Episode 12 - A New Enlightenment: The Age of Cognitivism
Jeff and Darron explore some of the major ideas of Enlightenment thought that have shaped our current historical era. Jeff lays out his vision for a new Enlightenment - an age of cognitivism - that applies current insights gleaned from neuroscience and related fields about how brains and cognition work, and the limits of current conceptions of reason, in order to more fully realize the progressive vision of the original Enlightenment movement. Building off the work of two influential scientists and thinkers, biologist E.O. Wilson and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, they discuss the predictive nature of our brain, the possibility of seeding our brain today to predict better in the future, and how the unification of the humanities and sciences might allow us to fully embrace what it means to be creative beings who are shaped by both biological and cultural evolution.
Notes:
2:07 - See “Literary Periods, Movements, and History” (The Literature Network)
2:45 - See entries on “Classical Greece,” “Renaissance,” and “Enlightenment” from History.com for brief overviews
3:50 - First published in 1687, Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, often referred to as just “the Principles”, lays out, among other major ideas like the law of universal gravitation, Newton’s famous 3 Laws of Motion, which formed the basis for classical mechanics and the science of physics. It is also notable in that Newton developed and used mathematical models to support his physical theories, many of which are now included in the field of calculus, and “The Principles” is generally regarded as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution that had been ongoing since the 16th century. Along with works by the likes of Rene deCartes, whose famous philosophical proclamation “I think, therefore I am” is seen as a precursor to the philosophy of reason that undergirds much Enlightenment thought, and philosophers like John Locke, whose ““Essay Concerning Human Understanding” was published in 1689, this early Enlightenment Period provided the scientific, mathematical and philosophical grounding for the major Enlightenment advances of the 18th Century. The Enlightenment period is generally thought to conclude with the onset of the French Revolution in 1789 and the beginning of the 18th century.
5:10 - See “What is Enlightenment?” by Immanuel Kant - “Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.”
5:12 - The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy by Norman Melchert
5:56 - See “Scientific Revolution” (Britannica) and/or “Scientific Revolution” (Wikipedia)
6:10 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 11 - “Darwin & The Dude: Darron’s Path to Poetic Naturalism”
6:32 - The Enlightenment is also referred to as “The Age of Reason” and although there have been many ideas throughout the history of Western Culture about what reason is, how it relates to the mind, and how it might best be applied in finding truth and living a good life, the celebration of reason that marked Enlightenment thought is heavily influenced by the empirical emphasis of the preceding Scientific Revolution, and can generally be regarded as the capacity of humans to consciously apply rational thinking based on evidence, discourse, and openness to new ideas, as a means to gain knowledge and make sense of the world, as opposed to relying on blind faith, superstition and other traditional dogma. The movement was highlighted by the progressive ideal that through their powers of reason and observation, humans can make nearly unlimited, linear progress over time
7:23 - Such notable figures as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton, were building off of Enlightenment thought in the time leading up to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, See “American Enlightenment Thought” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) and “American Enlightenment” (Wikipedia) for more
8:25 - See “Allen Ginsberg’s Definition of the Beat Generation” (Literary Hub) for more on Jack Kerouac and the naming of the Beat Generation, then listen to Jack Kerouac read “San Francisco Scene (The Beat Generation)” from his 1959 spoken word album Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation, and “Is There a Beat Generation?” - a live lecture by Kerouac to students of Hunter College on November 6, 1958
9:26 - See E.O. Wilson (Wikipedia) and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
11:57 - I don’t mean to intimate that our ancestors from previous eras were unintelligent - there is certainly abundant evidence, not least of which is the fact that we are still here today, that people had plentiful information and skills related to their local world and surviving in it, but at the same time most knew almost nothing about the wider world that existed beyond their local geographic area, and did not have true conceptual or explanatory understanding of the plethora of natural phenomena filling that world, or any way to access the most up to date thoughts and ideas about them.
12:30 - Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the printing press around 1436 setting the stage for the dissemination of knowledge on a wider and faster scale than ever before, for more see “7 ways the Printing Press Changed the World” (History.com), “The Printing Press and the Spread of Ideas” (Encyclopedia.com), and “The Evolution of Media” (University of Minnesota Libraries)
14:15 - The agricultural revolution (Wikipedia)
14:56 - The Origins of Creativity by E.O. Wilson
20:27 - Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett
23:06 - Philosophy of mind (Wikipedia)
24:42 - See the entry on “allostasis” from the extended endnotes of How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett and/or the “Allostasis” Wikipedia entry
26:20 - Homeostasis (Wikipedia)
28:37 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 07 - “Boxing Aristotle”
32:15 - In 7 ½ Lessons About the Brain, Barrett states this explicitly with the half lesson that opens the book titled “Your Brain is Not For Thinking” which lays the foundation for the subsequent 7 lessons, - In a New York Times op-ed piece of the same title published in November 2020, after drawing a brief sketch of the evolution of the animal brain, she writes “This story of how brains evolved, while admittedly just a sketch, draws attention to a key insight about human beings that is too often overlooked. Your brain’s most important job isn’t thinking; it’s running the systems of your body to keep you alive and well. According to recent findings in neuroscience, even when your brain does produce conscious thoughts and feelings, they are more in service to the needs of managing your body than you realize...Your brain runs your body using something like a budget...This view of the brain has many implications for understanding human beings. So often, for example, we conceive of ourselves in mental terms, separate from the physical...In body-budgeting terms, however, this distinction between mental and physical is not meaningful...Your brain is not for thinking. Everything that it conjures, from thoughts to emotions to dreams, is in the service of body budgeting.”
35:02 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 03 - “The Examined Life” , according to Plato, in defending himself at his trial Socrates said “I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.”
35:35 - In addition to the difficulty with thinking critically using the scientific framework that emerged from Enlightenment thought due to the truly immense body of knowledge that has been accumulated and the inherent complexity of the modern world, there is the fact that this way of knowing is not even universally accepted, as many people the world over determine truth in much more intuitive, experiential, or faith-based ways. To quote Danah Boyd, who conducts research largely focused on the intersection of technology, information, and society, and founded the organization Data & Society, “No matter what worldview or way of knowing someone holds dear, they always believe that they are engaging in critical thinking when developing a sense of what is right and wrong, true and false, honest and deceptive. But much of what they conclude may be more rooted in their way of knowing than any specific source of information. If we’re not careful, “media literacy” and “critical thinking” will simply be deployed as an assertion of authority over epistemology.” (Source) These ideas of different ways of knowing and epistemology are something we plan to explore further in future episodes of Beautiful Illusions.
38:11 - See the entry on “Tuning and pruning” from the extended endnotes of Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett
40:20 - Listen to episode 89 of The Knowledge Project Podcast - “Less Certainty, More Inquiry” featuring an interview with psychologist, writer, and poker player Maria Konnikova
44:30 - Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aaronson
49:51 - The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent
50:35 - Sometimes called the father of empiricism, and referred to by none other than E.O. Wilson as the “grand architect” of the Enlightenment, the philosopher Francis Bacon is generally credited with developing the scientific method. His works emphasized that scientific knowledge could be gained through a skeptical and methodical approach based on inductive reasoning and careful observation of nature whereby scientists avoid misleading themselves. Bacon felt that the metaphysical ideas of the classical thinkers all the way back to Plato and Aristotle were holding back humanity and that once the human mind was freed from these ideas and metaphysical speculation was replaced by knowledge based on experience and induction organized by clear and regular methods, that the reality of nature could be revealed and nature could be conquered "for the relief of man's estate." In Bacon's view, this conquering of nature could remove many of the harsh constraints of physical human existence, and consequently so too would be removed the vain illusions that disturb the soul and cause political strife. On the foundation of modern science would rise the rational and secular state, whose business is progress. The idea of progress as an organized and benevolent project was first broached by Bacon, and he was revered by the figures of the later Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. See the Francis Bacon Wikipedia entry and “Ideas of Progress - The First Prophet of Progress”
53:22 - Liberalism (Wikipedia)
55:41 - Behavioral economics (Wikipedia)
58:14 - Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by John Meacham
59:04 - Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harrari
1:01:01 - See “Why Chimpanzees Don’t Hold Elections: The Power of Social Reality,” an excerpt from Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett