Walden Pod

We discuss poetic naturalism and its nemesis, tunnel vision reductionism. Tunnel vision reductionism takes one description of reality and declares it to be the “real” description of reality to the exclusion of all others. At the very least, the given lower level of description is considered “more true” than higher-level descriptions. The basic problem with tunnel vision reductionism is that it has...

Here’s my conversation with John Buck and Craig Reid that was held on Craig’s YouTube channel. I was invited on to discuss atheism and consciousness, two of my favorite subjects. Unfortunately we were having audio issues at different points, but I did a bit of editing to make it more listenable. Craig’s channel is primarily devoted to Christian apologetics, but here we mostly discuss consciousness...

When it comes to the combination problem, there are almost always controversial hidden assumptions about the stuff doing the combining and about the entity being formed by the combining. The assumptions one makes about the self and physical reality alter the difficulty and nature of the combination problem. As Luke Roelofs has argued in his extensive book, Combining Minds, the combination problem...

We discuss the ideas that have led me away from physicalism. Specifically, realism about phenomenal consciousness, phenomenal precision, nonemergence (that there is only weak emergence, no strong emergence), monism, the objective/subjective divide, and the explanatory gap. David Chalmers - Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness [text] Galen Strawson - Realistic monism: why physicalism entails p...

We discuss the metaphysical views of pessimist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, as elaborated in his magnum opus, The World as Will and Representation. Schopenhauer developed a fascinating dual-aspect monism, according to which from outside, the world appears as representation, but from inside, it appears as will: ontological monism and epistemological dualism. To Schopenhauer, desire-driven will...

I would like to introduce what may be a new argument, the f-inductive argument from consciousness for panpsychism.  Panpsychism entails the existence of consciousness, whereas most competing views do not. The evidence—consciousness, in this case—is not surprising on the hypothesis of panpsychism, but is surprising on the hypothesis of physicalism, as well as many of panpsychism’s rivals. The proba...

Here’s a very short overview of my version of panpsychism. Please keep in mind that this contains some technical language and assumes some background knowledge in philosophy of mind.  @waldenpod on Twitter and @OnPanpsychism Transcript Rate the show on iTunes here Support the podcast at patreon.com/waldenpod Listen to our sister show Counter Apologetics here Subscribe to CA and Walden Pod on YouTu...

Micah Edvenson is here to corrupt the youth and spread communist propaganda with me today as we discuss socialism, why the kids are doing it, and much more. We talk about egalitarianism, inequality, the Soviet Union, the skeptical movement, libertarianism, taxation, whether socialists should support open borders, and answer several common anti-socialist canards. Videos and Articles (in the order t...

Nino Kadic is a third year PhD student at King’s College, London. I recently saw Nino deliver a presentation at the Science of Consciousness Conference called Dynamic Selves: An Outline for a New Type of Panpsychism, and I reached out to him to talk more about it. We discuss the combination problem for panpsychism, Leibniz, phenomenal routing, supervenience, strong vs. weak emergence, the phenomen...

Is materialism compatible with the reality of phenomenal consciousness? I argue no. If one wishes to remain a materialist, they will eventually have to give up the reality of phenomenal consciousness and join the eliminativists. The logical result of materialism is illusionism. So if one wishes to remain a realist about phenomenal consciousness, they must abandon materialism. Some important defini...

Thought experiments have played a crucial role in the development of mathematics, philosophy, and science. As implausible as it may seem, reasoning a priori , comfortably from our armchairs, can actually teach us about the real world and drive progress in our understanding. Even ethical thought experiments have changed the minds and influenced the behavior of those who have been presented with the...

I’m suspicious of ethical thought experiments. These short hypothetical scenarios are often presented context-free, eliminating morally relevant detail. And in the course of probing our intuitions, they often include detail that we wouldn’t have in the real world. In effect, we end up discussing a world vastly different from our own. The elimination of information that we usually possess and inclu...

Jacob Bell has written articles on ancient philosophy for Classical Wisdom Weekly, and he manages a popular Facebook page called Philosophy Daily. We discuss what’s become the norm for this podcast, consciousness. We spend a lot of time on neutral monism and structural realism (or as it’s sometimes called, relational metaphysics). We also touch upon emergence, intrinsic natures, causation, and the...

We discuss three arguments against epiphenomenalism, the view that consciousness has no physical effects. (I) Plausible Examples of Mental Causation a. Utterances about phenomenal consciousness b. The placebo effect (II) Popper’s Deductive Evolutionary Argument (III) James’s Abductive Evolutionary Argument Hedda Hassel Mørch - The Evolutionary Argument for Phenomenal Powers [PDF] Mørch’s paper was...

We compare the merits of property versus substance dualism using William Lycan’s paper, “Is property dualism better off than substance dualism?” William Lycan - Is property dualism better off than substance dualism? [JSTOR] John Searle - Why I Am Not A Property Dualist [PDF] Richard Swinburne clip on brain events vs. sensations [Twitter] And since I mentioned dual-aspect monism a few times, here’s...

We discuss Thomas Nagel's controversial book, Mind and Cosmos. The book has quite a reputation, but I think it's often misunderstood. Intelligent design proponents, happy to be taken seriously for once, hilariously extol the book. They don’t seem to realize that while the book does take them more seriously than they’re used to, it also provides naturalistic answers to all their objections. I guess...

Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder wrote a critique of panpsychism that’s become widely-cited in The Panpsychism Wars. Hossenfelder argues that physics has ruled out panpsychism. Panpsychists simply haven’t attempted to reconcile the massive conflict with the evidence. However, her arguments are deeply flawed, and one doesn’t need to affirm panpsychism to notice. Sabine Hossenfelder “Electr...

Is panpsychism the modern élan vital? Though many opponents of panpsychism have drawn the comparison, élan vital is a terrible analogy for consciousness and panpsychism. I’ve noticed that vitalism comes up frequently in discussions about consciousness. I think the lazy analogy that’s often drawn between the panpsychist and vitalist projects needs to be examined. Thomas Nagel - What is it like to b...

I’m joined by Aaron Rabinowitz of Embrace the Void and Philosophers in Space to discuss his view of consciousness and its place in nature. And to avenge all those who have suffered under his ETV Lightning Rounds, he’s also subjected to his own Realist / Antirealist Lightning Round. Our first discussion on The Right to Reason Podcast: https://therighttoreason.podbean.com/e/panpsychism-debate/ You c...

We answer one of the more common challenges issued to panpsychists: some variation of “Show me the evidence.” We discuss whether panpsychism can be tested, our theory of mind module, emergence, Descartes's conception of matter, Occam’s Razor, and the fact that consciousness is always inferred, never observed. “We can but infer sentience rather than verify it, and people will differ in their guesse...

Happy Darwin Day! We discuss geneticist Dimitri Belyaev’s efforts to domesticate the Russian silver fox, and how his experiments shed light on the domestication of grey wolves. Belyaev's Foxes [Scientific American] Rats and Foxes [NYT] The Greatest Show On Earth - Richard Dawkins [Amazon] “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few f...

I am not an antinatalist. It would seem, however, that the idea has been growing in popularity. I hold that 'the asymmetry problem' is a decisive blow to strong antinatalism. I also reject weak antinatalism on epistemological grounds. Environmental antinatalism, arguably the most popular form, can also be rejected since it is not the best solution to the environmental challenges that we face. We a...

This episode is a work of fiction. The PDF is available here: Work and Its Own, or In Defense of Those Who Take Really Long Bathroom Breaks

I try to answer the question, "What's the value of philosophy?" This is a sequel to episode one of this podcast, Is philosophy dead? Bertrand Russell - The Value of Philosophy [pdf] David Egan on Philosophy [Aeon] The Panpsycast is a great philosophy podcast, as is Stephen West’s Philosophize This! Transcripts available at emersongreenblog.wordpress.com Rate the show on iTunes here Support on Patr...

Is ideology a bad thing? Should we strive to free ourselves from ideology? I think there is a lot of confusion around the concept, and that the word has wrongly fallen into disrepute. Ideology is frequently conflated with dogma, closed-mindedness, and irrational certainty. Ideology, however, is merely a “a system of ideas and ideals,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s a set of descr...