Welcome to Unending Process - the evolutionary thinking tank....podcast. This is a continuation of the Permanent Evolution and Sympathetic People podcasts. This week Johanahan and Tim discuss education (in part 1) and evolutionary thinking (part 2). Part 2 is much longer, but contains all the juicy evolutionary pontificating, so don't hesitate to skip to it if that's your bag! In part 1, we talk about some of the problems with university education, including the importance of being challenged and mentoring. In part 2, we talk about the origins of evolutionary thinking in the ancient world, and then take a random walk across the philosophical landscape, touching on the mind, Buddhism, ethics and a bunch of other stuff.... Thanks for listening - enjoy, share, comment, criticise!

Welcome to Unending Process - the evolutionary thinking tank....podcast. This is a continuation of the Permanent Evolution and Sympathetic People podcasts. This week Johanahan and Tim discuss education (in part 1) and evolutionary thinking (part 2). Part 2 is much longer, but contains all the juicy evolutionary pontificating, so don't hesitate to skip to it if that's your bag! In part 1, we talk about some of the problems with university education, including the importance of being challenged and mentoring. In part 2, we talk about the origins of evolutionary thinking in the ancient world, and then take a random walk across the philosophical landscape, touching on the mind, dualism, monism, Buddhism, ethics and a bunch of other stuff.... Thanks for listening - enjoy, share, comment, criticise!

We're back with episode 19 after a fairly long break. In this episode we discuss narrative, metaphor and explanation in science and the world-at-large. Is narrative the only form explanations can take? Is this because of our contingent human nature, or does it reveal some deep fact about the world? Are there any deep facts about the world? What is this "world" anyway? As usual, the conversation traverses a twisted path (many branches of which were explored in alternate universes, but not this one). Having the conversation was interesting, so we hope listening to it will be too! Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe (and like us on iTunes, why don'tcha?).

Episode 18, the first "solo" podcast. Since co-ordinating schedules can be a challenge, from time to time either Tim or Ivan will do podcasts on their own. This week, Tim is talking about music and impermanence and why they matter. Music is the art form best suited to depicting impermanence and impermanence is kind of a big deal. A fairly obvious example of just how big a deal it is rears its head when we contemplate our own death. Our existence is impermanent. It is going to end. I take it to be fairly obvious that for most of us this is kind of a bummer. One only has to consider the proliferation of death-denying mythologising throughout history, from immortal souls living forever incorporeally in analogue heaven, to uploaded consciousnesses living forever digitally in digital heaven (is there really any difference?), to see how important this issue is for humans in general. Thanks for listening!

Episode 17, in which we discuss things that are very difficult to discuss! We use a discussion of one of Tolstoy's epilogues to War & Peace as a jumping off point to talk about the nature of reality, God, metaphysics, causation, free will and that sort of nonsense. This stuff is never easy to talk about, so bear with us! We'll continue to revisit these themes (perhaps more articulately) in later episodes. Thanks for listening!

Episode 17, in which we discuss things that are very difficult to discuss! We use a discussion of one of Tolstoy's epilogues to War & Peace as a jumping off point to talk about the nature of reality, God, metaphysics, causation, free will and that sort of nonsense. This stuff is never easy to talk about, so bear with us! We'll continue to revisit these themes (perhaps more articulately) in later episodes. Thanks for listening!

Episode 17, in which we discuss things that are very difficult to discuss! We use a discussion of one of Tolstoy's epilogues to War & Peace as a jumping off point to talk about the nature of reality, God, metaphysics, causation, free will and that sort of nonsense. This stuff is never easy to talk about, so bear with us! We'll continue to revisit these themes (perhaps more articulately) in later episodes. Thanks for listening!

Episode 16! We chat about Plato's Socrates and whether or not he's a good role model or just an arrogant jerk. We talk about claims to knowledge more broadly, in the context of science, religion, and everyday life. If we don't think we have knowledge, will this make us apathetic? Is it therapeutic not to make claims about knowledge? What have different thinkers had to say about these things? We talk about lots of stuff: the Dunning-Kruger effect; epistemic humility, deferring to the experts; climate change, oh my! Buddhism; reincarnation; is fear of death a species of arrogance? Meditation; transcending the self; flow states; free will; giving up the illusion of freedom in order to be truly free..... Fallibilism, pragmatism, skepticism, etc. What are your epistemological foundations? Enjoy, visit the blog at sympatheticpeople.com and leave a comment. Subscribe, do whatever!

Episode 15 of the Sympathetic People podcast, in which we discuss careers in science and ask questions about what exactly "science" is anyway. It's undeniably a problem that scientific research is underfunded. PhD students represent cheap labour for laboratories and universities, but how many of them can find a job when they complete their degrees? How many young researchers ever achieve job security? How does science stack up against other career paths in these regards? Another core issue we discuss is what "science" really is. Many people seem to believe that science is fundamentally different from the arts and humanities, but "science" is just an outgrowth of empiricism. Empiricism is a branch of epistemology and epistemology is a branch of philosophy - science isn't clearly separable from philosophy, it's part of it! Not only this, but differences between the sciences and the arts, or between science and ancient traditions of myth-making and storytelling are greatly exaggerated. Enjoy, subscribe, like (if you do), and please send us your thoughts over at sympatheticpeople.com.

Episode 14 of the Sympathetic People Podcast. This week (for a dramatic change of pace) we're talking about evolution. Is evolution just some theory in biology, or is the actual structure of reality evolutionary? Is this just some esoteric bullshit that philosophers care about, or does it actually matter for the lives of normal people? Yes (we claim), reality is intrinsically evolutionary. Yes (we claim), this matters for you (and you, and you, and you). An understanding of some of the core principles of evolution that have shaped our existence, can help us make sense of our place in society and in the universe as a whole. Humans have been trying to understand this stuff as long as they have been humans. Mythology, religion and science are all part of the same great endeavour - our attempt to understand our situation. Not only are all these explanatory systems branches of the same cultural evolutionary tree, the deepest principle they all reveal is the process in which order evolves from chaos. So check it out! We love you. After all we're all in this together as interdependent evolutionary phenomena!

Episode 13 of the Sympathetic People podcast. Tim and Joha discuss a study which investigated the problem-solving skills of wolves and dogs and concluded that wolves are better at independent problem-solving. Does this mean wolves are "smarter" than dogs? Joha thinks it might, but Tim isn't so convinced. The discussion uses the study as a jumping off point for a broader discussion about domestication, intelligence and problem-solving and ultimately leads to some ruminations on the importance of having challenge and conflict in our lives. We find meaning and ultimately fulfillment by rising to challenges and triumphing over them. Are we too sheltered in the modern world? Is life too easy? The recording includes some cameos by Tim's (exceptionally intelligent and smarter than any damn wolf) Australian Shepherd, Keneally, who knew we were talking about her and wanted to get involved in the action. Notable by their absence were wolves, who aren't interested in human conversation one bit (maybe they ARE smarter than dogs after all). Enjoy!

Episode 12 of the Sympathetic People Podcast (AKA the Permanent Evolution Podcast). This time around, Tim reads from Norman Doidge's introduction to Jordan Peterson's new book - "12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos". A recurrent theme of the subsequent discussion is the concept of the "Open Society" (a term coined by Karl Popper) and the importance of reasonable, open, critical discussion of ideas - none of has all the answers, so we all need to be open to criticism of our views, just as we need to be allowed to criticise the views of others. Other topics raised in this episode include evolution, suffering, rules & judgement, freedom of speech, relativism, post-modernism, social justice, conspiracy theories, adults giving advice to kids, rules for life and (of course!) philosophy in ancient Greece and India. Thanks for listening!

Episode 11, in which we discuss Carlos Castaneda, Buddhism, Karl Popper, science, fallibilism, magic, reality, and all such fun stuff! To what extent do we perceive the world through words? Can we escape our verbal preconceptions and experience things "as they really are?" Can we do so and remain functional? We agree that it is healthy and productive to "get outside our selves" and attempt to perceive the world in a way less filtered by our preconceptions, but is all perception ultimately theoretical? Haven't we evolved to perceive "affordances" - things we can use? We hope you enjoy the discussion!

Episode 10! In a decimal system that is surely a milestone; in any other system of counting maybe not, but we'll take it! Tim reads from Sean Carroll's wonderful book "The Big Picture", and the intrepid evolutionary biologists (your hosts) discuss the meaning of life, conflict between science and religion on this topic, meditation, and a bunch of other stuff. It's fun! Spoiler alert - we don't really know what the meaning of life is, but as Bill Fay(he's a musician, check him out) says "like my old dad said, life is people"..... Listen! We compel you to do so and hope you enjoy doing so. Subscribe on iTunes! Rate us on iTunes! Comment on the blog! Use exclamation marks excessively!!! Thanks :)

Episode nine of the Permanent Evolution Podcast, a discussion about gender and sexuality and whether or not these are merely socially constructed categories. Do we need labels to function as part of social groups, as part of societies? Words are tools, but what happens when we give them too much power by using them to define our identities? We speak over each other a couple of times during this episode - sorry, we're working on that! We're also working to improve the sound quality. We hope you're enjoying the content! Please subscribe on iTunes if so. Thanks for listening!

In episode 8 of the Permanent Evolution Podcast Joha reads a short excerpt from a paper by Robert J. Sternberg on Intelligence which stimulates a wide-ranging discussion between Drs Jackson (Tim) and Coludar (Joha) concerning the nature of intelligence, conservative values, cross-culturual studies, and much else besides. The article's abstract can be accessed here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26302705 Thanks for listening!

Episode 7 of the Permanent Evolution Podcast. In part 1, Dr Coludar and Dr Jackson discuss an article - "If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is" - published in the New York Times in 2016 which caused quite a bit of controversy. The original article can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/if-philosophy-wont-diversify-lets-call-it-what-it-really-is.html And some of the commentary can be found here: https://storify.com/BryanVanNorden/ethnocentrism-strikes-back In Part 2, we play a new game - "Devil's Advocate" - in which we come up with a proposition then throw (digital) dice to find out who will be defending it and who will be attempting to refute it. This time round, the proposition was "Non-native species are alien and damage the integrity of ecosystems, their eradication must therefore be a priority for conservation efforts." Thanks for listening!

Episode 7 of the Permanent Evolution Podcast. In part 1, Dr Coludar and Dr Jackson discuss an article - "If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is" - published in the New York Times in 2016 which caused quite a bit of controversy. The original article can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/if-philosophy-wont-diversify-lets-call-it-what-it-really-is.html And some of the commentary can be found here: https://storify.com/BryanVanNorden/ethnocentrism-strikes-back In Part 2, we play a new game - "Devil's Advocate" - in which we come up with a proposition then throw (digital) dice to find out who will be defending it and who will be attempting to refute it. This time round, the proposition was "Non-native species are alien and damage the integrity of ecosystems, their eradication must therefore be a priority for conservation efforts." Thanks for listening!

Episode 6 of the Permanent Evolution Podcast, the consciousness episode. Consciousness has been a constant theme of the podcast, but in this episode Dr Coludar and Dr Jackson indulge in a debate (that almost becomes heated) loaded with jargon. Topics discussed in part 1 include the "hard problem" of consciousness and whether it is a scientific question, the metaphysics of mind, reductionism, and explanations versus descriptions. In part two, panpsychism, unanswerable questions, the "ethics of audience" and whether or not it's worth trying to understand others, are all on the table.

Episode 6 of the Permanent Evolution Podcast, the consciousness episode. Consciousness has been a constant theme of the podcast, but in this episode Dr Coludar and Dr Jackson indulge in a debate (that almost becomes heated) loaded with jargon. Topics discussed in part 1 include the "hard problem" of consciousness and whether it is a scientific question, the metaphysics of mind, reductionism, and explanations versus descriptions. In part two, panpsychism, unanswerable questions, the "ethics of audience" and whether or not it's worth trying to understand others, are all on the table.