#28.1 - Meaning and Meta-Rationality, with Jake Orthwein

Christofer and writer Jake Orthwein speak about David Chapman's critiques of rationality and potential problems with Deutschian critical rationalism in this episode of Do Explain. They discuss their common adoration for Sam Harris, meaning, nebulosity and pattern, representational view of mind, concrete activity vs. abstract reasoning, realism, ontology and the world, affordances, and other related topics.

Jake Orthwein is a writer and filmmaker based in Santa Monica, CA. He studied film and cognitive science at the University of Southern California and currently works as Director of Media for the Psychology of Technology Institute, an academic non-profit focused on improving research on the human-technology relationship. He is also a long term meditator. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JakeOrthwein

Timestamps:

(3:58) - Jake's intellectual backstory

(6:58) - Optics and bias against Deutschian CR

(11:02) - The Chapmanian worldview

(14:29) - Pattern and nebulosity

(19:49) - What is the problem Chapman tries to solve?

(24:23) - The pseudo-problem of the meaning of life

(27:08) - Subjectivity and objectivity

(30:00) - Where Jake's views diverge from CR

(33:30) - Conscious and unconscious ideas

(37:17) - Abstract reasoning from concrete activity

(41:57) - Top-down and bottom-up processes

(46:07) - Ontology as a tool for how to relate to the world

(48:19) - Is there a world separate from our perception?

(52:25) - Ontological nebulosity vs. epistemological fallibilism

(59:21) - Problem-ladenness

(1:03:42) - What objectively makes a cup a cup?

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