TTC Audio - Exploring Metaphysics

What comes to mind when you hear the word “metaphysics”? Forget the ancient philosophers and ivory tower professors pontificating on irrelevant abstractions. The truth is, while metaphysics is among the oldest strands of philosophical thought—an inquiry into the very nature of
reality—metaphysics is also on the cutting edge of today’s scientific discoveries.

Physicist and Great Courses professor Sean Carroll explains the relationship between metaphysics and science this way: “Philosophers are very good at uncovering inconsistencies or mistakes in the kinds of causal heuristic understanding that scientists are often willing to accept. So for a physicist like me, philosophers can be very helpful in explaining what the problems are in our current versions of quantum mechanics, or in the origin of the arrow of time, or the nature of probability, or what counts as an ‘explanation.’”

Metaphysics, then, is an applied philosophy, a tool for thinking through concerns in a wide range of other disciplines, including

- psychology,
- neuroscience,
- theology,
- artificial intelligence,
- relativity, and
- quantum mechanics.

Most forms of structured thinking spring from metaphysics, and metaphysicians still think through the big questions about humans and the universe: the relationship between the mind and the brain, how consciousness emerges from neurochemical processes, the existence of God, human free will, the possibility of time travel, and whether we live in a multiverse or even a computer simulation.

Reflect on these issues and more in Exploring Metaphysics, a mind-bending tour of philosophy applied to the forefront of today’s knowledge. Over the course of 24 fascinating lectures, philosopher David Kyle Johnson, an award-winning scholar and professor at King’s College, takes you on a journey through the limits of today’s knowledge. He identifies our fundamental assumptions about the world—and then proceeds to challenge those assumptions point by point.

By teasing out the logical inconsistencies, paradoxes, and often unsettling implications of what we “know” about ourselves and the world around us, Professor Johnson poses challenging questions and covers a startling range of human inquiry:

- The mysteries of consciousness and whether we will ever create “minded” artificial intelligence
- What constitutes a self, and the possibility of a soul
- Myriad divine paradoxes and the seeming inconsistency between an all-knowing God and human free will
- General relativity and what it implies about the very fabric of our universe
- The spooky strangeness of the quantum world.

Exploring Metaphysics doesn’t offer all the answers, but it does ask questions you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. You’ll be surprised to learn what relativity, quantum mechanics, and neuroscience imply about human free will; how likely it is that we live in a computer simulation; and that time travel is not as crazy as it sounds. In the end, this unique course will leave you with a completely altered view of yourself and the world around you.

Reflect on What It Means to Be Human …

Forget what you think you know about yourself and your place in the world. Professor Johnson opens the course with three units that will surely alter your view of what it means to be a conscious, free person. Drawing from the realms of psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and philosophy, the first half of the course examines the defining traits of being human.

Brains and minds: Begin with an exploration of the philosophy of mind. What is a mind, and what is its relation to the brain? Find out what science tells us about the relationship between neurochemical reactions and mental activity. Then ponder how brains give rise to consciousness—and whether computers will ever attain it.

The self: Turn to the challenge of personal identity. Compared to when you were eight years old, your body is now composed of all-new cells and your personality has changed. Your memory of being eight is even sketchy. How, then, are you still the same person? Reflect on the nature of identity across time.

Time and free will: The nature of time presents yet another challenge to our intuitions. Physical determinism, quantum mechanics, neuroscience, and even theological speculation suggest humans can’t “choose otherwise.” And if this is the case, then we lack free will. Survey the problem as well as possible—though unlikely—solutions.

… Then Turn to the Nature of the Universe

In the second half of the course, Professor Johnson shifts from the nature of the individual to the nature of the universe. Here metaphysics, science, and theology all intersect. While the scientific method has given us many answers, those answers have also raised a host of new, as yet unanswered questions. These metaphysical questions may seem like science fiction, but they stem from the very concrete world of reality.

God: For thousands of years, humans have honed a belief in a higher power responsible for the universe as we know it. Professor Johnson examines the metaphysical arguments for the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent being, as well as the paradoxes that may arise from such a belief.

Relativity: In the 20th century, Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity upended our metaphysical conception of the universe. In this unit, Professor Johnson explains the physics of relativity and then considers its metaphysical implications. He also takes you into the fascinating world of mass shells, wormholes, and the very real possibility of time travel.

Quantum mechanics: Related to the issues of astrophysics and space-time, the 20th century also gave rise to a new understanding of the world at the subatomic level—a realm science can describe but that we do not yet fully comprehend. Here you’ll learn about quantum randomness, the weirdness of wave-particle duality, and the spookiness of quantum measurement, and investigate their bizarre implications.

Professor Lets You Decide

Although the subject has ancient roots, the metaphysics you study in this course is far from an esoteric system of thought. Indeed, this material is very much alive today—at the forefront of philosophy, physics, and medical technology. When you complete this course, you will have a much richer perspective on the world around you. Virtually every lecture will challenge some of your bedrock beliefs about yourself and the universe.

Professor Johnson is the ideal choice to guide you through the world of metaphysics. A down-to-earth, humorous lecturer and a brilliant storyteller, he wrestles with the many perplexing issues right alongside the listener. Rather than provide you a new blueprint for reality, he leaves it up to you to make your own judgments. Instead of prescribing a worldview, he gives you the tools to identify and test assumptions, to lay out reasonable arguments, and to recognize the many paradoxes and contradictions that emerge.

What you’ll discover—to your delight and, perhaps, dismay—is that metaphysics is in fact one big bundle of unresolved puzzles. Minds and brains, time travel and free will, life in a computer simulation—these are all heady issues with as yet no clear answers, but you’ll have the time of your life thinking through the questions.