Ep 151: ”Objectivist” ”Epistemology” - The errors of objectivism
ToKCast20 Sep 2022

Ep 151: ”Objectivist” ”Epistemology” - The errors of objectivism

Here I read from Ayn Rand's work "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology" and reflect upon it by comparing it to actual epistemology (how knowledge is created). We explain the misconceptions in the view that knowledge is all about the goings on in minds and how Rand's epistemology is root-and-branch subjectivist. Ayn Rand is an excellent defender of free trade and capitalism, the inherent value of people: her ideas are pro-human and broadly optimistic. However the epistemology is fundamentally flawed containing pure speculation about how people learn (so-called "concept formation") and disconnected from problems in (for example) science and where knowledge is being constructed. Her examples are highly abstract rather than being based in the concrete reality of the history of ideas and for this reasons she reaches the same conclusions as almost all other philosophers on this topic. Namely that knowledge is derived from reality through our senses (empiricism) and is induced by noticing similarities between objects. This is not explanatory, it is not insightful and it is demonstrably false - as I explain.

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Episoder(270)

Ep 270: The Gradient Descent into Doom.

Ep 270: The Gradient Descent into Doom.

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Ep 269: The Quantum Observer Effect?

Ep 269: The Quantum Observer Effect?

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Ep 268: AGI has arrived podcast

Ep 268: AGI has arrived podcast

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7 Sep 34min

Ep 267: The Orthogonality Thesis is Moral Relativism. (Response to Sam Harris on AI).

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26 Aug 27min

Ep 266: Facts, Fantasy and Critical Thinking

Ep 266: Facts, Fantasy and Critical Thinking

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20 Aug 32min

Ep 265: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 14 "The Ends of the Universe" Part 2 The Omega Point

Ep 265: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 14 "The Ends of the Universe" Part 2 The Omega Point

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15 Aug 1h 28min

Ep 264: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 14 "The Ends of the Universe" Part 1

Ep 264: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 14 "The Ends of the Universe" Part 1

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Ep 263: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 13 "The Four Strands" Part 4 - and final.

Ep 263: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 13 "The Four Strands" Part 4 - and final.

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