72 min listen
Eric Schwitzgebel, "The Weirdness of the World" (Princeton UP, 2024)
Eric Schwitzgebel, "The Weirdness of the World" (Princeton UP, 2024)
ratings:
Length:
62 minutes
Released:
Apr 10, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
"What's life for if there's no time to play and explore?" In The Weirdness of the World (Princeton UP, 2024), Eric Schwitzgebel invites the reader to a walk on the wilder side of philosophical speculation about the cosmos and consciousness. Is consciousness entirely a material phenomenon? How much credence should we have in the existence of a world outside our minds? Are there multiple parallel universes? Schwitzgebel, a professor of philosophy at the University of California-Riverside, constructs chains of conditional probabilities to explore the zone just beyond the edge of what we can understand, however imperfectly, given current scientific theory. He distinguishes hypothetical scenarios that are not worth taking seriously – like being a brain in a vat – from those that are just plausible enough to deserve playful, yet motivated, consideration.
Released:
Apr 10, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Jason Brennan, “The Ethics of Voting” (Princeton UP, 2011): It is commonly held that citizens in a democratic society have a civic duty to participate in the processes of collective self-government. Often, this duty is held to be satisfied by voting. In fact, the sentiment is commonly expressed that voting is a... by Princeton UP Ideas Podcast