Can we see matter as a derivative of consciousness? | https://iai.tv/video/planck-and-the-consciousness-puzzle Join Laura Mersini-Houghton, Brian Greene, Amanda Gefter, and Patricia Churchland as they debate Planck and the Consciousness Puzzle.

Planck and the consciousness puzzle

Most of us, scientists included, see physics as an attempt to provide an objective description of the world independent of human subjectivity and consciousness. Yet, Max Planck, one of major scientifi...

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Are we incorrect to trust our gut instincts and emotions? | https://bit.ly/4pZEZWQ Michael Brady argues this is not just wrong but dangerous. Emotions contain judgements, and judgements can be mistaken. Instead of treating emotion as an answer, we should treat it as a question

Will there ever be consensus on consciousness? | https://iai.tv/video/the-miracle-of-mind-consciousness Join as Tim Crane, Bernardo Kastrup, and Susan Blackmore debate if the key to consciousness can ever be explained in terms of the physical.

The miracle of mind

Despite the advances in neuroscience and the rapidly extending capacity of computers, we still have no adequate theory of consciousness. No account of how the brain is able to create experience. And n...

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Cringe used to be what separated us from the fool on screen. | https://iai.tv/articles/laughing-at-others-is-laughing-at-yourself-auid-3647 Metamodernist writer Greg Dember argues it's now what connects us to them, and to each other.

Is human nature essentially good or corrupt? | https://bit.ly/4wv8zWB Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around this problem; but philosopher Graham Harman argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking.

Science has long been considered the most powerful tool for understanding reality. But can it ever fully grasp the things it seeks? https://bit.ly/4vUMWOe Watch Lera Boroditsky and Avshalom Elitzur uncover whether science is a window onto the world, or a reflection of the limits of the human mind.

Puzzles compress insight into miniature, letting us watch understanding take shape in real time. | https://bit.ly/4vU7CWC Cristopher Moore argues that while AI can brute-force its way to a correct answer, only humans experience the leap from confusion to clarity that marks real insight.

One way to find meaning is to deliberately make your life harder, claims explorer Erling Kagge. | https://bit.ly/4wZpMYa In this interview, he explains the origins of gratitude, talks about his encounter with a polar bear, and explains what he learnt from 50 days of silence in Antarctica.

Evan Thompson recently argued reality cannot be a hallucination: if brains hallucinate reality, then the brain itself must be part of the hallucination. https://bit.ly/45rHd7S Now, Jan Westerhoff replies to Thompson, arguing that his objection misses the radical core of the neuroscientists’ claim.

Why are so many doctors resisting the use of AI despite its positive results? | https://iai.tv/video/pride-and-prognosis Philosopher of medicine Charlotte Blease confronts an uncomfortable possibility: that professional pride and misplaced confidence are standing in the way of better care.

Chinese philosophy offers a radical rethinking of human action, not as an outcome of the self’s conscious deliberation, but as a spontaneous, effortless process, utterly in tune with nature. https://bit.ly/4q6c428

Public debates in contemporary society often escalate with striking speed. | https://bit.ly/4sv5Omz While we often perceive these clashes as a fight between conservatives and liberals, Manrata Goyal argues that the real divide stems from a split between moral absolutism and moral relativism.

Philosophers seldom change their mind about anything as much as Wittgenstein did about language, writes Lee Braver. https://bit.ly/3M3BzCY The shift from the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, to Philosophical Investigations is as radical as the move from modern to post-modern philosophy.

‘The pen is mightier than the sword’, so the expression goes. But world-renowned author Margaret Atwood doesn’t believe it. | https://bit.ly/4vIVlVb In this interview with The Handmaid’s Tale author, Atwood argues that authors have influence, not power. Real power takes an army; swords, not pens.

Should we give up the attempt to uncover an ultimate foundation to the universe? | https://bit.ly/4nk8joZ Priya Natarajan, Donald Hoffman, and Hilary Lawson debate whether the very idea of an ultimate foundation to reality is a profound mistake.

Panpsychism has grown in popularity, and many now see it as the leading answer to the hard problem of consciousness. | https://bit.ly/4x3LIS3 But @TonySobrado argues panpsychism does not solve the hard problem of consciousness, but only inverts and multiplies the problems of consciousness.

Should we see the world as a coherent whole or a multitude of separate parts? | https://bit.ly/4adbYAL Join theoretical physicists Sabine Hossenfelder and philosopher of science James Ladyman to debate whether it is possible to view the universe through both these lenses simultaneously.

The one and the many

A central question in ancient Greek philosophy was the problem of the One and the Many. It is a question that has echoed across Western culture and is still with us today. Should we see the world as a...

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When we look at the history of human invention, it is often driven by autistic people, or those with autistic traits. https://bit.ly/45hK1Ew The compulsive pattern-seeking that characterises autism should be seen not as a deficit but a cognitive style we all benefit from, argues Simon Baron-Cohen.

It’s often said that the key to happiness and wellbeing lies in avoiding extremes, but some critics argue moderation can be damaging. | https://iai.tv/video/living-without-limits On this panel, Anna Lembke, Federico Campagna, and Barry Schwartz debate where the true balance of moderation lies.

Living without limits

It’s often said that the key to happiness, life and wellbeing lies in moderation and avoiding extremes. It's also an ancient view from Aristotle in Greece to Confucius in China. And today apps like He...

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Is transhumanism the future? https://iai.tv/video/zoltan-istvan-on-transhumanism Futurist and former presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan discusses the promises of transhumanism, a movement that seeks to use radical science and technology to overcome human limitations.

Humanity's next step with Zoltan Istvan

In this provocative interview, futurist and former presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan discusses the promises of transhumanism, a movement that seeks to use radical science and technology to overcome...

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Clarice Lispector argued that the self and linear time are inseparable, and that imagining your own death is the only way to escape both. | https://bit.ly/4vSuVRL Michael Marder argues this calls us toward an existentialism that reaches beyond the human entirely.

Experience moves beyond the self and beyond linear time

<p><em>The creation of the self brings with it the creation of linear time; the self lives towards death. And by imagining her own death, writer Clarice Lispector, escapes the self and the pull of tim...

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India has been criticised by Donald Trump and Western leaders for refusing to fall into line. | https://bit.ly/49UqfCm But Narain D. Batra argues that India’s commitment to strategic autonomy is not an anomaly but a blueprint for a world moving beyond rigid blocs.

India's freedom from global blocs is the future

<p><em>India has been criticised by Donald Trump and Western leaders for refusing to fall into line, from buying Russian oil to resisting pressure to choose sides between Washington and Beijing. But w...

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Does moral universalism pose dangers to us, or is it essential to our value system? | https://iai.tv/video/neighbours-before-strangers Click here to watch renowned philosophers Alain de Botton, Tommy Curry, and Seyla Benhabib debate.

Neighbours before strangers

Many see populism with its focus on immigration and nationalism as not only politically dangerous but morally wrong. This reflects the universalist morality of the main Western moral frameworks. But c...

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Education was once imagined as a space for objective facts and neutral knowledge, but that idea is now under serious pressure. https://bit.ly/4w7fULP James Cleverly, Minna Salami, and John Ralston Saul debate whether education can ever truly be objective, and whether that was ever the right goal.

Can the mind be described mathematically, or is this a mistake? | https://iai.tv/video/cracking-the-code-for-thought This debate brings together leading physicists Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski and Max Tegmark to answer this unresolved question.

Cracking the code for thought

The idea that the brain is computational has, from the outset, been central to neuroscience. Like a computer, the brain is a problem-solving machine that stores memories and processes information. But...

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With Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in cinemas, Andy Owen examines current geopolitics through the lens of Homer’s epic. | https://bit.ly/4fedfZv Owen argues honor is still a vital part of modern war, and that ignoring this may cause ongoing wars around the world to persist longer than necessary

Evolution has been told as a simple story: random genes change, natural selection does the rest. | https://bit.ly/4f3vW3p Eva Jablonka questions these assumptions, asking whether living systems can be genuinely goal-directed, and if so, what does that mean for how we understand evolution itself?

We like to imagine ourselves as rational creatures, guided by reason, evidence, and clear-sighted goals. | https://bit.ly/4iEZ80V But psychologist Paul Bloom challenges the simple dichotomy of rationality as good and irrationality as bad, urging us to think more carefully about the messy middle.

Perversity and the limits of the rational, with Paul Bloom

We like to imagine ourselves as rational creatures, guided by reason, evidence, and clear-sighted goals. But psychologist Paul Bloom argues that some of the most puzzling and “perverse” things humans ...

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Philosophy has confidently resumed debating the nature of ultimate reality, treating metaphysics like just another science. https://bit.ly/4w6O0jd But this confidence is unearned, argues Nicholas Stang. Kant showed we lack any good explanation of how language can refer to such an ultimate reality.

We’re taught we have five senses, but what if we're missing the one that matters most? https://bit.ly/4aU1R3P Barry Smith introduces interoception: a constant, subconscious monitoring of our body. Smith argues these internal signals are the hidden drivers behind our moods and decisions.