Philosophy For Our Times

Can science accommodate human subjectivity? Sabine Hossenfelder responds.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesIn this interview, leading physicist and author, Sabine Hossenfelder, discusses the relationship between physics and philosophy. She examines the scientific community’s desire to find a unified theory of everything, and contemplates how science can accommodate human subjectivity. She also considers the role of physics in helping us tackle major philosophical issues involving time, free will, and consciousness.Sabine Hossenfelder is a theoretical physicist who specialises in the foundations of physics. She is a Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies where she leads the group on Superfluid Dark Matter.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-truth-about-philosophy-of-scienceSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is our obsession with data healthy or dangerous? Our specialists discuss.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Look to the science' was the call from politicians and the public alike throughout the pandemic. As if science has a single definitive view, and the data one interpretation. Yet science is full of competing and sometimes contradictory views particularly at the edge of current understanding. And increasingly scientists see themselves as operating with models of reality. Ultimate final accounts being perhaps more typical of religion than the exploratory and sceptical approach at the core of science.Should we abandon the idea that science provides absolute answers? Should scientists and politicians avoid giving the impression that there is a single definitive account? Or do we need to cut through the complexity of competing outlooks and commit to a truth in order to drive action and change?Pioneering American physicist Lisa Randall, renowned philosopher of science Tim Maudlin and legendary cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman argue over the fundamental nature of science. Biologist Güneş Taylor hosts.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=dangerous-dataSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Does philosophy really have an impact on our daily life? Timothy Williamson explains.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesIn this interview, professor of Logic at the University of Oxford, Timothy Williamson examines how common sense can sometimes not be fully self-consistent and can even lead us into certain logical paradoxes. The philosopher discusses in what ways philosophy is comparable to the natural sciences and how language is ill-equipped to describe people's experiences of reality. In this discussion, Williamson also touches on the arbitrariness of disciplinary boundaries when it comes to understanding life's fundamental questions.Timothy Williamson is the Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford and a fellow of New College, Oxford. His main research areas are philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, epistemology and metaphysics. He is the author of the widely translated Knowledge and Its Limits and The Philosophy of Philosophy.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=everyday-philosophy-extraordinary-lifeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What do memes really mean? Listen to find out!Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesMemes are everywhere. But the term was coined only a few decades ago by Richard Dawkins to describe ideas and cultural behaviour that can be passed on from one individual to another. He argued that memes are a stage in evolution, and just as humans are carriers for genes, we are also carriers for memes. We don't so much choose our memes as they choose us. Its critics however argue that meme theory upends all human agency and thought. Is meme theory an exciting new framework that moves evolution forward to account for concepts and culture? Or is the very idea of a meme a misguided and reductionist account of what it is to be human?  Post-postmodern philosopher Hilary Lawson, Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School Joanna Bryson and Professor of Philosophy at City College of New York Massimo Pigliucci discuss whether or not it is useful to think about sharing mimetic information like genetic information. Gunes Taylor hosts.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=Memes-all-the-way-downSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

All the questions.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesWhat exists? Why is there anything at all? Are there realities beyond physics? What is consciousness, personal or cosmic? Robert Lawrence Kuhn, host of the long-running 'Closer to Truth' television series and acclaimed website, has spent over 20 years interviewing the greatest thinkers and exploring the deepest questions. In this talk, he uncovers the common thread running through the most profound mysteries of existence and human sentience.Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer, host and executive producer of Closer To Truth. He has written or edited over 30 books, including The Mystery of Existence: Why is there Anything At All? And Closer to Truth: Challenging Current Belief.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=asking-the-ultimate-questionsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is our obsession with enhancing ourselves leading to the end of humankind? Luke Robert Mason explains.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesThe transhumanist dream, the merging of humans with machines, may soon be a reality. Elon Musk's NeuraLink is developing quickly, and before long, with the rise of more forms of human biotechnology, we may find that more and more of us are becoming half-human, half-machine.Futures theorist Luke Robert Mason is a researcher, filmmaker and digital media artist. He has been a frequent contributor to BBC Click Radio, The Guardian, Discovery Channel, VICE Motherboard, Wired Magazine and Futurism.com.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=dreams-of-a-transhumanist-futureSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Has contemporary culture abandoned the quest for the sublime? Our experts try to find out.Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesFrom Rembrandt to Rothko, Mozart to Wagner, art and music have the capacity to give us a feeling of the sublime and transcendent wonder. Yet in contemporary culture the sublime is rare and for the most part not even desired. Few would claim that watching the WAP video or Takashi Murakami's art are gateways to the sublime.What really is the sublime and where can we find it in the 21st century?Thought-provoking author Olivia Fane, journalist and social critic Minna Salami, radical biologist Rupert Sheldrake and award-winning novelist Joanna Kavenna interrogate our awe at what lies beyond, and how it does - and doesn't - manifest today. Mark Salter hosts.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=art-beyond-the-sublimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is metaphysics back in fashion? Or is philosophy getting increasingly lost?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesThe twentieth century began with a revolutionary new approach to philosophy. The great arguments about the nature of reality and human experience were deemed empty and meaningless. A new philosophical broom, in the form of analytic philosophy, claimed to sweep away vacuous grand theories and replace them with hard logic and analysis and a close attention to the meaning of the words. Yet, a hundred years on metaphysics is back. Theories of consciousness and the character of reality are once again the topic of debate.Should we welcome this return to stories about the ultimate character of the world? Or do they risk being empty, conveying little other than the prejudices and desires of their authors? Are grand metaphysical theories about the nature of reality and consciousness vital topics of debate or a set of fairy tales?Legendary Neurophilosophy pioneer Patricia Churchland, Closure theorist Hilary Lawson and analytic philosopher Galen Strawson lock horns over the future of metaphysics.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-return-of-metaphysicsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How does panpsychism clash with fundamental physics? Does it? Can we find a theory that supports science AND philosophy to finally explain consciousness?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesIn this episode Philip Goff responds to recent critiques of panpsychism by theoretical physicists Sean Carroll and Sabine Hossenfelder, and then explores some implications for the science of consciousness.Philip Goff is a philosopher of consciousness at Durham University. His research focuses on integrating consciousness into our scientific worldview. His 2019 book Galileo's Error sets out his defence of panpsychism rooted in an analysis of the work of Arthur Eddington and Bertrand Russell.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-many-voices-of-consciousnessSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do we make decisions regarding our children in an impossibly complicated digital world?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesTechnology is changing parenthood. From children raised by smartphones, to making choices about gene-editing and enhancement, Melanie Challenger asks what it means to be a parent in a technological age.Melanie Challenger is a researcher on the history of humanity and the natural world, and on environmental philosophy. Her latest book, How to Be Animal: A New History of What It Means to Be Human was published by Canongate in 2021.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=Technological-parentingSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.