Mahon McCann

Adam Safron, Ph. D., is a Cognitive Scientist and psychologist who studies the nature of preferences and motivation from mechanistic, developmental, and evolutionary perspectives. Recently, he has proposed a model of embodied agency and free will and is working on a unified mechanistic account of psychedelics.This podcast discusses free will and embodied agency, the key role of attention and imagination, and the consequences of an individual's pursuit of meaning in life.Check out Adam's website 👇https://www.adamsafron.com/Google Scholar 👇https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dZOoilgAAAAJ&hl=enThe Paper discussed on embodied agency 👇https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/6/783Chapters:00:00 Struggling with the Question of Free Will04:14 Starting from the Fundamental Mechanics06:34 Understanding How Agency Works09:46 Unifying Physicalism and Idealism12:24 Bridging the Gap Between Religion and Science17:48 Tracing the Mechanics of Action Selection18:16 The Evolution of Inhibition and Mental Simulation22:19 Conscientiousness and the Ability to Inhibit Distraction25:32 Embodied Self Models and Conscientiousness28:02 The Connection Between Conscientiousness and Conscience31:14 The Development of Imaginative Capacity for Agency35:02 The Connection Between Embodied Self Models and Meaning39:03 The Pursuit of Developmental Meaning42:43 The Disconnect Between Fitness in Reality and Digital43:51 The Normative Constraint of Imaginative Capacity45:28 The Destination of Agency: Enslavement to the Highest Good46:38 Neoplatonic Philosophy and Predictive Processing50:29 Distributed Cognition and Democracy51:13 Unity of the Soul and the Polis52:11 Practical Applications of Understanding Agency54:08 Creating Benevolent Agents55:22 Ethics and Principles in Technology56:19 Mission and Conclusion Get full access to Raising the Cross at www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe

Rick Repetti is a philosophy professor, meditation teacher, and author of several publications on free will (find more of Rick's work below).Rick’s website: https://www.rickrepetti.com/Awaken to meaning: https://awakentomeaning.com/American Philosophical Practitioners Association: https://appa.edu/In this podcast, we are critiquing Sapolski’s “determined” steel manning his case with the philosophy of determinism and showing how human beings possess the “degrees of freedom worth having” and how wisdom and spiritual traditions offer tools to enhance our agency.Check out the conversation 👇https://youtu.be/AJGyeZkGFLoTimestamps:00:00 Introduction and Sapolsky's Argument04:19 Critique of Sapolsky's Argument07:31 Legacy of Newtonian Causality09:45 Determinism and Free Will11:13 Indeterminism and Free Will16:46 The Dialogical Self19:40 Meditation and Self-Conditioning26:28 Ultimate Moral Responsibility32:37 Self-Forming Actions and Free Will37:18 The Dialogical Self and Agency42:02 Attention and Agency48:00 Cultivating Agency through Meditation51:05 Opponent Processing and Evolution52:07 Attentional Flexibility and Imaginary Attention53:01 Simulating Other Minds and Counterfactual Reasoning54:07 Simulating the Future and Rational Deliberation55:07 Taking Processes Offline and Online56:32 Rational Agency and Thinking57:03 Liver Enzymes and Rationality57:29 Simulating Ideas and Writing58:25 Inhibition and Simulation59:33 Attentional Deficit and Meditative Practices01:00:15 Organizing Behavior Across Time01:01:14 Prudential Reasoning and Agency01:02:11 Debating Sapolsky and Future Projects01:03:37 Philosophical Practitioners Association and Book Club01:05:43 Philosophy of Meditation Series and APA Courses01:06:08 Weekly Meditations and Starter Ecology of Practices Get full access to Raising the Cross at www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe

Jelle Bruineberg is an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication.Read his paper ‘Adversarial Inference: Predictive Minds in the Attention Economy’: https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2023/1/niad019/7251284In this podcast, we discuss the attention economy, the psychology and cognitive science of attention, predictive processing, AI and the future of the internet. Watch the full conversation 👇https://youtu.be/W8BAXZVNph0Timestamps:00:00 Introduction to the Attention Economy and Adversarial Inference06:37  Limitations of the Broadbandian Conception of Attention08:14 The Role of Action in Attention11:51 The Relationship Between Attention and Executive Function15:36 External and Internal Triggers in Attention17:28 The Role of Self-Modeling in Attention and Agency20:28 The Impact of Digital Environments on Attention and Concentration25:06 Precariousness of Agency and Environmental Scaffolding27:46 The Role of Positive Affect and Dopamine in Attention31:59 Designing Environments to Support Attention and Agency36:29 The Influence of AI on the Attention Economy and Agency47:17 The Role of AI in Society48:44 The Impact of Technology on Affordances49:13 Regulating Digital Technologies50:12 Building Agency-Enhancing Technologies51:30 The Need for a New Philosophy53:55 The Challenge of a Unified Theory of Attention55:59 Attention as a Core Cognitive Process56:45 Rebuilding the InternetWant to support the podcast?Join up for a paid subscription 👇https://www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe?gift=true Get full access to Raising the Cross at www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe

Matthew David Segall, Phd, is a transdisciplinary researcher, writer, teacher, and philosopher applying process-relational thought across the natural and social sciences and to the study of consciousness. He is the Associate Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA and the Chair of the Science Advisory Committee for the Cobb Institute.Get his new book ‘Crossing The Threshold: Etheric Imagination in the Post-Kantian Process Philosophy of Schelling and Whitehead’.Check out his youtube channel Footnotes2PlatoChapters:00:00 Introduction and the Kantian Divide04:59 Kant's Epistemological Dualism07:34 The Role of Imagination in Kant's Philosophy12:00 The Impact of Nominalism on Imagination17:28 The Connection Between Imagination and Self-Transcendence21:07 Whitehead's Cosmology and the Role of Imagination25:26 Transcendental Apperception and Contextualization29:16 Whitehead's Philosophy in Historical Context36:53 Whitehead's Panentheistic View of God46:06 Whitehead's View on Free Will and Determinism50:04 Whitehead's View on Human Agency and Evolution51:08 The Open Universe and Free-will52:16 The Vegetable Universe56:22 Life Precedes Matter58:07 Death as Part of Life59:32 Overcoming the Meaning Crisis01:00:38 The Role of Religion in Finding Meaning01:03:38 Translating Complex Ideas Get full access to Raising the Cross at www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe

The fourth dimension of meaning in life is not reported in the psychological literature but was added by Cognitive Scientist John Veraveke, and this dimension is called ‘depth’. He describes depth as the felt sense of being connected to ‘what is most real’. Read the full essay at www.mahonmccann.com Get full access to Raising the Cross at www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe

Dr Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher, literary scholar, and the world’s foremost expert on brain hemispheric differences. He has written several significant books, such as The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (2009) and the recent The Matter with Things (2021).Connect with Iain 👇 https://channelmcgilchrist.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@DrIainMcGilchrist Buy The Matter with Things 👇 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matter-Things-Delusions-Unmaking-Paperback/dp/1914568257Timestamps:0:00 - intro0:29 - Functioning of the Two Cerebral Hemispheres1:10 - Attention in Perception and Understanding1:45 - The Influence of Context on Perception3:11 - Attention on Future Perception and Behavior 5:35 - Hemispheric Differences & Culture13:39 - The Role of Attention in Understanding Reality15:52 - Values in Perception and Attention34:00 - The Illusion of Materialistic Satisfaction37:51 - The Role of Dopamine and Addiction in Our Lives47:29 - The Threat of Technology and AI on Human Relationships50:17 - The Importance of Humanities in Education Get full access to Raising the Cross at www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe

Audio essay on the third dimension of meaning in life is called ‘significance’, which has to do with human worth, importance and value.Read the full essay at www.mahonmccann.com Get full access to Raising the Cross at www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe

Chris is a philosophical writer with interests in dialogue, symbols, and the concept of self. He is a co-author of several publications, including Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis (Open Book Publishers, 2017), “Gnosis in the Second Person” (in Dispatches from a Time Between Worlds, Perspectiva Press, 2021) and “Dialectic into Dialogos and the Pragmatics of No-thingness in a Time of Crisis” (in Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture, 2021). He is heavily involved in the work of John Vervaeke and Vervaeke foundation addressing the meaning crisis.Check out the Vervaeke foundation: https://vervaekefoundation.org/And the awakentomeaning practises: https://awakentomeaning.com/In this podcast, we discuss theatre, narrative, mythology, character development, art vs propaganda, pesudo-religious ideologies (or mythologies) the barrier between fiction and facts that harms development, and much more!Timestamps:0:00 - intro0:49 - Arthur Miller & The Meaning Crisis5:47 - Imaginal play & Wisdom7:53 - Plato understood as drama10:38 - Stories & Virtue development14:25 - centrality of character in ethics & narrative18:11 - Plato’s warning against drama23:29 - Art vs Propaganda27:25 - Hero Meta-mythology33:44 - Nominalist obstacles to truth42:28 - love and socratic practice54:51 - drama and imitating the good01:05:38 - Miller’s writing process & logos Get full access to Raising the Cross at www.mahonmccann.com/subscribe

Explore the intriguing concept of purpose as a guiding force in life. Discover how to set meaningful goals that align with your values and aspirations. Delve into practical methods for creating a personal purpose system to tackle life's challenges. Reflect on past achievements to gain clarity and direction. Learn how to navigate the chaos of existence with a vision that inspires and motivates you.

In this discussion, Rafe Kelley, a movement coach and founder of Evolve, Move, Play, dives into the intersection of martial arts and personal development. He explores how challenges cultivate deep connections and emphasizes the importance of movement in overcoming the modern meaning crisis. Kelley reflects on the paradox of modern living, addressing mental health issues despite advancements. He advocates for courage and compassion in personal growth, while also highlighting his diverse workshops that blend movement, mindfulness, and nature.