Love & Philosophy

Beyond Dichotomy | Andrea Hiott
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It's reasonable to care. Exploring philosophical, scientific, technological & poetic spaces beyond either/or bounds. From the heart. Deeply researched. Mostly unscripted. Hosted by philosopher and cognitive scientist Andrea Hiott. A project with Making Ways. Buy the book Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness. And join the Substack.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    #87 the Money Koan: towards a new philosophy of curren(t)cy and care with investor Jenna Nicholas

    Send a love message Andrea Hiott in conversation with investor Jenna Nicholas.  Jenna discusses her book The Enlightened Bottom Line and how spirituality, love, and purpose can inform investing and business rather than oppose them. She traces formative experiences from ages 11–14 in a Swiss “Transformation for Peace” program and speaking at Commonwealth Day in Westminster Abbey, including meeting Desmond Tutu, to the confidence instilled by her mother and grandmother, faith, and a lifelong practice of hosting “Saturdays at Jen’s” discussion groups. After moving from London to Stanford, she was inspired by social entrepreneurs, worked on socially responsible investing in China with mentor Wayne Silby (Calvert Funds), and later organized experiences and interviews exploring profit–purpose paradoxes. She describes practices like symbolic objects to bridge divides, dreams-based decision-making in the Amazon, and a HEAL framework (Hope, Empathy, Abundance, Legacy), emphasizing pauses, stewardship, seven-generation thinking, and money as “currency” valuable when in motion. Find Jenna’s book The Enlightened Bottom Line here. Parker Palmer conversation with Andrea is here Jacob Needleman conversation with Andrea is here. 00:00 Welcome and Book Setup 00:25 Teen Years and Abbey Speech 02:25 Tutu High Five and Lasting Joy 04:01 the Women Who Raised Her 06:48 Holding Paradox in Community 08:56 From Stanford to Impact Investing 11:40 Choosing Stanford by Fate 14:43 Wayne Silby and Legacy Shift 17:18 Bhutan and Business of Happiness 19:24 Enoughness and Inner Compass 22:52 Saturdays at Jens Conversations 25:14 Fierce Love in Organizations 27:25 Creating Listening Spaces 28:03 Building Impact Experience 28:40 Coal Meets Solar Values 30:13 Redefining Money Capital 34:00 Heal Framework Questions 35:37 Hope Empathy Abundance 37:16 Playful Abundance Wand 40:04 Amazon Dream Circles 43:03 Death Joy Legacy 46:31 Stewardship Seven Generations 49:02 Reflection Questions Pauses 52:40 Grandmother Loving Kindness 55:37 Honoring Stories Love 57:15 Podcast Farewell The Enlightened Bottom Line by Jenna Nicholas Jenna’s Substack is here. Jenna on LinkedIn Baha’i Faith Books discussed in addition to the Enlightened Bottom Line: InnSaei: the Icelandic Art of Intuition by Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist  📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are... Support the show Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects. Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

    1hr 10min

  2. 7 MAY

    #86 A.A. Kostas and his WayMarkers (including Chris McCandless, C.S. Lewis, Robert Pirsig, Thomas Merton, D.T. Suzuki, & Christian mystics)

    Send a love message What Marks our Movement through life? Andrea Hiott interviews A.A. Kostas, a Singapore-based lawyer and writer who runs the Substack Way Markers, blending poetry, fiction, and essays. They discuss how moving through different places shaped his writing and his interest in avoiding simplistic binaries through discernment—first identifying what kind of decision is in front of you—using hiking metaphors of many paths versus a narrow ridge. Alex cites Into the Wild as a cautionary way marker about seeking truth without rejecting human connection, and describes a Cradle Mountain hike where his wife had to find her own route. They explore how technology reinforces binary thinking, why poetry and music hold meanings beneath prose, and the value of humility from engaging Western and Eastern traditions (including Merton and Suzuki). They examine care as uncomfortable attention, the importance of embodied presence, and Alex’s experience of fatherhood as immediate responsibility and obligation where love grows. 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 02:21 Becoming a Writer 03:51 Growing Up Everywhere 05:15 What Is Way Markers 07:12 Pilgrimage and Substack 10:29 Into the Wild Lessons 14:29 Beyond Binary Thinking 18:49 Cradle Mountain Metaphor 22:36 Discernment and Ridge Lines 25:20 Tech Shapes Our Minds 27:00 Why Braid Genres 31:04 Music and Poetry Under Language 34:12 Law as Applied Philosophy 37:41 Zen Meets Catholic Mysticism 43:00 Humility and Unknowing 46:48 Craving Oneness Safely 48:19 Mystical Moments Explained 50:20 Flow State With Meaning 51:00 Desire Points to God 52:25 You Cant Conjure Awe 56:14 Care In Writing 58:36 Audience Capture Trap 59:27 Pamphlets Off The Internet 01:02:40 Love Is Uncomfortable 01:17:58 Fellow Travelers And Faith 01:24:28 Humor Holds Paradox 01:28:34 Fatherhood And Obligation 01:32:18 Closing Reflections See the Substack for links to the books mentioned.  📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are... Support the show Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects. Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

    1hr 40min

  3. 27 APR

    #85 Punk, Tech & Care: B. Scot Rousse on Being Human in the Age AI and Ambassadors of Possibility (Dreyfus, Flores, Heidegger, Kierkegaard)

    Send a love message B. Scot Rousse (“B”)'s substack, "Without Why," focuses on what it means to be alive in an age of intelligent machines. He is philosopher in residence at Topos Institute and visiting scholar in Philosophy at Berkeley. He also drums in 3 punk bands. To support us, please sign up for the newsletter or Give any amount. Andrea Hiott has a conversation with philosopher B. Scot Rousse (“B”). B is an Oakland-based, Berkeley-affiliated Heidegger and phenomenology scholar focused on AI’s effects on our capacities to care. He is also a Topos Institute affiliate and a punk drummer. Andrea and B discuss Heidegger’s care as living in “meaningful differences,” embodied affordances, moods, and existential orientation. They explore how AI risks compulsive optimization and an overly narrow picture of the role of language in human life. B argues that technologies design ways of being human, urges users and designers to ask “for the sake of what,” articulates punk’s embodied, communal, joyful “controlled chaos” as an antidote to technological nihilism, and celebrates love and care in their visceral, pluralistic, and risky uncontrollability. Along the way, B traces a path from growing up Hare Krishna in Florida, to an encounter with a philosophy teacher who encouraged his transfer to UC Berkeley where he came under the mentorship of Hubert Dreyfus, whose teaching and critiques of symbolic AI shaped B’s work. B also shares about his work with philosopher-entrepreneur Fernando Flores (thanks to an introduction by Dreyfus), who applies philosophy to organizational “networks of conversations” that coordinate commitments and care for customer concerns, drawing on his experience in Chilean political history and ontological reinterpretation of entrepreneurship. In all of these experiences, B focuses on an abiding and urgent question: How do we protect our capacity to care in an age of optimization? How can you create, in your life, your version of the worldly joy and shared meaning of being in a punk band? B’s substack is Without Why.  He currently drums in the bands Realistic, Vexxyl, and Wildfire. Here is the piece on Hubert Drefyus that Andrea mentions. Subscribe to B’s YouTube channel here. Support the Hubert Dreyfus Audio Archive Project here. Share Subscribe now 00:00 Welcome and Care Question 00:36 Meet B Scot Rousse 04:31 Highlights and Themes 07:08 B Introduces Himself 08:14 From Krishna Roots to Philosophy 10:27 Teacher to Berkeley and Dreyfus 12:01 Ambassadors of Possibility 13:16 Dreyfus Mentorship Years 14:52 Fernando Flores and Careful Organizations 18:40 Heideggerian Care Meets AI 23:56 Care and Agency in Analytic Ethics 30:04 Mattering and Affordances 33:13 Dreyfus on Technology and Optimization 38:00 Language as Commitments Not Info 39:02 Language as Commitment 40:54 Why LLMs Aren’t Human Language 43:18 Training, Deployment, Disembodiment 45:22 Languaging vs Symbol Systems 49:44 Care and Ontological Design 52:41 Compulsive Chatbot Loops 55:30 Disorientation and No Recipes 01:02:10 Kierkegaard and Commitment 01:11:35 Practicing Conversation with AI 01:14:38 Punk as Embodied Community 01:17:46 Punk As Belonging 01:18:50 Drummer Life And Community 01:19:14 Mood Joy And Chaos 01:21:10 Entropy And AI Randomness 01:23:19 Choosing The Wild Path 01:27:01 Teaching At The Edge 01:33:01 Meaning Is Out There 45:45 Care As Human Int  📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are... Support the show Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects. Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

    1hr 51min

  4. 17 APR

    #84 There is No Average Individual: The Great Psychology Delusion with Marek McGann

    Send a love message The Great Psychology Delusion: Why the Mean Misleads and Pluralism Matters Read the book here. This is an academic psychology-focused episode with lecturer Marek McGann, whose work spans enactive cognitive science, embodiment, politics, feminist philosophy, and STS. Andrea and Marek discuss his co-authored book The Great Psychology Delusion with Craig Speelman. McGann explains why “delusion” fits psychology’s persistence in treating long-critiqued assumptions as valid, especially the aggregation delusion: averaging group data and applying it to individuals despite human non-interchangeability and change over time, linked to the ergodic assumption and ergodic theorem conditions rarely met in human behavior. They discuss how averaging can create misleading “laws” (e.g., power law of learning), the research–practice gap in clinical work, psychology’s history and method-driven identity, and the need for disciplined, pluralistic, scale-aware science that better integrates perspectives and practitioner expertise. 00:00 Show Intro And Guest 01:23 Book Thesis And Stakes 02:24 Aggregation Delusion Explained 03:54 Research Practice Gap 04:49 More Detailed Book Summary 07:47 Averaging Artifacts And Ergodicity 09:29 Careful Critique Not Anti Psychology 11:06 Warm Reorientation Sendoff 11:51 Conversation Begins 15:17 Why Call It Delusion 20:11 How Psychology Became Method Led 31:08 Aggregation Delusion Deep Dive 33:35 Ergodic Fallacy in Humans 35:21 Scale Slippage and Delusion 37:59 Research Practice Gap Explained 41:01 Clinician Code Switching 42:46 Many Scales of Mind 43:57 MRI Averaging Pitfalls 48:32 Method Silos and Identities 52:43 Care, Careers, and Canalization 55:27 GPS Model for Pluralism 01:00:33 Pluralism Not Relativism 01:02:58 Why Marek Cares 01:06:06 Psychology’s Moment of Change 01:06:56 Closing Thanks and Wrap Marek McGann has been a lecturer in the Department of Psychology since 2005. His principal research is theoretical work on the enactive approach to cognitive science, which examines the mind more as something we do rather than something we have. This is also related to ecological approaches to psychology, which explore how behaviour and mental life can be examined by looking at what your head is in, rather than what is in your head. He also has a related interest in critical considerations of theory and scientific practice in psychology more broadly. Marek co-convenes the ENSO Seminars, a series of online seminars with researchers from enactive and ecological cognitive science. The paper Andrea mentions: Facing Life Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.  📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are... Support the show Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects. Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

    1hr 9min
  5. BONUS Performance of your life: Is acting inherent to being human? Sophie Fiennes, Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod, Macbeth

    10 APR ·  BONUS

    BONUS Performance of your life: Is acting inherent to being human? Sophie Fiennes, Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod, Macbeth

    Send a love message This is an impromptu bonus episode previewing the NYC premiere of Sophie Fiennes’s documentary film Acting, which follows the celebrated theatre company Cheek by Jowl through their production of Macbeth. Andrea is speaking with her this week in NYC. Andrea introduces the ideas of director Declan Donnellan, whose book The Actor in the Space (2024) helps us get some insight into the film.  Subjects: the philosophy of performance to spatial cognition, presence, and what it means to be truly alive on stage — or anywhere. Perhaps this is a good moment to revisit the themes of Macbeth. Come Saturday April 11th at 6:45pm for the film and Q &A with Sophie Fiennes (and Andrea): ️tickets at https://quadcinema.com/film/acting/ Declan Donnellan: "Human beings are actors. It is hardwired into our DNA — from toddlers playing make-believe to old-age pensioners sharing jokes in the pub. We need to perform. It’s an essential part of being human. Acting starts early. We use it to develop our relationship with our mothers. We watch her and wonder, mirror her smiling, repeat the sounds she makes. We learn things by performing for her, and she performs for us. Does that mean we are lying to each other? Of course not. Performance is woven into the fabric of our lives. It’s as natural and important to us as breathing. Performance is not merely a habit that humans keep repeating across millennia, languages and cultures. It is more fundamental than that. Performance is what it is to be human. It is the operating system for life." The episode previews a bonus conversation with filmmaker Sophie Fiennes ahead of a screening of her film "Acting," about the London theater company Cheek by Jowl, co-founded by director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod. Andrea introduces Donnellan’s ideas from his books "The Actor and the Target" and "The Actor in the Space," emphasizing that performance is fundamental to being human and that acting depends on creating the conditions—especially the space and context—where a character can exist and feel alive, rather than forcing meaning or emotion. The script contrasts older, space-oriented filmmaking with faster kinetic editing, highlights the importance of giving audiences room for their own cognition, and includes clips from Macbeth rehearsal discussing dread, avoidance, and the challenge of convincing the audience. It ends with details about attending the New York screening and future posting of a longer conversation. All links to books and notes are here. 00:00 Love and Dread 00:11 Macbeth in Fragments 01:00 Creative Risk and Space 02:59 Audience Cognition and Care 03:55 Art Beyond Meaning 04:58 Bonus Episode Intro 06:39 Performing Everyday Life 08:11 Who Is Declan Donnellan 10:25 Performance as Human OS 12:12 Why Acting Is Hard 14:20 Alive in Rehearsal 16:24 Space That Supports Life 18:30 Care and Plugging In 21:43 Avoidance and Reacting 24:44 Philosophy and Presence 26:34 Macbeth Actor Dialogue 27:35 Closing Macbeth Beat  📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are... Support the show Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects. Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

    29 min
  6. #83 Wisdom Gates and Serious Play: Paradox, Care and Discovery with Puzzle-Maker Jasen Robillard

    7 APR

    #83 Wisdom Gates and Serious Play: Paradox, Care and Discovery with Puzzle-Maker Jasen Robillard

    Send a love message  Holding Paradox Through Serious Play: Can serious play be a portal to wisdom?  This is an episode about puzzles and care. Andrea has a conversation with puzzle maker Jason Robillard (StumpCraft) about how puzzles cultivate new ways of being and seeing, holding paradox by repeatedly joining opposites only to realize they were never quite opposites but mirror-like pieces of a coherent whole. Robillard describes his wooden, laser-cut puzzles built from Canadian fine art, with uniquely drawn organic pieces, symbolic elements, sensory “shock,” and sometimes multiple valid placements that challenge assumptions of a single solution. He connects puzzling to embodied experience, attention, OODA loops, cognitive biases, and navigating complexity through “alternating base camps” and Goldilocks destabilization, the metamodern idea of 'serious play', relating this to career upheavals and identity change. The conversation emphasizes care as community glue and highlights values embedded in his work—curiosity, creativity, integrity, and generosity—plus a resonance with David Whyte’s poem “Start Close In.” 00:00 Paradox Through Play 02:36 Podcast Intro Puzzles Theme 07:54 Meet Jason And His Work 09:20 Puzzles Holding Paradox 11:38 Designing Artful Wooden Puzzles 14:47 Embodied Senses And Touch 16:58 Career Shift Into Puzzles 23:24 Serious Play And Homo Ludens 25:50 Moving Childhood And Safety 31:57 Base Camps And Destabilization 34:30 Polarity Recipes Beyond Flatland 38:47 Designing Paradox Puzzles 39:48 Many Solutions Mindset 42:54 Puzzles as Conversation 47:53 Liminal Times Need Puzzles 56:00 Sensemaking and OODA Loops 01:00:22 Home Gifts and Community 01:03:17 Four Values in Design 01:11:29 Start Closer In Practice 01:13:39 Care Belonging and Vulnerability 01:18:52 Where to Find Jason 01:19:57 Closing Poem Reading StumpCraft Amazing Instagram Photos and Videos of Games Jasen’s writings: Releasing the Muse Jasen on LinkedIn Metamodern influences: Serious Play OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) Homo Ludens Jasen Robillard was always a closet creative who long denied the creative muses, focusing instead on a “secure” engineering career until it dried up in 2017. As is often the case, necessity proved to be the mother of invention… In 2016, Jasen started designing and prototyping his whimsical puzzles which were inspired by other wooden laser-cut puzzles he had enjoyed years earlier. He noted a lack of wooden puzzle availability in Canada, as well as a severe lack of deliberate focus on Canadian fine art. After a year of playful prototyping and a clear end to his engineering-focused career, Jasen decided to launch StumpCraft formally in 2017. Since the formal launch, StumpCraft has experienced growth and praise as more and more fans share their love of puzzles with friends and family members.  StumpCraft was also the recipient of the 2021 Made in Alberta Award in Games & Leisure, exposing us to an ever more rapidly expanding fanbase.   📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are... Support the show Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects. Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

    1hr 23min

  7. 27 MAR

    #82 Philosophy of the Heart with Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Scilla Elworthy

    Send a love message Facing Reality with Clear Eyes but without Desperation: Scilla Elworthy on Listening with the Heart to Transform Conflict  Three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Scilla Elworthy reflects on 70 years of work with conflict and war, beginning at age 12 after seeing tanks in Budapest and being sent to help concentration camp survivors. She describes how others’ suffering “hit” her heart and led her to action in Algeria, the Congo, and South Africa, where she worked on starvation relief, shipped milk powder, and supported education, noting the central role of women in community resilience. Elworthy emphasizes “listening with the heart” to discern what people truly need beyond narratives, and explains how turning to the heart helps release harsh self-criticism. She also shares practical self-nourishment through nature and gardening, and recounts using humanizing, vulnerable moments—like discussing children—to soften high-stakes meetings, including military dialogues in China, as a way to build connection and “power with” others. "Triple nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics from 1983-2003. Founded Peace Direct in 2002, awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003, the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2020, the GOI Peace Award in 2023. Founded The Business Plan for Peace  based on her latest books - The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War (2017), The Mighty Heart: how to transform conflict (2020), and The Mighty Heart in Action (2022)." Find all Scilla's work here. Kyla Scanlon's post mentioned here 00:00 Why We Still Kill 00:55 Action Over Apathy 01:07 Heart As Guide 01:39 Inner Critic Quieted 03:23 Podcast Introduction 07:03 Meet Scilla Elworthy 08:17 Tanks In Budapest 11:32 Early War Witnessing 14:33 Africa Conflict Journeys 17:47 Women Leading Change 19:52 Listening With Heart 22:29 Defining The Heart 25:31 Nature As Nourishment 29:35 Self Inspection To Embodiment 32:41 Taming The Inner Critic 34:04 Heart Led Self Compassion 35:54 Daring Diplomacy With Generals 36:49 Breaking The Ice With Humanness 42:48 Power With Vulnerability 47:24 Courage In The Moment 51:07 Love In The Garden 53:03 Closing Thanks And Future Fears 53:55 Listener Note And NYC Event  📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are... Support the show Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects. Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

    57 min

  8. 18 MAR

    #81 Changing Minds, Metaphysics, and a Life in Analytic Philosophy with Janet Levin of USC

    Send a love message  Janet Levin on Physicalism, Zombies, and Changing Minds  Andrea hosts philosopher Janet Levin, newly retired after 40 years at USC and the department’s first tenure-track woman hire, to discuss a life in analytic philosophy and debates about mind and consciousness. Levin recounts stumbling into philosophy at the University of Chicago with Ted Cohen and later studying at MIT amid figures like Jerry Fodor, Noam Chomsky, and advisor Ned Block, and writing the Stanford Encyclopedia entry on functionalism. They contrast dualism and physicalism, explain metaphysics as inquiry into what exists and what is possible, and examine thought experiments such as Descartes’ arguments, Jackson’s knowledge argument, and Chalmers’ zombie case. Levin holds that our feelings and experiences are nothing over and above physical processes in the body, primarily the brain and central nervous system. The conversation closes on teaching, women in philosophy, and how openness, identity, and social forces affect willingness to change one’s mind and pursue truth. The Road Taken APA Talk Janet Levin Time Stamps: 00:00 Big Questions on Mind Change 01:47 Consciousness and Zombies 02:11 Welcome and Season Setup 03:22 Meet Janet Levin 07:31 Stumbling Into Philosophy 08:25 Why Minds Change Slowly 11:10 Synthetic Hippocampus and Extended Mind 12:57 Chicago Origins With Ted Cohen 18:02 MIT Era and Cognitive Revolution 22:01 From Behaviorism to Functionalism 26:17 Defining Physicalism and Supervenience 29:23 What Is the Mind Really 34:46 Cognitive Phenomenology Debate 37:31 What Metaphysics Studies 40:02 Classic Metaphysics Puzzles 43:15 Free Will and Determinism 46:34 Descartes and the Self 51:41 Conceivability and Zombie Arguments 58:40 Dualism’s Causation Problem 01:11:40 Type B Physicalism and Phenomenal Concepts 01:22:46 Water Lightning Mind 01:24:15 Identity Theory Pushback 01:27:51 Physicalism Explained Broadly 01:30:05 Phenomenal Concepts Introspection 01:32:17 Introspection As Skill 01:34:44 Defending Armchair Philosophy 01:37:22 Armchair Near Window 01:39:10 How Minds Change 01:43:55 Bias Identity And Windows 01:45:35 Women In Philosophy Shifts 01:50:28 Grad Training Mentorship 01:54:43 Teaching Confidence Bloomers 01:57:42 Love Retirement Future Questions 02:02:12 Host Outro Waymaking Giving Page Longer Show Notes and PDF of APA talk Janet Levin is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, where she was a longtime faculty member in the School of Philosophy. Her research focuses on epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from MIT and her B.A. from the University of Chicago.  Much of her work engages with one of the hardest problems in philosophy: how to account for the subjective, felt quality of conscious experience within a broadly physicalist framework. She has also written the entry on functionalism for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — the view that what makes something a mental state depends not on its physical makeup, but on the functional role it plays in a larger system. Levin holds that our feelings and experiences are nothing over and above physical processes in the body, primarily the brain and central nervous system. In her 2022 book The Metaphysics of Mind, published by Cambridge University Press, Levin surveys the major contemporary theories of mind — including dualism, type-identity theory, role functionalism, Russellian monism, and eliminativism — assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each.  📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are... Support the show Buy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea Hiott Sign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects. Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.

    2h 5m
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It's reasonable to care. Exploring philosophical, scientific, technological & poetic spaces beyond either/or bounds. From the heart. Deeply researched. Mostly unscripted. Hosted by philosopher and cognitive scientist Andrea Hiott. A project with Making Ways. Buy the book Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness. And join the Substack.

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  • Creator
    Beyond Dichotomy | Andrea Hiott
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    102
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Love & Philosophy
  • Show Website
    Love & Philosophy

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