.uwec.edu/profiles/bleskeal/ -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY:

Apr 22, 2019 • 51min

#56 Simon Blackburn: Metaethics, The Bases of Ethical Systems, Meaning of Life, and Beauty

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Simon Blackburn taught Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. He is a distinguished research professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College, and a member of the professoriate of New College of the Humanities. He was previously a Fellow of Pembroke College, and has also taught full-time at the University of North Carolina as an Edna J. Koury Professor. He is a former president of the Aristotelian Society. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002, and a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008. In this episode, the conversation centers around metaethics. We talk about evolutionary theory as the basis of morality; the shortcomings of reason; the is-ought dichotomy; the properties of moral axioms; the ethics of religion; the internal contradictions of moral relativism; the condition of nihilism; free will and personal responsibility; truth and cruelty; pleasure in ethics; religion, science, and the meaning of life; the philosophical problem of immortality; and the relationship between beauty, truth, and morality. Time Links: 01:05 What is metaethics? 04:05 Evolutionary theory as the basis of morality 10:41 The trouble with reason 22:53 The is-ought problem 29:36 About moral axioms 38:50 The ethics of religion 42:28 Contradictions of moral relativism 47:45 Nihilism 52:49 Free will and personal responsibility 57:50 Can truth be cruel? 1:01:45 Pleasure in ethics 1:05:30 Religion, science, and the meaning of life 1:09:04 Immortality 1:11:21 How is beauty related to truth and morality? 1:17:18 Follow Dr. Blackburn’s work -- Follow Dr. Blackburn’s work: Website: http://www2.phil.cam.ac.uk/~swb24/ Books: https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B000APFM0S -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Apr 19, 2019 • 55min

#166 Daniel Nettle: The Evolution of Personality, Individual Variation And Behavioral Flexibility

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/the-dissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Daniel Nettle is Professor of Behavioural Science at Newcastle University, where he is a member of the cross-disciplinary Centre for Behaviour and Evolution. He studies a number of different topics relating to behaviour, ageing and wellbeing. He mainly studies humans, but sometimes other animals (especially starlings) too. Dr. Nettle is the author of several books, most notably, Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile (2005), Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are (2007), and Tyneside Neighbourhoods: Deprivation, Social Life and Social Behaviour in One English City (2015). In this episode, we talk about personality from an evolutionary perspective. We refer to the importance of individual variation and things like behavioral flexibility. Also, the Big Five, and a couples of examples of how such traits might have evolved, and their neuroscientific underpinnings. Finally, how environmental effects are biologically mediated, and the ways by which personality changes during the life course of people. -- Follow Dr. Nettle’s work: Personal Website/Blog: https://www.danielnettle.org.uk/ Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2U9oUhH Articles of Researchgate: https://bit.ly/2NxrY4p Books: https://amzn.to/2T0chc0 Twitter handle: @danielnettle Books/articles referenced in the interview: Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are: https://amzn.to/2TmiJta Hanging on to the Edges: Essays on Science, Society and the Academic Life: https://bit.ly/2T1rUAe Status and Mating Success Amongst Visual Artists: https://bit.ly/2XpW3rh -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, JUSTIN WATERS, AND ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK! A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY FIRST PRODUCER, Yzar Wehbe!

Apr 18, 2019 • 52min

#165 Stephen Law: Naturalism, Liberalism, And The Religious And The Atheists

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/the-dissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Stephen Law is formally Reader in Philosophy at Heythrop College, and before that Research Fellow at The Queen’s College Oxford. He is currently editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal THINK. He has published several books, including The Philosophy Gym, A Very Short Introduction to Humanism, and Believing Bullshit. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and Commerce and in 2008 became the provost of the Centre for Inquiry UK. In this episode, we start off by talking about the limitations of naturalism in terms of knowledge acquisition, the is-ought problem, and the flaws of relativism. Then, we move on to discussing Liberalism, as is presented by Stephen Law in his book, The War for Children’s Minds, and the important distinction between freedom of thought and freedom of action. We also deal with the issue of religion in a scientific world and the approach of the New Atheists. We question the idea that the West is going through some sort of “moral crisis”, and the bad outcomes that pushing for that narrative might have. And, finally, we address the flaws in arguments between religious people and atheist when it comes to the problem of evil and the Evil-God challenge. Time Links: 00:54 The limitations of naturalism 09:12 The is-ought distinction 13:56 The flaws of relativism 17:09 Liberalism and freedom of thought 25:20 Religion in a modern scientific world 28:24 The New Atheists 31:44 Freedom of thought is not freedom of action 36:04 Are we really going through a “moral crisis” in the West? 41:33 The problem of evil and the Evil-God challenge in debates between religious people and atheists 48:25 Follow Dr. Law’s work! -- Follow Dr. Law’s work: THINK: https://bit.ly/2tBIZRX Personal Website/Blog: https://bit.ly/2GKaD7M Books: https://amzn.to/2tzAo2j Twitter handle: @stephenlaw60 -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, JUSTIN WATERS, AND ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK! A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY FIRST PRODUCER, Yzar Wehbe!

Apr 18, 2019 • 51min

Bradley Campbell Part 2: Issues with Sociology, Victimhood on the Right, the Alt-Right

Apr 17, 2019 • 1h 4min

Bradley Campbell Part 1: Culture of Victimhood, Its Historical Precedents and Influences

Apr 16, 2019 • 1h 55min

#55 Bradley Campbell: The Rise of Victimhood Culture, and Its Dangers on the Left and the Right

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Bradley Campbell is an Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University. He’s also the author of books like The Geometry of Genocide, and, more recently, The Rise of Victimhood Culture. In this episode, the conversation centers around the book The Rise of Victimhood Culture, co-authored with Jason Manning. We talk about the distinction between cultures of honor, cultures of dignity, and cultures of victimhood; the historical precedents of victimhood culture and the boom in 2013/2014; the religious aspects of victimhood culture; the influences from postmodernism and Marxist conflict theories; the problem within sociology; the role of moral status; the possibility of victimhood culture leading to political tyranny; discrimination against conservative people; the manifestations of victimhood culture on the right, and particularly the alt-right. Time Links: 00:26 Cultures of honor, cultures of dignity, and cultures of victimhood 17:36 Historical precedents of victimhood culture and the boom in 2013/2014 38:41 The religious aspects of victimhood culture 53:37 Postmodern and Marxist influences 1:03:56 The problem within sociology 1:14:35 What’s the role of moral status? 1:17:31 Could victimhood culture lead to tyranny? 1:33:50 Discriminating against conservatives 1:43:00 Victimhood culture on the right and the alt-right 1:50:16 Where can you follow Dr. Campbell’s work? -- Follow Dr. Campbell’s work: Faculty page: http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/bradley-campbell Book The Rise of Victimhood Culture: http://victimhoodculture.com/ Dr. Campbell’s books: https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B014N9MW86?redirectedFromKindleDbs=true Twitter handle: @CampbellSocProf -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

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