EP 12 - A New Enlightenment: The Age of Cognitivism

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

Selected References:

2:07 - See “Literary Periods, Movements, and History” (The Literature Network)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 Melchert6:10 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 11 - “Darwin & The Dude: Darron’s Path to Poetic Naturalism”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 more8:25 - 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, 195812:30 - 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)14:56 - The Origins of Creativity by E.O. Wilson20:27 - Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett24:42 - See the entry on “allostasis” from the extended endnotes of How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett and/or the “Allostasis” Wikipedia entry28:37 - 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.”.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 Barrett40:20 - Listen to episode 89 of The Knowledge Project Podcast - “Less Certainty, More Inquiry” featuring an interview with psychologist, writer, and poker player Maria Konnikova44:30 - Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aaronson49:51 - The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent58:14 - Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by John Meacham59:04 - 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

This episode was recorded remotely via Zoom in February 2021

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