Though it's bound to upset people, I don't think being in the military is honorable. I think it's a sign of weakness, and in most circumstances, it causes more harm than good. Submitting to orders is not noble. Killing people because you were commanded to isn't courageous. Believing propaganda is not respectable. Soldiers are how they've been used: as political pawns for ambitious men. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Dec 08, 2016•19 min
What are numbers? What are concepts? Do they exist, or do we just act like they exist? I'm joined by Dr. Jody Azzouni of Tufts University. He's a philosopher who has been arguing for nominalism for years - the idea that numbers and abstract objects don't exist at all. His position is a wonderful contrast to the previous interviews I've done on this topic, where the guests have been Platonists. My own views sit in-between nominalism and Platonism. I think abstract objects exist, but they do not e...
Dec 04, 2016•59 min
If consciousness can't be explained within the conceptual toolbox of physicalism, then what's an alternative theory? Are we stuck with dualism? This is my breakdown of the interview with Professor Bram about consciousness, machine intelligence, and the implications of rejecting reductive physicalism. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Nov 28, 2016•43 min
Since recorded history, people have been talking about "religious" or "spiritual" experiences. It's a shame that intellectuals are no longer able to discuss them openly. It's become taboo. Fortunately, my guest doesn't care about taboos, and he shares some details about his own religious experiences, and I do as well. We're not the only intellectuals with these experiences, and it's about time we start talking about it. The ideas are too important to leave unexamined. Get full access to Steve Pa...
Nov 20, 2016•52 min
Cultures are not delicate flowers that must be preserved until the end of time. Cultures emerge from different individuals trying to best navigate life. Cultures have positive traits and negative traits. As humans, we should steal the positive and leave the negative behind. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Nov 17, 2016•13 min
It all started with mashed potatoes... Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Nov 10, 2016•7 min
Buddhist philosophy focuses on some of the most difficult questions in philosophy - what is the "self"? What is the self's relationship to consciousness? Are there meaningful boundaries in the universe, or is everything a mental construction? To help me answer these questions, I'm joined by Dr. Janet Gyatso of Harvard University, who is the Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Nov 06, 2016•33 min
What's the difference between sex and gender? Is "being a woman" different than "identifying as a woman"? I suspect that a great deal of controversy surrounding transgender people comes down to the way we use language. If we keep a sharp distinction between sex and gender, any tension resolves itself. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Nov 03, 2016•15 min
Is the Trump phenomenon reactionary? Is it a cultural movement? What do conservatives think about Trump? I'm joined by the distinguished Dr. Harvey Mansfield, who has been teaching political philosophy at Harvard for more than 50 years. He has a distinctive conservative voice, and he shares his analysis of the 2016 election. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Oct 30, 2016•52 min
I have basic questions about Christian theology - What is God? Who is Jesus? What's the connection between humans and God? What does it mean to be "saved"? Does Christianity imply dualism? To find answers, I spoke with the theologian Dr. Ian McFarland at the University of Cambridge in England. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Oct 23, 2016•56 min
Where are the meaningful boundaries in reality? If there are none - if boundaries are a construction of the mind - then there is no difference between "self" and "not-self", or between "the perceiver" and "the perceived". In this way, mystics claim that "all is one". It's a beautiful idea, though I don't think it's quite accurate. Regardless, it needs to be rationally defended and grappled with. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Oct 20, 2016•9 min
It's no secret that I'm a curmudgeon. My rule of thumb is that "everybody is wrong about everything all the time." However, this extreme skepticism might be a methodological mistake. To challenge me, I'm joined by T.K. Coleman, who is one of the most positive thinkers around. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Oct 16, 2016•1 hr 3 min
Slavery was an injustice. Nobody disputes that. However, it's not clear that reparations will correct the injustice. In my view, reparations have rhetorical power, but they will not fix the problem. In fact, they will cause additional injustice. Reparations are theft in the present to pay for theft in the past. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Oct 13, 2016•12 min
The world of ideas is moving past academia. We're in the midst of it. More and more people are realizing that the "experts" aren't as knowledgeable as they've been told - and that formal credentialing doesn't guarantee you a job upon graduation. The community of dissatisfied intellectuals is growing, and I want to be part of it. Let's build the community that we'd like to see. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Oct 09, 2016•37 min
Not all certainly true propositions are logically necessary. I discovered this several years ago while laying in bed, thinking about steak. Who said philosophy should be confined to a classroom? Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Oct 06, 2016•5 min
Is the brain a computer? Do machines calculate the same way humans do? Can artificial intelligence ever be conscious? What does it even mean to be "intelligent"? To help me answer these questions, I spoke with Dr. Bram van Heuveln of RPI. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Oct 02, 2016•47 min
Statistical anomalies: are they divine, or merely coincidental? One-in-a-million events are consistent with two mutually exclusive theories - so how to choose between them? Questions like this throw us inescapably into the world of philosophy and theoretical reasoning. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Sep 29, 2016•10 min
Breakdown of John Searle's philosophy of mind. His own resolution to the mind/body problem is called "biological naturalism". In my analysis, Searle is a closet dualist - even if he despises the title. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Sep 25, 2016•35 min
Religious people have a certain quality that I've noticed over the years. It isn't about their beliefs. It isn't about their methods for reasoning. It's about something else: their commitment to the truth as they perceive it. If that's true, then religiosity isn't a bad thing itself. In fact, if it's coupled with philosophy and critical reasoning, it's something to admire. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Sep 22, 2016•11 min
"The truth is that there is no truth". That roughly summarizes postmodern philosophy. To my mind, this is an elementary error. It is a self-evident contradiction. However, I admit that I'm biased towards logic and rationality. To help me understand postmodernism better, I am joined by Dr. Stephen Hicks, who explains the history and ideas of postmodern philosophy. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Sep 18, 2016•53 min
Progressives are masters of indignation. But before talking about how things "should be", it seems wise to first understand how things actually are. Worldviews not guided by economics are inaccurate at best, and dangerous at worst. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Sep 14, 2016•9 min
For nearly a century, the concept of "infinite sets" has rested at the foundations of modern mathematics. I have a tough time grasping this concept, so I asked Dr. Daniel Isaacson of Oxford University to help me out. We cover two definitions for infinity, discuss the metaphysics of mathematics, and cover some basic "intuitionist" concepts. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Sep 11, 2016•47 min
I've always been fascinated by so-called "crazy" people. Why do they believe what they believe? Could they be right? What if I'm the crazy person, while they are the sane ones? Perhaps they only appear crazy to me because my mind is broken? After worrying about these ideas for years, I've settled on an answer. There is only one objective standard for sanity: logic. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Sep 08, 2016•9 min
The mind-body problem has been discussed for thousands of years. Does consciousness require the supernatural? Dr. John Searle emphatically says no. He's known for his own resolution to the mind-body problem, called "biological naturalism", and that's what we discuss today. It fits somewhere between eliminative physicalism and dualism. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Sep 04, 2016•31 min
We cannot overlook the boundaries of our concepts. If our concepts are fuzzy, then our thinking will be fuzzy. Continuums present a serious logical challenge to many ideas. As far as I can tell, the best way to overcome the problems of continuums is to eliminate them altogether. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe
Sep 01, 2016•10 min
Breaking down my interview with Dr. Bruce Cain of Stanford University. He and I both agree that more democracy isn't always a good thing - but we disagree about everything else. We go from talking about the foundations for democracy to examining the foundations of all government - and inevitably end up talking about anarchism. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Aug 28, 2016•50 min
Is logic just a Western convention? Do other cultures have other logics? No and no. Logic is the inescapable rules of existence, and those rules do not depend on our conception or understanding of them. They are presupposed by every thought and every proposition. I didn't invent the laws of logic, but I've discovered them, along with many other philosophers throughout history. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Aug 24, 2016•9 min
An increasing amount of "experts" do not seem to understand the basics of their field. Economics is no exception. To understand the world, I am convinced one must understand economics - and you have to start with the basic concepts. If the basics are wrong, your analysis will be foundationally flawed. I'm joined by Dr. Donald Boudreaux, who writes a lot about the basics, and we cover some of the important ideas that have to be understood before analyzing anything more complex. Get full access to...
Aug 22, 2016•54 min
When two people disagree, their ideas are not automatically equally plausible. Some ideas are superior than others. Proposition X is not equally reasonable as proposition Y simply because they are both propositions. I call this an "abstraction error", and you see it everywhere in the world of ideas. Cultures, ideas, political theories, epistemologies - we cannot evaluate them in the abstract. We have to dive into the concrete. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.subst...
Aug 22, 2016•10 min
Democracy is almost universally seen as a good thing, but it has serious drawbacks. Is there any alternative to democracy? Are there any constraints on democracy? Is there any recourse a minority has when a majority wants to oppress them? What makes democracy - and government in general - legitimate? To help me answer these questions in political theory, I'm joined by Dr. Bruce Cain of Stanford University. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe...
Aug 14, 2016•1 hr 5 min
