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Philosophy
**ToKCast**

This is a podcast largely about the work of David Deutsch and his books ”The Beginning of Infinity” and ”The Fabric of Reality”.

Latest Episodes:

Ep 41: Deutsch Discoveries: Part 2 of an introduction to the philosophy of David Deutsch Dec 04, 2020

Show notes

In this episode I cover more of David Deutsch's contributions to philosophy. In order these are:

1. The true function of evidence in science

2. How the quantum multiverse is a testable theory

3. All evils are due to insufficient knowledge and how morality is about "What to do next".

4. The mathematician's misconception (i.e: that mathematical proof is independent of the known laws of physics).

Ep 40: Popper Pieces - Part 2 of an Introduction to Popper Nov 20, 2020

Show notes

This is part 2 of my introduction to Popper series.

Here I cover

1. The concept of "conjectures"

2. Common Sense

3. Realism

4. The bucket and the searchlight

5. Debating definitions

Yes. It's only 2 episodes in, and I have violated my self-imposed 10 minute limit rule. But I think it was worth it, rather than splitting these in two.

To support this podcast, visit https://www.patreon.com/BrettRHall to make a monthly donation

or https://www.patreon.com/tokcast to contribute per episode. Thank you kindly to all donors.

Ep 39 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 2 Nov 19, 2020

Show notes

This is the second in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the causes of a static society: that rule (rather than the exception) about progress coming to a halt in human communities. We follow on from part 1 in looking at how memes get replicated and how different kinds of memes have different effects upon their holders the the wider society.

Ep 38 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 1 Nov 14, 2020

Show notes

This is the first in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the notion of a meme and consider under what conditions ideas replicate. As we touch upon: this is a question of civilizational consequence as it is related to the ability of a society to break out of being "static" (one with little to no progress) and become a modern "dynamic" one (where progress is unbounded).

Ep 37: An intermittent introduction to Popper and Deutsch Nov 13, 2020

Show notes

A very brief, and personal, introduction to the philosophy of Karl Popper and David Deutsch. Note that the Youtube version of this exists in 3 parts, each of which has visuals that may help some with the explanations.

Ep 36: The Borders of Ideas Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

This is some commentary upon a recent debate Douglas Murray was engaged in - which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3sSnmq9uKU It is, broadly speaking, an excellent encounter, modulo - as Douglas rightly observes - the tendency for his interlocutor to resort to insults or other ad hominem remarks. I reflect on Douglas' position (with which I largely agree) and attempt to connect his remarks to some underlying modern philosophy. (Modern, I hasten to add, not "postmodern"!).

Ep 35 Ch 14 "Why are Flowers Beautiful?" Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

Audio listeners, please note: This episode contains a lot more visuals than my usual podcasts. As always this can be found on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWZ4GcRd-_8 if you want the full experience. I'm referring to images and so on throughout, or the images are illustrating what I am saying without comment.

In this chapter we counter a number of prevailing views about the arts: the purposes of art and the possibility of objective standards of beauty. This leads to a discussion of the place of inexplicit knowledge when creating in the arts and how the "hard to vary" quality of explanations finds an analogue in the art. All of this discussion comes through the lens of beauty in nature and how flowers evolved to be attractive. But this attractive quality of flowers is not a mere matter of opinion for both insects and people find flowers attractive.

Ep 34 Ch 13 “Choices” Part 2. Some readings and remarks. Oct 18, 2020

Show notes

This is some reading and reflections upon chapter 13 of "The Beginning of Infinity". In this second part we consider criteria for democracy and democratic institutions. I take a deep dive into Popper's own writings on the topic to supplement the material in David's book. There is even, what we might call, some "self help" when it comes to making choices, or making better choices, or cultivating a better approach to problem solving when no option seems viable. Popper's article on democracy can be found here: https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2016/01/31/from-the-archives-the-open-society-and-its-enemies-revisited

Ep 33 Ch 13 "Choices" Part 1. Some readings and remarks. Oct 09, 2020

Show notes

This is the first episode of 2 parts all about chapter 13 "Choices" from "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. Here we take a deep dive into voting systems and what this means for decision making more broadly: both as societies and individuals. Logic and fairness seem to come in conflict if we become reductionist and turn only to mathematics in order to make rational choices. As always the "David Deutsch" take on what might otherwise seem to be a parochial issue turns out to have civilisation level consequences.

Ep 32 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 3. Some readings and remarks Oct 01, 2020

Show notes

This is the third episode in a 3 part series about chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". This part is focussed in a more specific way on bad science (that being explanationless science). We also delve into the nature of personhood once more, its moral significance and the possibility of having an experience as a human animal versus a non-human animal.

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