The Dissenter

My name is Ricardo Lopes, and I’m from Portugal. Thank you for visiting my podcast. Over the past few years, I have conducted and released more than 700 interviews and talks with experts and academics from a variety of areas and disciplines, ranging from the Arts and Philosophy to the Social Sciences and Biology. You will certainly find a subject of your interest covered here. New interviews are released on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

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Episodes

Thursday Jul 25, 2019

#123 David Sloan Wilson: Evolution, Contextual Behavioral Science, Religion, and Group Selection

Thursday Jul 25, 2019

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Dr. David Sloan Wilson is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He applies evolutionary theory to all aspects of humanity in addition to the rest of life, both in his own research and as director of the Evolution Institute, a unique campus-wide evolutionary studies program that recently received NSF funding to expand into a nationwide consortium. His books include Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society; Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives; The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time and Does Altruism Exist? Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others; and a recently edited book, Evolution and Contextual Behavioral Science.
In this episode, our conversation we focused initially on Evolutionary and Contextual Behavioral Science, the recently published book edited by Dr. David Sloan Wilson and Dr. Steven C. Hayes. We discuss what evolutionary theory brings to the table, and its shortcomings in dealing with behavior (human and non-human), and the contributions of Skinner, behaviorism and contextual science that have been mostly ignored by mainstream Psychology. We then talk about the extended evolutionary synthesis, and how Lamarckism might still have a saying in how evolution by natural selection works. Finally, we briefly talk about religion as a human construct, and what the New Atheist get wrong about it; and about group selection included in a multilevel selection process.
Time Links:
01:05 Evolutionary and Contextual Behavioral Science
06:26 The work of B. F. Skinner
12:32 What contextual behavioral science adds to the cognitive picture of the human mind
20:51 Modularity of the human mind, innate and environmental mechanisms
31:24 Environment, development, and phenotypic plasticity
36:58 The extended evolutionary synthesis
43:36 Lamarckism, Darwinism, and the new synthesis
49:27 Religion as a human construct
1:01:01 About group selection
1:03:50 Follow Dr. Sloan Wilson’s work!
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Follow Dr. Sloan Wilson’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/yadbq9sw
The Evolution Institute: https://tinyurl.com/ycyo8d7w
The View of Life Magazine: https://tinyurl.com/ybnrencj
Evonomics: https://tinyurl.com/yaoayddq
Twitter handle: @David_S_Wilson
Evolution and Contextual Behavioral Science: https://tinyurl.com/y9pypu7w
Darwin’s Cathedral: https://tinyurl.com/y8rhbbw5
Upcoming book, This View of Life: https://tinyurl.com/y9lh54ct
Other relevant links:
Tinbergen’s 4 Questions: https://tinyurl.com/y9ge5984
Skinner’s Selection by Consequences: https://tinyurl.com/ybzetc3a
The Adapted Mind: https://tinyurl.com/yay653pf
Adaptive genetic variation and human evolutionary psychology:

Wednesday Jul 24, 2019

#122 Mark Blyth: Austerity, The European Union, Inequality, and Global Trumpism

Wednesday Jul 24, 2019

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT
Dr. Mark Blyth is William R. Roads Professor of International Economics at Brown University. His research interests lie in the field of international political economy. More specifically, his research trespasses several fields and aims to be as interdisciplinary as possible, drawing from political science, economics, sociology, complexity theory, and evolutionary theory. His work falls into several related areas: the politics of ideas, how institutions change, political parties, and the politics of finance. He’s also the author of books like Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century, and Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea.
In this episode, we talk about the origins of the economic idea of austerity, and its development over history. We also tackle the notion of ordoliberalism, and how it connects with Germany, and how the European Union was economically structured. How the 70’s stagflation and the global financial crisis of 2007/2008 changed the course of economics and politics. And also what Dr. Blyth calls the phenomenon of Global Trumpism, and political populism on both the right and the left. We finish up by talking a bit about current economic issues, notably economic inequality in the West and global warming, and how to deal with them.
Time Links:
00:40 The origins of austerity
04:34 Ordoliberalism
07:41 The economic structure of the European Union
12:13 The 70’s stagflation and austerity worldwide
16:59 The global financial crisis of 2007/2008
22:13 Could it have been handled differently in the EU?
26:13 Global Trumpism, and populism on the right and the left
31:55 How to properly deal with the current economic issues
36:41 Follow Dr. Blyth’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Blyth’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/yc2ops4s
Books: https://tinyurl.com/y8ruhfpy
Twitter handle: @MkBlyth
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Tuesday Jul 23, 2019

#121 Alan Fiske: The Four Relational Models, Virtuous Violence, and Morality

Tuesday Jul 23, 2019

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------------------Follow me on---------------------
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Dr. Alan Fiske is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He’s a psychological anthropologist studying how natural selection, neurobiology, ontogeny, psychology, and culture jointly shape human sociality. He’s also the author of the books Structures of Social Life: The Four Elementary Forms of Human Relations, and Virtuous Violence: Hurting and Killing to Create, Sustain, End, and Honor Social Relationships.
In this episode, we talk about the four relational models at the basis of human sociality – Communal Sharing, Authority Ranking, Equality Matching, and Market Pricing -, their universality, and also how they vary cross-culturally. We also talk about the relationship between sociality and morality, and the moral bases of violence. By the end, we also discuss moral relativism, and how science can inform morality.
Time Links:
00:51 The four Relational Models – Communal Sharing, Authority Ranking, Equality Matching, and Market Pricing
09:09 How do they vary cross-culturally?
14:21 About kin selection and reciprocal altruism
17:48 Sociality and morality
20:05 The moral bases of violence
26:39 Moral motivations to commit violence
28:44 Is some degree of violence (or threat of violence) necessary to keep societies functioning?
36:08 Are people always emotional and impulsive when they act violently?
38:00 Conformation systems theory – how people represent a relationship, and employ means for creating and maintaining the relationship
42:00 How to prevent violence
44:07 About moral relativism
49:25 How can science inform morality?
51:14 Follow Dr. Fiske’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Fiske’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/yazjp5dy
Kama Muta Lab: http://kamamutalab.org/
Structures of Social Life: https://tinyurl.com/yd2tfqmg
Virtuous Violence: https://tinyurl.com/y8e3835z
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Monday Jul 22, 2019

#206 Derek Leben: Ethics for Robots, Contractarianism, Self-Driving Cars

Monday Jul 22, 2019

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------------------Follow me on---------------------
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT
Anchor (podcast): https://anchor.fm/thedissenter
Dr. Derek Leben is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown. He works at the intersection of ethics, cognitive science, and emerging technologies. In his new book, Ethics for Robots, Dr. Leben argues for the use of a particular moral framework for designing autonomous systems based on the Contractarianism of John Rawls. He also demonstrates how this framework can be productively applied to autonomous vehicles, medical technologies, and weapons systems.
In this episode, we focus on the main topics of Dr. Leben’s Ethics for Robots. We first discuss the types of robots that need to have ethical systems programmed into them. Then, we get into the issue of how to establish an objective moral system. Dr. Leben explains Contractarianism ethics. We also go over some specific technologies, like self-driving cars, carebots, police-bots, and others, and we refer to specific issues like discrimination and consent. Finally, we talk about the role of science fiction in providing us with thought experiments about emergent and future technology, and to what extent that has a positive or a negative effect.
--
Follow Dr. Leben’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2WuZds4
Researchgate profile: https://bit.ly/2W92PUr
Ethics for Robots: https://amzn.to/2MPnwBk
Twitter handle: @EthicsForRobots
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, AND RICARDO VLADIMIRO!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK!

Monday Jul 22, 2019

#120 Michael Bang Petersen: Evolution, Emotions, Groups, and Politics

Monday Jul 22, 2019

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------------------Follow me on---------------------
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Dr. Michael Bang Petersen is Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University, in Denmark. He also directs The Politics and Evolution Lab (PoNE Lab) there. He investigates how the adaptive challenges of human evolutionary history shape the way modern citizens think about mass politics.
In this episode, we talk about evolutionary political psychology. We discuss what is to be understood as political behavior; the emotions, heuristics and biases that are more relevant to understand people’s political behavior (and also in other animals); the deservingness heuristic; the biological bases of our progress from small-scale hunter-gatherer societies to modern states, and the expansion of group identities; the cues that lead people to support the welfare system more easily; intentionality; how to tackle issues of political polarization; and also the benefits that politicians can take from learning more about evolutionary psychology, and how human psychology generally works.
Time Links:
00:37 What is evolutionary political psychology?
02:58 What is political behavior?
08:27 Emotions in politics
11:19 Heuristics and biases
14:06 The deservingness heuristic
20:05 How to we go from small-scale groups to modern societies?
24:38 The expansion of group identities
26:32 Danes, Americans, and the welfare system
32:21 How to promote support for the welfare state
33:25 The importance of intentionality
34:46 Men with greater upper-body strength are less in favor of economic redistribution
39:23 People and their relationship with their political parties
44:20 How societies might have expanded
47:20 Can people with different group identities cooperate?
53:15 Political animals that do not understand much about political systems
58:43 Trying to avoid political polarization
1:01:49 How to educate better politicians
1:04:09 Follow Dr. Bang Petersen’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Bang Petersen’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/y83euhwj
The Politics and Evolution Lab (PoNE Lab): https://tinyurl.com/y7xwfuw7
Articles on Researchgate: https://tinyurl.com/ycp5oxj6
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Saturday Jul 20, 2019

Terrence Deacon Part 2: Consciousness, Semiotics, Symbolism and Language

Saturday Jul 20, 2019

Friday Jul 19, 2019

#205 Laura Cabrera: The Philosophy of Human Enhancement

Friday Jul 19, 2019

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------------------Follow me on---------------------
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT
Anchor (podcast): https://anchor.fm/thedissenter
Dr. Laura Cabrera is Assistant Professor in the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences and the Department of Translational Science & Molecular Medicine at Michigan State University. Dr. Cabrera's interests focus on the ethical and societal implications of neurotechnology and neuroscientific advances. She has been working on projects that explore the media coverage and the attitudes of the general public toward pharmacological and novel neurosurgical interventions for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. She has also worked on the public perceptions towards the use of different modalities of neuromodifiers for enhancement purposes, as well as their normative implications. Her current work focuses on the ethical and social implications of environmental changes for brain and mental health. She’s also the author of the book Rethinking Human Enhancement: Social Enhancement and Emergent Technologies.
In this episode, we discuss human enhancement from a philosophical perspective. We talk about the difficulty in defining “enhancement”, and also about the three paradigms of human enhancement, as defined by Dr. Cabrera in her book, Rethinking Human Enhancement: the biomedical, the transhumanist, and the social.
--
Follow Dr. Cabrera’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2UwWRwK
Researchgate profile: https://bit.ly/2v3hSjG
Rethinking Human Enhancement: Social Enhancement and Emergent Technologies: https://amzn.to/2WuJE8x
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, AND RICARDO VLADIMIRO!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK!

Friday Jul 19, 2019

Terrence Deacon Part 1: Absence and Constraints, from Physics to Mental Phenomena

Friday Jul 19, 2019

Thursday Jul 18, 2019

#119 Terrence Deacon: Incomplete Nature, from Physics to Mind

Thursday Jul 18, 2019

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------------------Follow me on---------------------
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT
Dr. Terrence Deacon is currently Professor of Anthropology and member of the Cognitive Science faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. His theoretical interests include the study of evolution-like processes at multiple levels, including their role in embryonic development, neural signal processing, language change, social processes, and focusing especially on how these different processes interact and depend on each other. Professor Deacon's research has combined human evolutionary biology and neuroscience, with the aim of investigating the evolution of human cognition. He’s the author of The Symbolic Species: The Coevolution of Language and the Brain, and his most recent book, Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter, explores the relationship between thermodynamic, self-organizing, evolutionary and semiotic processes and provides a new technical conception of information that explains both its representational and normative properties.
In this episode, we cover some of the major topics of Incomplete Nature, including: the second law of thermodynamics; absence and constraints; homeodynamics, morphodynamics, and teleodynamics; information; emergence; how we get from Physics to mental phenomena. We also talk about language and semiotics, including the biological bases of language, and how to study its evolution.
Time Links:
01:17 What is theory of mind, and how did it evolve?

09:38 The concept of absence and constraints
17:02 Homeodynamics, morphodynamics, and teleodynamics
26:22 Information from a Physics perspective
37:04 Emergence and how to get to mental phenomena
49:13 Consciousness, and unconscious mental processes
56:05 Semiotics, and studying how we deal with symbols
1:06:04 The biological bases of language
1:17:43 Cultural sources to understand the evolution of language
1:29:52 Follow Dr. Deacon’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Deacon’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/y83a3cov
The Symbolic Species: https://tinyurl.com/yc3tv5du
Incomplete Nature: https://tinyurl.com/y9mkubr4
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Thursday Jul 18, 2019

#204 Carlos Fiolhais: A Ciência, o Método Científico e a Pseudociência

Thursday Jul 18, 2019

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O Dr. Carlos Fiolhais é Professor Catedrático de Física na Universidade de Coimbra. Foi professor convidado em universidades de Portugal, Brasil e Estados Unidos. É autor de mais de 30 livros de divulgação científica. Participou em inúmeros encontros, conferências e ações promovendo a ciência e a cultura científica. Criou o portal de ciência www.mocho.pt. Ganhou em 1994 o Prémio União Latina/JNICT de tradução científica. Ganhou o Globo de Ouro de Mérito e Excelência em Ciência de 2004 atribuído pela televisão SIC e pela revista Caras em 2005. Em 2017, ganhou o Grande Prémio Ciência Viva Montepio. Investiga Física da Matéria Condensada e Ensino e História das Ciências.
Neste episódio, fazemos um longo percurso desde os precursores e origens da revolução científica na Europa, nos séculos XVI e XVII, até aos grandes desenvolvimentos ao nível da Astronomia, da Física, da Química e da Biologia nos seus primórdios. Abordamos também a relação íntima entre filosofia e ciência, e como a filosofia está historicamente na base da ciência. Falamos também sobre vários dos critérios do método científico, incluindo a observação e recolha sistemática de dados, a formulação de hipóteses, a falsiabilidade dessas mesmas hipóteses e a revisão por pares. Finalmente, fazemos também referência à importância de distinguir ciência de pseudociência, e como essa distinção é uma marca de uma sociedade moderna, e quem não a faz pode criar muitos problemas, e aludimos ao facto de a ciência ser uma atividade humana comunitária que não se consegue construir individualmente.
--
Sigam o trabalho do Dr. Carlos Fiolhais:
Página da Universidade de Coimbra: https://bit.ly/2QeKq38
Livros (Wook): https://bit.ly/2wabbg8
Perfil no Researchgate: https://bit.ly/2Jwyx8q
A Ciência e os Seus Inimigos: https://bit.ly/2VH0E6A
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, AND HERBERT GINTIS!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE and ROSEY!

Wednesday Jul 17, 2019

#118 Lee Ross: Fundamental Attribution Error, Naïve Realism, and Politics

Wednesday Jul 17, 2019

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------------------Follow me on---------------------
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Dr. Lee Ross is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and co-founder of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. He’s been the recipient of several awards. The author of three influential books, Human Inference and the Person and the Situation (both with Richard Nisbett) and, more recently, The Wisest One in the Room (with Thomas Gilovich), and many highly cited papers. His research on attributional biases and shortcomings in human inference has exerted a major impact in social psychology and the field of human inference, judgment and decision-making. Among the phenomena he identified and has explored are the fundamental attribution error, the false consensus effect, reactive devaluation, the hostile media phenomenon, and the convictions of naïve realism.
In this episode, we cover the psychological phenomena that were the main targets of Dr. Ross’ academic research. These include: the fundamental attribution error; the just world phenomenon; cultural differences in how people apply the fundamental attribution error; naïve realism, the false consensus effect, and objectivity in the eye of the beholder; reactive devaluation in the case of trying to solve a problem between opposing human groups or political parties; and the possible ways to get around these human cognitive inclinations.
Time Links:
01:14 The fundamental attribution error
05:49 The just world phenomenon
13:53 Cultural differences
15:25 Naïve realism
25:05 Reactive devaluation
28:17 How to establish bridges between opposing political parties and other human groups
35:13 Trying to find common ground
39:05 Follow Dr. Ross’ work!
--
Follow Dr. Ross’ work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/y7yksdqs
Articles on Researchgate: https://tinyurl.com/y8668uej
Books: https://tinyurl.com/y7abt6sw
The Wisest One in the Room: https://tinyurl.com/ycfukf2t
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Tuesday Jul 16, 2019

#117 Wendy Johnson: Genetics and Environment in Personality and Intelligence

Tuesday Jul 16, 2019

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Dr. Wendy Johnson is Professor of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She also holds the Chair in Differential Development in the University of Edinburgh's Department of Psychology and Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology. She is known for her research on human intelligence and personality. In 2004, the International Society for Intelligence Research honored her with its John B. Carroll Award for Research Methodology. In 2011, she received the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology, in recognition of her work on the individual differences of intelligence and personality. Topics of her research include: structure of intelligence and personality, life-span development of intelligence and personality, health and aging, genetic and environmental transactions and their influence on behavior, intelligence, and personality.
In this episode, we talk mostly about personality traits and IQ. Topics include: the Big Five, and other personality traits inventories; the reliability of personality measures; the many ways genetics and the environment interact to build up our psychology; how our psychological traits are polygenic (influences by several genes); the influences of parents and other aspects of the environment; the effects of IQ and personality in old age, and the long-term benefits of high IQ and certain personality traits, like conscientiousness.
Time Links:
01:22 Big Five and other personality inventories
06:09 The earliest point in life to measure personality
09:27 Are questionnaires and reports reliable?
14:31 The interplay between genetics and the environment
18:09 Studies with twins and adoptees
19:57 The trouble with identifying genes associated with psychological traits
22:56 Are genetic effects greater after people leave their parents’ house?
27:01 Rich vs impoverished environments, and their effects
30:51 Old age, mental health, and personality
33:33 The long-term benefits of high IQ
37:14 Intelligence and health
43:12 But intelligence is not the same as wisdom. We also need other traits.
47:55 Follow Dr. Johnson’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Johnson’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/y8s5edrs
Articles on Researchgate: https://tinyurl.com/yaujlfk8
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Monday Jul 15, 2019

#203 Gordon Ingram: Children’s Social Development, And Cyberpsychology

Monday Jul 15, 2019

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Dr. Gordon Ingram is Associate Professor of Psychology at Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. He teaches undergraduate courses in Developmental Psychology, Cyberpsychology, and Psychology of Language, and a graduate course in Cognition and Culture. He supervises several graduate students researching children’s social and moral development. His research centers on children’s and adolescents’ everyday communication online.
In this episode, we first talk about children’s social development, with particular focus on how they develop/acquire norms and start caring about norm violation. In the second part, we discuss the emerging field of cyberpsychology, the differences between the virtual and the real worlds, and also cyberbullying.
--
Follow Dr. Ingram’s work:
The Evolution Institute profile: https://bit.ly/2VCdgwp
Articles on Researchgate: https://bit.ly/2vbcyLb
Academia.edu profile: https://bit.ly/2Vu6rfn
Twitter handle: @gordoning
Some relevant articles:
Children’s Tattling: The Reporting of Everyday Norm Violations in Preschool Settings: https://bit.ly/2Jr1ClH
Children’s Reporting of Peers’ Behaviour: https://bit.ly/2YwskNd
Gossip: https://bit.ly/2Js5X8i
Evolutionary Cyberpsychology 2.0: Revisiting Some Old Predictions and Posting Some New Ones in the Age of Facebook: https://bit.ly/2JtI8Nc
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, AND HERBERT GINTIS!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE and ROSEY!

Monday Jul 15, 2019

#116 Colin Holbrook: Threat Detection, Group Prejudice, Warfare, and Religion

Monday Jul 15, 2019

Saturday Jul 13, 2019

#115 Alexander Rosenberg: Theory of Mind, History, Mental Illusions, and Nihilism

Saturday Jul 13, 2019

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Dr. Alexander Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. He has been a visiting professor and fellow at the Center for the Philosophy of Science, at the University of Minnesota, as well as the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Oxford University, and a visiting fellow of the Philosophy Department at the Research School of Social Science, of the Australian National University. In 2016 he was the Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol. He has held fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. In 1993, Dr. Rosenberg received the Lakatos Award in the philosophy of science. In 2006-2007 he held a fellowship at the National Humanities Center. He was also the Phi Beta Kappa-Romanell Lecturer for 2006-2007. He’s the author of both fictional and non-fictional literature, including The Atheist’s Guide to Reality, The Girl from Krakow, and How History Gets Things Wrong.
In this episode, we focus on Dr. Rosenberg’s most recent book, How History Gets Things Wrong, and also a little bit on some of the topics of The Atheist’s Guide to Reality. We talk about the theory of mind, and how it evolved; the errors with narrative History, and the negative consequences it might produce; mind-brain dualism; what neuroscience tells us about how our brain and cognition operate; social science, biology, and evolution; the role that evolutionary game theory can play in explaining historical events and social phenomena; why beliefs, motivations, desires, and other mental constructs might not exist at all, and the implications for moral philosophy; if AI could develop these same illusions; and nihilism.
Time Links:
01:17 What is theory of mind, and how did it evolve?
06:16 The problem with narrative History
08:17 Is theory of mind problematic in modern societies?
11:41 The issue with mind-brain dualism
13:23 The concept of “aboutness”
15:36 Neuroscience, and no content in the brain
22.21 What “causes” historical events?
28:09 Why the social sciences need more biology and evolution
37:13 Evolutionary game theory, and understanding social phenomena
41:06 The implications for moral philosophy of not having beliefs
44:34 About “moral progress”
47:41 The usefulness of thought experiments in Philosophy
49:58 The theory of mind will not be going away anytime soon
51:37 Could AI systems have these same cognitive illusions?
53:13 A note on nihilism and morality
57:38 Follow Dr. Rosenberg’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Rosenberg’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/ydby3b5f
Website: http://www.alexrose46.com/
Books: https://tinyurl.com/yag2n2fn
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released unti

Friday Jul 12, 2019

#202 Arlindo Oliveira: O Presente e o Futuro da Inteligência Artificial

Friday Jul 12, 2019

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O Dr. Arlindo Oliveira é Presidente do Instituto Superior Técnico e Professor do Departamento de Engenharia Informática, onde tem desenvolvido trabalho no contexto de sistemas digitais, síntese lógica, algoritmia, aprendizagem automática e bioinformática. Doutorou-se em Engenharia Electrotécnica e Ciências da Computação (EECS) pela Universidade da Califórnia em Berkeley, em 1994. É um dos maiores especialistas portugueses em Inteligência Artificial, e publicou em 2017 o livro “The Digital Mind: How Science Is Redefining Humanity”, pela MIT Press, existindo também a sua versão em português, pela IST Press.
Neste episódio, focamo-nos em alguns dos principais tópicos do livro “The Digital Mind” (ou “Mentes Digitais”, na versão em português). Falamos sobre sistemas de inteligência artificial (IA) especializados e gerais e a forma como a ciência cognitiva e a inteligência artificial se informam uma à outra. Depois, abordamos as várias maneiras possíveis de reproduzir um cérebro humano artificialmente, e da possibilidade de atingir a imortalidade. Também falamos sobre a relação entre mente e cérebro, o que é uma mente, o teste de Turing, as diferenças entre mentes naturais e mentes digitais, e vários tipos de tecnologia ao nosso dispor para tentar desenvolver sistemas de inteligência artificial mais avançados e melhorar/superar a condição humana. Finalmente, discutimos a ética por detrás de IA, tanto em relação à maneira como os devemos tratar como à maneira como eles nos devem tratar a nós.
--
Sigam o trabalho do Dr. Arlindo Oliveira:
Website (IST): https://bit.ly/2VpdDcD
Blogue Digital Minds: https://bit.ly/30lsgkY
Livro “The Digital Mind”: https://bit.ly/2Q0yJNF
“Mentes Digitais” (livro em português): https://bit.ly/2E9mlGp
Livro “Inteligência Artificial”: https://bit.ly/2WRlKjG
Artificial Intelligence Podcast (podcast do MIT): https://bit.ly/2UbbDFa
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, AND HERBERT GINTIS!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE and ROSEY!

Friday Jul 12, 2019

#114 Hugo Mercier: The Enigma of Reason, Modularity, and Cognition

Friday Jul 12, 2019

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Dr. Hugo Mercier is a research scientist at the CNRS – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Institut Jean Nicod), where he works with the Evolution and Social Cognition team. Most of his work so far has focused on the function and workings of reasoning. Together with Dan Sperber, he wrote a book that develops and extends the argumentative theory of reasoning, called The Enigma of Reason.
In this episode, we focus on The Enigma of Reason, and talk about how reason might have evolved, and its cognitive and social function. We talk a little bit about the notion of the modular mind. Also, how cognition operates at a subconscious level; the conditions in which reason works best; if dual-process theory (the idea of us having two different cognitive systems – one more fast and frugal, and the other more deliberative) makes sense from this new perspective; what really is a “rational” behavior; and why science as a human enterprise works so well.
Time Links:
00:36 How do people perceive threat?
04:38 Fight-or-flight responses
13:04 Threat at the individual and collective levels
17:19 In-group and out-group differences
23:00 Threat in the context of politics and warfare
How people solve reasoning problems
17:16 The social function of reason
20:34 Reason works better when done in groups
24:31 Does dual-process theory (system 1 and system 2) make sense?
27:18 What is it to be rational, from an evolutionary perspective?
29:23 Why does science work so well?
32:06 Follow Dr. Mercier’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Mercier’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/yb39w3t4
Personal website: https://tinyurl.com/d2te7pm
The Enigma of Reason: https://tinyurl.com/y8melzua
Twitter handle: @hugoreasoning
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Thursday Jul 11, 2019

#201 Mark Leary: The Self, Self-presentation, And Social Status

Thursday Jul 11, 2019

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Dr. Mark Leary is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Dr. Leary has taught at Denison University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Wake Forest University, where he also served as department chair. His research interests focus on social motivation and emotion, and on processes involving self-reflection and self-relevant thought. He has written or edited 12 books and over 200 scholarly articles and chapters. He was the 2010 recipient of the Lifetime Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity and a 2015 co-recipient of the Scientific Impact Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology.
In this episode, we discuss things related to our notion of “self”, how we construct it, and how we move in our social environments, deal with other people, and react to social exclusion. We deal with sociometer theory, and mental mechanisms like self-presentation, self-compassion, self-reflection, and their relationship with academic success and other life outcomes.
--
Follow Dr. Leary’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2G59y9f
Articles on Researchgate: https://bit.ly/2I1Zhgg
Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2HfwwuM
Toward a Less Egoic World (Psychology Today blog): https://bit.ly/2WEzLkZ
Character and Context (Society for Personality and Social Psychology blog): https://bit.ly/2JEjgS7
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, AND HERBERT GINTIS!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE and ROSEY!

Thursday Jul 11, 2019

#113 Joshua M. Tybur: Disgust, Evolution, Politics, and Social Psychology

Thursday Jul 11, 2019

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------------------Follow me on---------------------
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Dr. Joshua M. Tybur is an Associate Professor in the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology at VU Amsterdam. His work is dedicated to better understanding how people solve some of the fundamental problems of life, including avoiding infectious diseases, obtaining and retaining a mate, and navigating the threats and affordances of interdependence. He approaches these topics with a combination of ideas and techniques from social psychology, personality psychology, and evolutionary biology.
In this episode, I talk with Dr. Tybur about the domains of the emotion of disgust, from an evolutionary perspective; the relationship between disgust and morality, and between disgust and political attitudes; differences in disgust sensitivity. We also talk about politics and science, and the problem of our own political preferences contaminating scientific research, and the importance of giving social psychology a biological basis.
Time Links:
01:18 The domains of disgust
07:02 Disgust and morality
09:37 Disgust and political conservatism
17:52 differences in disgust sensitivity
20:44 Do people experience more disgust sensitivity toward people from out-groups?
24:50 The political attitudes disgust is associated with
28:00 Do people who believe in adaptations of the human mind have a far-right agenda?
31:35 Separating politics from science
33:54 Things to be aware of in cross-cultural studies
39:58 Evolution and social science
43:39 Being aware of our political biases when doing science
48:17 Follow Dr. Tybur’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Tybur’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/y8zpz499
Personal website: https://tinyurl.com/ycqc5dz5
Articles on Researchgate: https://tinyurl.com/y9acd5cu
Twitter handle: @joshtybur
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g

Wednesday Jul 10, 2019

#112 Diane Halpern: Differences in Cognitive Abilities, Critical Thinking, and Creativity

Wednesday Jul 10, 2019

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------------------Follow me on---------------------
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT
Dr. Diane Halpern is Dean Emerita of Social Sciences at Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute and former Emerita Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College. She has won many awards for her teaching and research, including an Honorary Award in 2016 from the Federation for Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) for "scientists who have made important and lasting contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior" and the 2013 Association for Psychological Science James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for a lifetime of outstanding contributions to applied psychological research, the Outstanding Professor Award from the Western Psychological Association, the American Psychological Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Distinguished Career Award for Contributions to Education given by the American Psychological Association, and the California State University’s State-Wide Outstanding Professor Award. She is also a past-president of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Teaching of Psychology. Finally, she’s the author of books like Differences in Cognitive Abilities, and Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking.
In this episode, we talk about differences in cognitive abilities, some issues we have to take into account, the biopsychosocial model, and the biological and social aspects of “gender”. We also refer to the gender wage gap, and striking a balance between one’s professional and personal lives, and if the proposal of going back to same- schooling has any merit. Finally, we talk about critical thinking, the types of skills that it involves, how we can teach them to people (children and adults), and about creativity.
Time Links:
00:58 Why should we know more about differences?
04:25 The correct way to think about cognitive abilities
09:57 Genetic and environmental influences
14:53 Biological aspects of differences
18:39 Aspects of socialization
21:51 The gender wage gap, professional and personal life
26:08 Does same- schooling have any merit?
32:34 Critical thinking skills
35:19 Do critical thinking skills transfer between different intellectual areas?
38:05 Why is it so difficult to acquire these skills?
41:54 About creativity
45:58 Follow Dr. Halpern’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Halpern’s work:
Website: https://tinyurl.com/y8t426zo
Books: https://tinyurl.com/y72fsjb9
Articles on Researchgate: https://tinyurl.com/ydgsqvpg
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb

Tuesday Jul 09, 2019

#111 Nick Chater: The Mind Is Flat, and Our Illusions of Mental Depth

Tuesday Jul 09, 2019

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Dr. Nick Chater is Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. He works on rationality and language using a range of theoretical and experimental approaches. He has over 200 publications, has won four national awards for psychological research, and has served as Associate Editor for the journals Cognitive Science, Psychological Review, and Psychological Science. He was elected a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society in 2010 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2012. Dr. Chater is co-founder of the research consultancy Decision Technology, and is on the advisory board of the Cabinet Office's Behavioural Insight Team (BIT). He’s also the author of “The Mind is Flat: The Illusion of Mental Depth and The Improvised Mind”.
In this episode, the conversation revolves around the main topics of Dr. Chater’s book, The Mind is Flat. We talk about the many illusions that compose our minds, from the way we interpret other people’s behavior and our own, to the attribution of desires, motivations and goals to it. We also discuss how our cognition works, and how our perceptual systems process information. Other topics include the lack of correspondence between our representations and the things outside in the world; how we interpret emotions; the issue about preferences and personality; why we still need our mental illusions to function properly; and if AI systems can also acquire them, namely emotions and consciousness.
Time Links:
01:06 The basic premise of “The Mind is Flat”
05:33 We are like fictional characters
09:59 The problem with stories and narratives
13:58 The illusions our minds create (about motives, desires, goals, etc.)
17:44 The distinction between the conscious mind and brain activity
22:34 Does dualism make sense?
27:11 Is modularity of mind a useful approach?
31:21 How our perceptual systems work
41:49 How we represent things in our minds
44:57 The Kuleshov effect, and the interpretation of emotions
52:05 About preferences and personality
55:42 Why do we need our mental illusions?
59:10 The importance of our imagination
1:01:31 Can AI systems produce the same illusions (emotions, consciousness)?
1:04:53 Follow Dr. Chater’s work!
--
Follow Dr. Chater’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/y8qzc2pw
The Mind is Flat: https://tinyurl.com/ybmyxakr
Twitter handle: @NickJChater
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE!
I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:
https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo
And check out my playlists on:
PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km
PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p
ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g