The Jim Rutt Show EP 331 Worldviews: Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and author on science and critical thinking, offers a clear realist, monist worldview rooted in fallibilism. He discusses intersubjective verification, the balance of reason and empiricism, consciousness versus intelligence, skepticism of radical simulations, and the social roots of knowledge, trust, and moral progress.
01:11:04
Realist Monism And Fallibilism
- Michael Shermer is a realist and monist who trusts a physical objective world accessible via senses and institutions.
- He practices fallibilism: he assumes he could be wrong and relies on intersubjective verification to converge on truth.
Verify Authority With Multiple Sources
- Trust vetted institutions and multiple independent sources for claims you cannot personally verify.
- Require clear, replicable evidence before accepting extraordinary claims like alien UFOs.
Instrumental Progress Beats Armchair Reason
- Scientific progress needs better instruments plus skepticism of authority to update models.
- Newton served as a first-order model until improved math and instruments led to Einstein.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app 1 chevron_right 2 chevron_right 3 chevron_right 4 chevron_right 5 chevron_right 6 chevron_right 7 chevron_right 8 chevron_right 9 chevron_right 10 chevron_right 11 chevron_right 12 chevron_right 13 chevron_right 14 chevron_right 15 chevron_right 16 chevron_right 17 chevron_right 18 chevron_right 19 chevron_right 20 chevron_right 21 chevron_right 22 chevron_right 23 chevron_right 24 chevron_right
Intro
00:00 • 2min
Shermer's Monist Realism and Fallibilism
01:36 • 3min
Trusting Experts vs. Extraordinary Claims
04:18 • 3min
Intersubjective Verification and the Book of Nature
07:31 • 5min
Axioms, Math Truths, and Non-Euclidean Geometry
12:20 • 1min
January 6th: Rational Actions on False Beliefs
13:50 • 3min
Shermer's Journey: Born-Again Christian to Agnostic
16:30 • 2min
Jim's Religious Upbringing and Transition
18:51 • 6min
Religious Texts as Literature with Deeper Truths
24:38 • 4min
Consciousness: Hard Problem and Studyability
28:29 • 3min
Attention, Sensorium, and a Functional View
31:54 • 2min
Sentience in Simple Organisms and Machines
34:10 • 5min
Machine Consciousness and Invariance Search
38:53 • 18sec
Critique of Hoffman's Interface Theory
39:11 • 3min
Mesoscale Veridicality and Objectification
42:20 • 3min
Skepticism of Brain-in-a-Vat and Simulation Arguments
45:30 • 4min
Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
49:40 • 6min
Cryonics, Future Discovery, and One Thought Too Many
55:10 • 1min
Constitution of Knowledge and Social Epistemology
56:29 • 2min
COVID, Noble Lies, and Erosion of Institutional Trust
58:53 • 4min
Media Scaling, Independent Sources, and LLM Tools
01:02:48 • 2min
Moral Realism and Interchangeable Perspectives
01:04:20 • 3min
Expanding the Moral Circle and Ethical Progress
01:06:51 • 4min
Outro
01:10:45 • 15sec
#31337
• Mentioned in 2 episodes
Why Darwin Matters
Michael Shermer
#6
• Mentioned in 500 episodes
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, written by J.R. R.
Tolkien, is an epic high fantasy novel set in Middle-earth.
The story follows Frodo Baggins, a hobbit who inherits the One Ring from his uncle Bilbo.
The Ring, forged by Sauron, holds the power to control all other Rings of Power and must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom to prevent Sauron's return.
Frodo is joined by a fellowship of other characters, including Gandalf the Grey, Samwise Gamgee, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir, as they embark on a dangerous quest across Middle-earth.
The novel explores themes of good vs.
evil, the corrupting influence of power, and the struggle between fate and free will.
#15518
• Mentioned in 3 episodes
The believing brain
Michael Shermer
#17897
• Mentioned in 3 episodes
The Science of Good and Evil
Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule
MICHAEL SHERMER
In 'The Science of Good and Evil,' Michael Shermer investigates how humans evolved from social primates into moral beings, examining the biological, cultural, and psychological roots of morality.
Shermer argues that morality is a human universal, shaped by both evolutionary heritage and cultural history, and proposes a 'provisional morality'—a flexible, evidence-based ethical framework that avoids dogmatic absolutism and irrational relativism.
The book draws on a wide range of examples, from anthropological studies to psychological experiments, to challenge the notions of pure good and evil, and to advocate for a nuanced, compassionate understanding of human behavior.
#999
• Mentioned in 35 episodes
The Constitution of Knowledge
Jonathan Rauch
#6930
• Mentioned in 7 episodes
Why People Believe Weird Things
Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time
Stephen Jay Gould
Michael Shermer
In this book, Michael Shermer critically examines various forms of pseudoscience, superstition, and paranormal beliefs.
The book is divided into five segments and fifteen chapters, covering topics such as UFO sightings, alien abductions, creationism, Holocaust denial, and cult behaviors.
Shermer uses the scientific method to refute these beliefs and explains how cognitive biases and cultural influences lead people to believe in unproven claims.
The foreword by Stephen Jay Gould underscores the importance of skepticism in combating organized irrationalism.
#7700
• Mentioned in 6 episodes
Truth
Neil Strauss
#373
• Mentioned in 69 episodes
Conspiracy
Ryan Holiday
In 'Conspiracy', Ryan Holiday chronicles the intricate and ambitious plot by Peter Thiel to take down Gawker Media.
The book is based on interviews with key players and delves into the strategic and philosophical underpinnings of Thiel's actions.
It examines the intersection of power, privacy, and free speech in the digital age, highlighting the ruthless and brilliant tactics employed by Thiel.
The narrative transcends a simple tale of a billionaire vs.
a media empire, offering insights into the broader implications for culture and society.
Jim talks with Michael Shermer about his worldview and his new book, Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters. They discuss Michael's self-identification as a monist and realist who believes in a physical objective world, the concept of fallibilism, intersubjective verification of the interobjective, reliance on authorities and institutions, the battle between the book of authority versus the book of nature, balancing rationality with empiricism, the dependence of mathematical truths on axioms, January 6 as an example of people acting rationally on false beliefs, Shermer's journey from born-again Christian to atheist and Jim's opposite journey from Catholicism to atheism, treating religious literature like great literature with deeper truths, the study of consciousness and the hard problem versus the easy problem, separating intelligence from consciousness, consciousness as a biological process like digestion, the question of machine sentience, a critique of Donald Hoffman's interface theory, evidence for veridical perception through mimicry in nature and animals climbing trees, skepticism about brain-in-a-vat and simulation scenarios, minimum viable metaphysics, Thomas Nagel's concept of one thought too many, Jonathan Rauch's constitution of knowledge, the replication crisis in psychology, the breakdown of trust in institutions due to COVID and the noble lie, the problem of scaling laws with followership, moral realism and the survival and flourishing of sentient beings, the principle of interchangeable perspectives, discovering moral values through problem-solving, the evolution of ethics and the expanding moral sphere, and much more.
Episode Transcript
Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters, by Michael Shermer
The Michael Shermer Show
Why People Believe Weird Things, by Michael Shermer
The Believing Brain, by Michael Shermer
Why Darwin Matters, by Michael Shermer
The Science of Good and Evil, by Michael Shermer
Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, by Michael Shermer
"A Minimum Viable Metaphysics," by Jim Rutt
JRS EP 287 - Jonathan Rauch on the Epistemic Crisis
Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine and the host of the podcast The Michael Shermer Show. For 30 years he taught college and university courses in critical thinking, and for 18 years he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers Why People Believe Weird Things and The Believing Brain, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, The Moral Arc, Heavens on Earth, Giving the Devil His Due, and Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational. His new book is Truth: What it is, How to Find it, Why it Still Matters. Follow him on X @michaelshermer.