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Psychedelics Today

PT560 – Philosophy and Psychedelics: Can Metaphysics Bring Meaning to Non-Ordinary States?, with Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes

Psychedelics Today

Psychedelics Today, LLC

Life Sciences, Science, Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.6598 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Joe interviews Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes: philosopher, lecturer at the University of Exeter, co-director of the Breaking Convention conference, and author who most recently co-edited Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience.

He discusses how the work of William James and an early psilocybin experience led him to an interest in philosophy and psychedelics, and he dives deep into several philosophical concepts: panpsychism, pantheism, ethical pluralism, teleology, process theology, Whitehead's fallacy of misplaced concreteness, and more. He believes that science has lost touch with metaphysics – the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality – and that studying metaphysics will lead to more beneficial experiences with the non-ordinary: If you can understand and frame the experience, you'll have a much better chance of being able to integrate its lessons.

He discusses:

  • The complexity of ethics and the need to ask more philosophical questions
  • His book, Neo-Nihilism, which argued that there are no shared objective morals
  • The West's' obsession with scientism and believing only what can be reducible to matter: Is science honest if it ignores the ineffable?
  • The connections between philosophical frameworks and religion: Would studying comparative religion help us better understand each other?
  • The need for more experiential research

and more! 

Sjöstedt-Hughes is the co-lead on Exeter's 12-month postgraduate certificate course, "Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine, and Culture," and is finalizing his next book, a manual on psychedelics and metaphysics.

For links, head to the show notes page.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, everybody, Joe Moore here. Welcome back to psychedelics today. Today on the show,

0:15.6

we have Peter Swastead Hughes, who is a professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter, inside the psychology department,

0:24.1

helping inform all the interesting stuff they're doing around psychedelics. And we've known

0:29.8

each other for a while. I really appreciate Peter's work and love what he's up to over there

0:34.8

in Exeter. And everybody should check out Peter's work for sure,

0:39.3

and at the very least, follow him all across socials. There's all sorts of great stuff,

0:43.1

always great art, and lovely quotes that are very helpful. So I think we are not asking enough

0:50.5

philosophical questions, and I think Peter's doing a really good job helping

0:55.1

future psychedelic researchers ask some important and perhaps well-structured philosophical questions.

1:02.3

So we recorded this at Philadelphia in the basement of the conference facility,

1:08.6

wherever the building was. Sorry, I can't remember everybody,

1:11.2

but the Penn Psychedelic Collaborative gave me a really nice room to record in, and I appreciate

1:16.2

that. So thank you, Peter, for joining us on this one. And thank you to the Philadelphia team

1:21.8

for having me and hope to do more. All right. Enjoy this episode. We'll see you on the other side.

1:31.3

All right. Enjoy this episode. We'll see you on the other side. All right, here we are University of Pennsylvania. Some like to call it Penn,

1:35.9

Philadelphia. Peter's Fortead Hughes. How are you doing? I'm doing well.

1:39.4

How do you say it right? You did? Yeah, first person ever. Well done.

1:44.0

You taught me a couple years ago.

1:46.6

So I actually teach people how to say it often.

1:50.0

Thanks.

1:51.5

Two people yesterday, like Peter,

1:54.4

sorry, hold on.

...

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