Conversations #9 - Eric Schwitzgebel

A conversation with Professor of Philosophy, Eric Schwitzgebel—

This month, I sat down with Professor of Philosophy at the University of California - Riverside - Eric Schwitzgebel. Along with teaching, Eric is a prolific writer who since 2006 has written over 1000 posts about numerous subjects on his blog “The Splintered Mind.” His most recent book: A Theory of Jerks and other Philosophical Misadventures is a collection of 68 of Eric’s favorites.

Our conversation was as wide ranging as his resume and research. We talked about his personal history towards a academic career in philosophy. Being influenced as a grad student under John Searle of “The Chinese Room” thought experiment fame. Eric’s dad had a similar trajectory as he worked under Timothy Leary for the famous Harvard LSD studies.

We discussed the utility of philosophy, moral psychology, and went deep into many of the questions pertaining to consciousness. Our discussion featured his past research on ethics of ethics professors, complex mating dances of garden snails, and ancient Chinese philosophy. We also touched on the reconnection of psychology and philosophy in the last 20 years, and teaching evil earlier in the semester to his students.

I thank Eric for his time, research, and eclectic mind. Enjoy the conversation, and until next time - Ad Astra!

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Timestamps:

- Eric’s dad was a grad student in the famous Harvard (Timothy Leary & Ram Das) LSD Studies, and invented the ankle monitoring system for arrestees (00:05:13)


- Eric did his post graduate work at UC Berkley under John Searle of “The Chinese Room” thought experiment fame - a critique of “The Turing Test” (00:13:59)


- What exactly is consciousness? (00:18:20)


- Can collectives, societies, companies, ideas, or countries like the United States be conscious? (00:22:45)


- Eric’s thoughts on Object Oriented Ontology and speculative realism (00:26:37)


- Unknown Unknowns, and the quest for consilience, and the Fermi paradox (00:35:16)


Part Two:

- Philosophical outlook on altered states of consciousness (00:44:02)


- The great debate between Mengzi & Xunzi about whether human nature is good or evil. (00:48:06)


- Science fiction as a philosophy & ethics of technology (01:02:22)


- Upcoming anthology: “Philosophy through science fiction stories” (01:06:31)


- Discussing films Ex Machina & Arrival (01:10:54)


- The bizarre, weird, and complex lives of garden snails (01:16:09)


- The love of writing, running a blog called “The Splintered Mind,” and everyone is really a philosopher and interested in the deepest mysteries of existence (01:23:40)


- Eric’s new book: “A Theory of Jerks and other Philosophical Misadventures" (01:30:21)


- Recommending Zhuangzi (Butterfly Dream) and John Stuart Mill (On Liberty) and Montaigne (Personal essays like On Solitude) (01:39:50)


- What can we gain philosophically from the idea of the “The Overview Effect?” (01:56:34)

More on Eric Schwitzgebel:

Eric’s Book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/theory-jerks-and-other-philosophical-misadventures

Eric’s Website: https://faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/

Eric’s blog “The Splintered Mind”: https://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/

Eric’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/eschwitz?lang=en