Mental Immunity & the Search for a Better Way to Think | Andy Norman

Hidden Forces

Demetri Kofinas

Business, Government

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2021

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Episode 195 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Andy Norman, an award-winning author, public philosopher, and prominent advocate for the field of "cognitive immunology," which studies the mind's resistance to bad ideas.

In this conversation you will learn how mental immunity works, how epidemics of irrationality occur, and how present cultural conditions exacerbate the spread of bad ideas by compromising our mental faculties, exploiting loopholes in the evidentiary chain of reasoning that most of us rely on in order to assess, accept, or reject claims and assertions.

Whether we're talking about the spread of baseless online conspiracies, increased political polarization, or the bewildering popularity of cancel culture, rethinking and reforming our approach to inquiry and dialectic is urgently needed.

In the Overtime, Andy and Demetri discuss ontological truth and explore the limitations of science and reason in helping ascertain reality. It includes discussions about spirituality, religion, the immaterial, and whether or not it is possible to know something authoritatively, even if you can't explain it logically or through evidentiary reasoning. They also discuss mattering theory, something Demetri has covered in a prior episode with Rebecca Goldstein, as well as how to build up our mental immunity using concrete steps that help us become better thinkers and better brokers of information during a time when this is desperately needed.

You can access the episode overtime, as well as the transcript and rundown to this week's episode through the Hidden Forces Patreon Page. All subscribers gain access to our overtime feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.

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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

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Episode Recorded on 06/15/2021

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up, everybody? My name is The Matrix of Phoenix, and you're listening to Hidden Forces,
0:26.7	a podcast that inspires investors, entrepreneurs, and everyday citizens to challenge consensus narratives,
0:33.5	and to learn how to think critically about the systems of power shaping our world.
0:38.5	My guest in this week's episode is Andy Norman, an award-winning author, public philosopher,
0:44.5	and prominent advocate for the field of cognitive immunology, which studies the mind's resistance
0:50.3	to bad ideas. Today's conversation is important, because one of the central problems we face in society
0:57.6	today is that people are losing the ability to think for themselves, and this has profound
1:03.7	implications when it comes to not only the spread of bad ideas, but also our ability to come to
1:09.3	agreement on good ones. It explains much of the ideological corruption, nihilism, and sense of
1:16.6	hyper-reality that many of us experience, and that I've talked about at length on this podcast.
1:22.8	By the end of today's conversation, you will have a much better understanding of not just how
1:28.2	mental immune systems work, but also how epidemics of nonsense spread by exploiting
1:33.7	loopholes in the chain of reasoning that most of us rely on in order to make sense of reality,
1:40.1	and come to consensus about the nature of the world around us. In the over time,
1:45.6	Andy and I get into a much deeper discussion about the nobility of the world, and what I believe
1:51.3	are the limitations of science and reason in helping us get there. It's a conversation about
1:56.4	spirituality, religion, the immaterial, and whether or not it's possible to know something
2:02.5	authoritatively, even if you can't explain it logically or by offering evidence in support of it.
2:09.1	We also discuss mattering theory, something we've covered in a previous episode with Rebecca Goldstein,
2:15.0	and how to build up our mental immunity. Concrete steps, in other words, that we can rely on
2:20.5	to become better thinkers and better brokers of information during a time when this is
2:26.4	desperately needed. So without any further ado, please enjoy this timely and urgently important
	...

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