Just had a, uh, very interesting experience online. Tell me your opinions on this man.
Just had a, uh, very interesting experience online. Tell me your opinions on this man.
A publication by The Atlantic going over his works:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/the-illusion-of-reality/479559/
My immediate intuition is that this is just bad philosophy disguised as pseudoscience, and from a philosophical perspective none of this makes sense. Am I wrong here? I would like insights.
He believes in so-called "conscious realism", which believes that matter does not exist, and in fact, only consciousness exists.
Here's a critical analysis of some of his stuff: https://philarchive.org/archive/ALLHCR
Edit: Please don't downvote if you think this guy is a nerd, I am skeptical of him myself, but please, upvote so a particularly strong of constitution comrade can detail their opinions and dunk on him
Every so often, a not particularly noteworthy white guy believes that they have invented the concept of Solipsism and clings onto it incredibly hard because it makes them feel important. This guy is just part of a long tradition of that. For further examples, browse reddit, you'll come across these types everywhere there.
oh it's like with how "rationalists" think theyve invented ethics when recreating it for the 69420th time
Exactly. Hell, a lot of baby leftists often stumble onto socialist ideas in the same way, noticing the contradictions of capitalism and thinking they've "discovered it."
He's a popsci author. I have no idea why anyone is bothering responding to that post lmao
Do popsci authors have a reputation?
My mental health has been repeatedly ruined by scientists reporting similarly ground-breaking and kind of shaky findings. Am I supposed to... not freak out about any supposed scientific fact that gets more than 1000 upvotes on Reddit?
FuckDo popsci authors have a reputation?
Like in general? They are usually well educated, and sometimes are tenured profs or whatever, but a lot of the time they make wild claims that are deeply ignorant of philosophy, etc, and/or are completely non-falsifiable (I.e. A waste of time). As long as the idea is catchy, they will find their audience though usually not respect from their own peers.
My mental health has been repeatedly ruined by scientists reporting similarly ground-breaking and kind of shaky findings. Am I supposed to... not freak out about any supposed scientific fact that gets more than 1000 upvotes on Reddit?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Unfortunately, the science or philosophy which filters through into pop culture is generally either sensational or misrepresented.
I feel like the person had legitimate spiritual beliefs in the thread