EP 11 - Darwin & The Dude: Darron's Journey to Poetic Naturalism

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

2:41 - The Darwin Fish2:59 - “...you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone” (BobDylan.com) from “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (YouTube video)3:18 - See “What is Darwin’s Theory of Evolution” (LiveScience, 2018) and “Darwin and His Theory of Evolution” (Pew Research Center)7:23 - Charles Darwin10:33 - See “Darwin on a Godless Creation: “It’s like confessing to a murder”” (Scientific American, 2009)10:42 - The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin12:40 - The best current fossil evidence suggests that the divergence of humans and chimps began as early as 13 million years ago but it was not a clean split and some hybridization may have been occurring as late as 4 million years ago, so the 6-7 million year number stated in the podcast should not be taken as definitive in any way, for more see the “Chimpanzee-human last common ancestor” Wikipedia entry and “Fossil Reveals What Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Apes Looked Like” (Scientific American, 2017)12:51 - See the “Tree of life” Wikipedia entry and “What is the Tree of Life?” (Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History)14:33 - The “Copernican Revolution” (Wikipedia) actually began during the 16th century, approximately 300 years before Darwin’s time, but certainly did alter human perception of our place in the Universe, for more see “Copernicus’ revolution and Galileo’s vision, in pictures” (EarthSky.org)18:38 - Naturalism18:53 - The mind being a product of the brain is a somewhat controversial assertion, although basically accepted by naturalists who root all causes in the physical, but for more see the “Mind-body problem” Wikipedia entry22:34 - See “Galileo vs The Inquisition: The Real Story”, excerpted from The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent23:05 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 02 - “Our Back Pages”23:33 - See Hamnet (Goodreads), and “The Real 'Hamnet' Died Centuries Ago, But This Novel Is Timeless” (NPR, 2020)29:07 - Existentialism29:53 - See “Maybe You're Not an Atheist–Maybe You're a Naturalist Like Sean Carroll” (Wired, 2016), and “Existential Therapy from the Universe: Physicist Sean Carroll on How Poetic Naturalism Illuminates Our Human Search for Meaning” (Brainpickings)31:09 - The Big Lebowski35:41 - See the “Film noir” Wikipedia entry, “Essential Noir Films: Sean Geraghty on THE BIG LEBOWSKI” (The Black List), and “Is The Big Lebowski a Great Noir Film? A New Way to Look at the Coen Brothers’ Iconic Movie” (Open Culture)36:19 - Kurzgesagt (YouTube Channel) and Kurzgesagt website36:35 - “How Evolution Works” by Kurzgesagt (YouTube video)36:42 - “Optimistic Nihilism” by Kurzgesagt (YouTube video)36:57 - The absurd37:52 - See the entry on Sisyphus from the Ancient History Encyclopedia and The Myth of Sisyphus Wikipedia entry40:00 - Watch the final scene of The Big Lebowski (YouTube video)42:37 - “...it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only” (BobDylan.com) from “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” (YouTube video)43:20 - Listen to the section of “Part of Your World” (YouTube video) from The Little Mermaid starting at 1:24 in the linked video43:38 - Listen to the section of “Space Oddity” (YouTube video) by David Bowie starting at 3:2244:55 - According to Joni Mitchell’s official website the line is actually “I don't know who I am, But you know life is for learning” - listen to the Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young cover of “Woodstock” (YouTube video) from their brilliant 1970 classic album Deja Vu (All Music)48:40 - See “Are you sleepwalking now?” (Aeon, 2018) by Thomas Metzinger, who notably is not a neuroscientist as stated in the podcast, but is actually a theoretical philosopher who does work on neuroethics and neurophilosophy55:47 - Listen to episode 40 of the It’s Not What It Seems podcast where Darron discusses Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert with his brother Doug57:12 - See the “Intellectual humility” Wikipedia entry, “Intellectual Humility: A Guiding Principle for the Skeptical Movement?” (Skeptical Inquirer, 2020), “Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong” (Vox, 2019), and “How ‘Intellectual Humility’ Can Make You a Better Person” (New York Magazine, 2017)1:00:34 - The Big Picture by Sean Carroll and the concept of Poetic Naturalism1:02:30 - See Poetic Naturalism on Sean Carroll's website Preposterous Universe1:03:57 - See “Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man” by philosopher Wilfird Sellars1:05:10 - Sean Carroll’s Mindscape Podcast1:06:16 - See “Of 2 Minds: How Fast and Slow Thinking Shape Perception and Choice” from Scientifc American, excerpted from Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman1:08:30 - See “What Does It Mean to Live the Good Life?” (ThoughtCo), “The Philosophy of the Good Life” (The Gifford Lectures), and “What is the Good Life? Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, & Kant’s Ideas in 4 Animated Videos” (Open Culture)

This episode was recorded remotely via Zoom in January 2021

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti