Erik Hoel on Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2023

⏱️ 68 minutes

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Summary

Neuroscientist and author Erik Hoel talks about his book, The World Behind the World, with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. Is it possible to reconcile the seemingly subjective inner world of human experience with the seemingly objective outer world of observation, measurement, and science? Despite the promise of neuroscience, Hoel argues that this reconciliation is surprisingly difficult. Join Hoel and Roberts for a wide-ranging exploration of what it means to be human and the limits of science in helping us understand who we are.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics
0:07.0	and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover
0:13.0	Institution.
0:14.0	Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode and find links down
0:18.6	the information related to today's conversation.
0:21.4	You'll also find our archives, with every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.8	Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
0:29.8	We'd love to hear from you.
0:37.8	Today is June 21st, 2023, and my guest is neuroscientist and author, Eric Hoel.
0:43.9	You can find his essays on Substack at the intrinsic perspective.
0:48.3	They're fantastic.
0:49.3	His latest book in the subject of today's conversation is The World Behind the World.
0:55.6	Consciousness free will and the limits of science.
0:57.6	This is Eric's third appearance on econ talk.
1:00.0	He was last here in April of 2023 talking about the threat to humanity from artificial intelligence.
1:06.6	Eric, welcome back to econ talk.
1:07.6	Thank you so much.
1:08.6	It's an absolute pleasure to be back on here, Russ.
1:11.6	Now you start your book discussing a really fascinating thesis about our self-knowledge as
1:16.6	a species, which is a topic I've never thought about.
1:20.6	Like, how do we know about ourselves?
	...

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