Audio only
Length10h 24m
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by Will Collyer reveals why all philosophical explanations of human consciousness and the structure of the cosmos are bizarre—and why that's a good thing
Do we live inside a simulated reality or a pocket universe embedded in a larger structure about which we know virtually nothing? Is consciousness a purely physical matter, or might it require something extra, something nonphysical? According to the philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel, it's hard to say. In
The Weirdness of the World, Schwitzgebel argues that the answers to these fundamental questions lie beyond our powers of comprehension. We can be certain only that the truth—whatever it is—is weird. Philosophy, he proposes, can aim to open—to reveal possibilities we had not previously appreciated—or to close, to narrow down to the one correct theory of the phenomenon in question. Schwitzgebel argues for a philosophy that opens.
According to Schwitzgebel's "Universal Bizarreness" thesis, every possible theory of the relation of mind and cosmos defies common sense. According to his complementary "Universal Dubiety" thesis, no general theory of the relationship between mind and cosmos compels rational belief. Might the United States be a conscious organism—a conscious group mind with approximately the intelligence of a rabbit? Might virtually every action we perform cause virtually every possible type of future event, echoing down through the infinite future of an infinite universe? What, if anything, is it like to be a garden snail? Schwitzgebel makes a persuasive case for the thrill of considering the most bizarre philosophical possibilities.
Audiobook details
GenrePhilosophy
Length10 hrs 24 mins
Narrated byWill Collyer
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJan 16, 2024
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Opening Credit - Dedication
9Chapter 7 - Almost Everything You Do Causes Almost Everything (Under Certain Not Wholly Implausible Assumptions), or, Infinite Puppetry
2Part 1 - Bizarreness and Dubiety, Chapter 1 - In Praise of Weirdness
10Part 4 - More Perplexities of Consciousness, Chapter 8 - Consciousness, Innocent and Wonderful
3Chapter 2 - Universal Bizarreness and Universal Dubiety
11Chapter 9 - The Loose Friendship of Visual Experience and Reality
4Chapter 2 - Continued
12Chapter 10 - Is There Something It's Like to Be a Garden Snail_ Or, How Sparse or Abundant Is Consciousness in the Universe
5Part 2 - Peculiar Possibilities, Chapter 3 - If Materialism is True, the United States is Probably Conscious
13Chapter 11 - The Moral Status of Future Artificial Intelligence
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6Chapter 4 - 1% Skepticism
14Chapter 12 - Weirdness and Wonder
7Chapter 5 - Kant Meets Cyberpunk
15Appendix - Five More Objections to U.S. Consciousness
8Part 3 - The Size of the Universe, Chapter 6 - Experimental Evidence for the Existence of an External World
16Closing Credits
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The Way to a Beautiful WorldJames Norbury44m$9 · $0.00
The Collected Works of Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche92h$2 · $0.00
The Practicing StoicWard Farnsworth9h 56m$20
Moral Letters to LuciliusLucius Annaeus Seneca25h 38m$2 · $0.00
Tâo Teh KingLaozi2h 38m$1 · $0.00
The Complete Essays of MontaigneMichel de Montaigne45h 30m$2 · $0.00
The Origin of OthersToni Morrison2h 25m$20
The LawFrédéric Bastiat2h 7m$10
IlluminationsWalter Benjamin10h 12m$20 · $0.00
Buddhist Boot CampTimber Hawkeye2h 39m$18 · $0.00
The DhammapadaFriedrich Max Müller1h 30m$15
Change Your MindRJ Spina7h 5m$17
The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius AntoninusEmperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius6h 17m$2 · $0.00
Tao Te ChingLao Tzu1h 25m$2 · $0.00
Tao Te ChingStephen Mitchell, Lao Tzu1h 42m$16 · $0.00
Everyday DharmaSuneel Gupta5h 2m$20 · $0.00
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on LoveMartin Luther King10h 2m$29 · $0.00
The KybalionThree Initiates3h 47m$2.30
The Collected Works of Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant83h 35m$2 · $0.00
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