The best explanation for the current madness of the world is that we're currently in a dark age and have been for at least a century. The epistemic standards of the 20th century were not high enough to overcome social, psychological, and political entropy.

Patterson in Pursuit

Our Present Dark Age

A couple of months ago, my friend Isaac Morehouse asked me to talk about the philosophy of mathematics and why I consider it so important. Appeals to mathematics are everywhere, from COVID lockdowns to NFL play calling, and if our concepts about math are flawed, we make the world a significantly worse place.  

Ep. 103 - "Mad at Mathematicians" | Isaac Morehouse

 What does scientific progress look like? Is it steady progress, getting ever closer to the truth? Or does it go through waves?   What about cases where we seem to have lost knowledge or the foundations of a theory we’ve been building on turned out to be wrong? Can that still be useful? Is that still progress?   These are some of the questions I explore with Dr. Geoff Anders. 

Ep. 102 - Scientific Progress and Intellectual Schelling Points | Dr. Geoff Anders

A critical thinker must have the ability to zoom in and zoom out - to hyper-focus on cause and effect and to see how things interconnect in the big picture. It's a common and critical error to be too-zoomed-in or too-zoomed-out. The over-focused mind is like the mathematician who doesn't realize the assumptions of his model are non-mathematical and likely wrong. The under-focused mind is like the mushroom-enthusiast that's content concluding "All is one", with no finer-resolution of analysis. The careful thinker must be constantly zooming in and zooming out, gathering ideas from all levels of resolution. 

Critical Thinking | Zooming In and Zooming Out

Libertarians like myself tend to focus on the abuse of power hierarchies. The existence of a "ruling class" makes most of us uneasy. However, might these sociological structures serve a valuable purpose? Are they inevitable parts of human society? Samo Burja joins me to discuss.

Ep. 101- Is a Ruling Class Inevitable? | Samo Burja

For years, I've been making anti-Platonist arguments. Now, I think I was wrong. The universe seems to be composed of both concrete and abstract stuff.

Coming Around to Platonism

Episode 100 of Patterson in Pursuit! Wow, what a milestone. Thanks to everybody who has listened to and supported the show. I hope it's created value for you. In this episode, I share my personal thoughts about the show, some of my motivations, the conversations that were impactful to my own philosophy, and some funny experiences along the way. And of course, more heretical thoughts about the philosophy of mathematics.

Ep. 100 - Trying to Solve Philosophy | Patterson in Pursuit

Do logic and rationality have limits? Are there ways to "get outside" of rational thinking? Do altered states caused by psychedelics provide true insight about the world, or are they illusory? These are the questions I discuss with Dr. Bernardo Kastrup, who shares some of his personal experiments and insights gained psychedelic drugs.

Ep. 99 - Non-Rationality and Psychedelics | Dr. Bernardo Kastrup

Is everything ultimately mental? Do we need a theory of a physical world at all? Dr. Bernardo Kastrup joins me again to talk about idealism. This time, we go into great detail, both put our ideas to the test, and the result was one of my favorite interviews ever. I end up asking Bernardo some of the most difficult questions in philosophy.     

Ep. 98 - "A Consciousness-Only Ontology" | Dr. Bernardo Kastrup

Finally, after investigating for more than 20 years, I have a concept of God I can rationally grasp. The idea is one of the oldest in existence, and it turns baroque theological claims into true and important insights.

Understanding God as Nature or the Universe

Dualism is an attractive philosophy with an Achilles' heel. Dualists since Descartes have never given a good answer to the problem of interaction. Finally, I think I've got one. I have a working resolution to the problem of interaction that I call a theory of indirect interaction, which allows effective interaction between objects in different ontological categories. Original article here: http://steve-patterson.com/mind-body-dualism-solving-problem-interaction/

Solving the Interaction Problem

Lots of confusion is caused by the nature of language. This is a narration of the article "There Are No Objective Definitions", which you can read here: http://steve-patterson.com/there-are-no-objective-definitions/

There Are No Objective Definitions

Dr. Doron Zeilberger is the Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University. He's also a math heretic who thoroughly rejects the orthodox conceptions of infinity in modern mathematics. So we got along quite well. We had a fantastic conversation covering a wide range of topics, including set theory, calculus and limits, pi, irrational numbers like the square root of two, real analysis, and Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. If you're interested in the philosophy of mathematics, this is a must-listen.

Ep. 97 - Math Heresy: Ultrafinitism | Dr. Doron Zeilberger

The most requested interview breakdown ever - my conversation with Thaddeus Russell about the postmodern theory of truth. Fun episode! Can we know that experience is happening? If somebody denies that they know, is it possible to convince them?

Ep. 96 - Truth and Postmodernism | Breakdown of Thaddeus Russell Interview

Christopher Langan is an independent intellectual known for having the highest IQ in America - somewhere around 200, which is six standard deviations above the norm. His story is fascinating. Chris is not working within the academy. Instead, he's splitting his time between ranching and philosophizing. We spoke about a wide range of topics, including the problems of modern academia, the concept of IQ, and his attempt at a Theory of Everything entitled "The Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" - or the "CTMU". You can find more information about the CTMU at: http://hology.org/ You can also find Chris's work and support him on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/CTMU

Ep. 95 - The Highest IQ in America | Christopher Langan

Interviews with intellectuals from across the globe. Exploring philosophy, politics, religion, and rationalism. Steve Patterson is an independent philosopher currently traveling the world to interview people in the pursuit of truth. Topics include logic and epistemology, skepticism, metaphysics, ethics, science and religion, truth, Christianity, Buddhism, atheism, culture, economics, the philosophy of mathematics, and every other topic that's important to humans.

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Patterson in Pursuit

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