Timothy Williamson: Philosophy’s Most Formidable Living Mind
Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal
Why Williamson's Work Resonates
Williamson reflects on writing widely, challenging consensus, formal rigor, and offering simpler elegant philosophical views.
Free ZWILLING Four Star Chef's Knife on your 3rd box ($144.99 value) + 10 Free Meals and your first box ship free with code CURTJHFZWL at https://hellofresh.yt.link/4u4Vh7m! This is an interview with Oxford’s Timothy Williamson. He’s one of the most cited living philosophers, and simultaneously one of the most controversial (yet respected). He dismantles physicalism, solipsism, and reductionism––explaining why consciousness is philosophically overrated and why AI in its current form likely lacks genuine mental states. This will be a tour‐de‐force episode into all things related to looking deeply and fundamentally. If you’re interested in consciousness, free will, art, language, and meaning, I believe you’ll love this episode. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe SUPPORT: - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Vagueness & Sorites Paradox - 00:07:12 - Identity, Physicalism, Non-Physicals - 00:22:30 - Realism vs. Anti-Realism - 00:29:50 - The Problem of Skepticism - 00:35:40 - Cognitive Heuristics & Doubt - 00:43:00 - Solipsism's Appeal & Pitfalls - 00:50:00 - Solipsism: A Critique - 00:57:30 - Pluralism & Consciousness - 01:06:00 - AI, Mental States, Ontology - 01:15:50 - Mind, Knowledge, Meaning - 01:26:00 - Philosophical Heuristics - 01:32:00 - Counterfactuals & Logic - 01:38:00 - Personal Philosophy LINKS MENTIONED: - Overfitting and Heuristics in Philosophy [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Overfitting-Heuristics-Philosophy-Rutgers-Lectures/dp/0197779212 - Timothy Williamson's Published Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IH-44VwAAAAJ&hl=en - Sorites Paradox: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sorites-paradox/ - Philosophical Investigations [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Investigations-Ludwig-Wittgenstein/dp/0631205691 - I Do Not Exist [Paper]: https://academic.oup.com/book/53296/chapter-abstract/422023005 - O'Shaughnessy Ventures: https://www.osv.llc/ - Barry Loewer & Eddy Chen [TOE]: https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0 - Bas Van Fraassen [TOE]: https://youtu.be/lhpRAWxvY5s - Matthew Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM - Jennifer Nagel [TOE]: https://youtu.be/CWZVMZ9Tm7Q - Leo Gura [TOE]: https://youtu.be/YspFR9JAq3w - Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/M-SgOwc6Pe4 - The Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk - Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/uk4NZorRjCo - Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE - Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY - Ben Goertzel & Joscha Bach [TOE]: https://youtu.be/xw7omaQ8SgA - Claudia de Rham [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8 - Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4 - Elan Barenholtz & Will Hahn [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ca_RbPXraDE - Greg Kondrak [TOE]: https://youtu.be/FFW14zSYiFY - Robert Sapolsky [TOE]: https://youtu.be/z0IqA1hYKY8 SOCIALS: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs Guests do not pay to appear. Theories of Everything receives revenue solely from viewer donations, platform ads, and clearly labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. #science
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