Walden Pod

The conclusion of our series on panpsychism, the view that the what-it-is-like-ness of conscious experience is fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world. Transcripts of episodes available at emersongreenblog.wordpress.com Contact me at emersongreen@protonmail.com or facebook.com/counterapologeticspodcast Subscribe on YouTube to Walden Pod and Counter Apologetics If you would, please rate Wal...

The Combination Problem is widely considered to be the most serious difficulty facing panpsychism. The exact nature of the problem depends on your view of fundamental reality (the parts that are being combined) and the self (what is being formed through combination). We also discuss Galileo, the fusion view, Giulio Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory, and a few other related issues. Subscribe t...

We discuss a few more common objections to panpsychism, including Dan Dennett’s pan-nifty-ism, mysterianism, the woo accusation, and appeals to neuroscience. Get early access to episodes and access to premium episodes at  https://www.patreon.com/waldenpod

We address four common objections to panpsychism, argue that a heavier burden falls on the materialist than the panpsychist, and discuss why panpsychism is more Copernican than its competitors.  (1) “The incredulous stare,” or an argument from strangeness, which appeals to our common sense and argues that panpsychism is forbiddingly counter-intuitive.  (2) Falsifiability. Isn’t panpsychism unfalsi...

"Panpsychism," says Thomas Nagel, “appears to follow from a few simple premises, each of which is more plausible than its denial, though not perhaps more plausible than the denial of panpsychism.” Any non-panpsychist is going to have to deny one of these four premises: (1) Material composition, (2) Realism, (3) Nonreductionism, or (4) Nonemergence. Panpsychism seems to follow from these, and those...

We discuss two kinds of emergence, our evolved ‘theory of mind’ module, our epistemological foundations regarding the intrinsic nature of matter, élan vital, niftiness, the objective/subjective distinction, and how it all relates to panpsychism and the hard problem of consciousness.  The other voice you heard was from Hedda Hassel Mørch of the University of Oslo. You can listen to her interviews o...

In the second episode in our series on panpsychism, we establish a definition of consciousness.  The Mystery of Consciousness - Sam Harris [Blog]  Galen Strawson - Things That Bother Me (contains The Silliest Claim and Real Naturalism) [Amazon] Moral Questions - Thomas Nagel (contains ‘What is it like to be a bat?’ and other essays) [Amazon]

Today we begin our series on panpsychism.  Panpsychism [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]  Galen Strawson - Panpsychism [YouTube] Galen Strawson - Does the Soul Exist? [YouTube]  Annaka Harris - Conscious [YouTube]

In this clip, we discuss natural teleology. Subscribe at patreon.com/waldenpod for the patron feed, where you can hear the full version of this episode and others.

In 1948, Bertrand Russell gave a name to something all propagandists are familiar with: different words and phrases can be factual synonyms, but emotional antonyms. Words can be technically synonymous, but have very different emotional connotations. This can be used to manipulate entirely different responses to the same underlying reality.  “Firmness” is behaviorally identical to “stubbornness,” y...

For nerd rage, subscribe at Patreon.com/waldenpod to hear the full episode explaining why Ari Aster’s Hereditary was one of the most overrated horror movies of the decade.

Is western civilization a product of Judeo-Christian values? Religious believers assert that Judeo-Christian values influenced the thinkers of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment so greatly that their religion deserves credit as the foundation of western values. Even if Judeo-Christian beliefs are entirely untrue, could the mythology be a useful fiction that created the west as we know it? Ratio...

Is there any value to philosophy in the modern age? Why does there seem to be a conflict between science and philosophy?  There is no reason for science to be at odds with philosophy, and for the vast majority of western history, the two were not at odds. In fact, science wasn’t considered something separate from philosophy until the past couple centuries. Recently, scientists and philosophers hav...