MeaningofLife.tv: Mind-Body Problems

Latest Episodes:

The Case Against Thomas Kuhn (John Horgan & Errol Morris) Apr 20, 2020

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Can we ever really know the world? ... Debating the ideas of Thomas Kuhn, famous philosopher of science ... Will we ever see the end of war? ... Errol's book about Kuhn, The Ashtray: (Or the Man Who Denied Reality) ... Errol: Science without truth cannot live ... John sticks up for Kuhn ... Errol's vexed personal relationship with Kuhn ... Stephen Hawking's sense of humor ... Errol: "We're a dumbass species" ... The glass is half empty and filled with poison ...

Scientist, Philosopher, Stoic (John Horgan & Massimo Pigliucci) Jan 29, 2020

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How Massimo's midlife crisis moved him from biologist to philosopher ... What's the point of philosophy? ... Philosophical doubt as as a counterweight to scientific confidence ... John mistrusts science's yearning for certainty ... Massimo's path to stoicism ... Can reason make you happier? ... Abusive Buddhist gurus and other unexpectedly bad people ... Was Seneca a hypocritical asshole? ...

Spiritual Science (John Horgan & Steve Taylor) Jan 17, 2020

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Steve's childhood experiences of euphoria in nature ... Why Steve prefers "wakefulness" to "enlightenment" ... Does being "awakened" make you a better person? ... Steve: "Being a parent is a spiritual path" ... Steve's new book, Spiritual Science ... "Panspiritism" as an alternative to panpsychism ... How is "the spirit" different than God? ... Was there a point in prehistory when man behaved morally? ... Brexit, Trump, and encounters with death that lead to transformation ...

Universal Consciousness (John Horgan & Bernardo Kastrup) Jul 11, 2019

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Why Bernardo thinks the mind-body problem is not as hard as it seems ... Bernardo’s spiritual, intellectual, and psychedelic history ... God, metacognition, and the Universe ... The consolations of Bernardo’s philosophy ... Bernardo: The Universe has multiple personality disorder ... The narcissism of a human-centered Universe ... Why John thinks we’ll never solve the mind-body problem ...

Epiphanies of Mind (John Horgan & Jeffrey Kripal) Jun 22, 2019

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Jeff’s new book, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge ... How John and Jeff make sense of Freud ... Jeff redefines the “paranormal” ... What belief in levitation or clairvoyance reveals about human nature ... Are hardcore atheists/materialists doing religious fundamentalism a favor? ... The death and rebirth of good old human narcissism ... Jeff on humanity’s future and the nature of optimism ...

The Theology of Communication (Nikita Petrov & John Horgan) Mar 05, 2019

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Nikita launches a YouTube channel and a Patreon page ... Could depression be rational? ... The nihilistic/psychedelic/Buddhist Russian writer Victor Pelevin ... Louis CK and the problem of evil ... Gnosticism and the blunder of creation ... The mystery of communication ... Russia is a book, America is a computer game ...