198. Bernardo Kastrup on the Nature of Reality: Materialism, Idealism, or Skepticism
The Michael Shermer Show
Michael Shermer
4.4 • 921 Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2021
⏱️ 134 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this expansive conversation, Michael Shermer speaks with Bernardo Kastrup, the executive director of Essentia Foundation. His work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another Ph.D. in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence). Shermer and Kastrup discuss: materialism, idealism, dualism, monism, panpsychism, free will, determinism, consciousness, the problem of other minds, artificial intelligence, out of body and near-death experiences, model dependent realism, and the ultimate nature of reality.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the Michael Sherman Show. |
| 0:08.0 | Welcome to the Michael Sherman Show. I'm your host Michael Sherman. |
| 0:12.0 | My guest today is Bernardo Kostrup. He is the executive director of |
| 0:16.5 | Essensia Foundation. His work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially |
| 0:26.2 | mental. He has a PhD in philosophy in the subjects of ontology and philosophy of mind, and another PhD in computer |
| 0:35.0 | engineering, reconfiguring computing, and artificial intelligence. |
| 0:39.6 | As a scientist, Bernardo has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, and the Phillips |
| 0:45.7 | Research Laboratories where the Casimir effect of quantum field theory was discovered. |
| 0:51.4 | Formulated in detail in many academic papers and books, his ideas have been featured |
| 0:56.0 | on Scientific American, the Institute of Arts and Ideas, the blog of the American Philosophical |
| 1:01.8 | Association, and Big Think, among others. |
| 1:05.4 | Bernardo's most recent work is the author of why materialism is baloney. |
| 1:16.0 | How true skeptics know there is no death and fathom life and fathom answers to life |
| 1:22.1 | the universe and everything. |
| 1:24.0 | For more information freely downloadable papers and videos etc please visit |
| 1:28.5 | Bernardocastrup.com. |
| 1:31.4 | Okay well it sounds like a real jargony kind of conversation we're going to have, but it wasn't. |
| 1:36.7 | It was, it was quite clear and lucid. |
| 1:39.8 | You don't have to know anything about any of these philosophical topics to understand what |
| 1:45.1 | he's talking about. |
| 1:46.5 | And since I'm not a philosopher, it's easy to keep the conversation practical. |
| 1:51.2 | So we deal with all the subjects I just listed and lots of very specific |
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