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Within Reason

Within Reason

By: Alex J O'Connor
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For the curious. A philosophy podcast that sometimes flirts with other disciplines, Within Reason has featured guests including Richard Dawkins, Douglas Murray, William Lane Craig, Peter Singer, Konstantin Kisin, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.Alex J O'Connor Philosophy Social Sciences
Episodes
  • #152 Why AI Will Never Be Conscious
    Apr 20 2026

    Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack.Anil Seth is a British neuroscientist and professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. A proponent of materialist explanations of consciousness, he is currently amongst the most cited scholars on the topics of neuroscience and cognitive science globally.Read Anil's essay, "The Mythology of Conscious AI". - TIMESTAMPS


    00:00 - The Difference Between Intelligence and Consciousness

    03:55 - What’s Stopping the Replication of Consciousness in AI?

    17:01 - Can You Separate What the Brain Is From What It Does?

    22:20 - Is Conscious Experience Just Predictions From the Brain?

    26:48 - Why Do We Project Consciousness Onto LLMs?

    37:27 - Can Consciousness Exist Without a Body?

    42:25 - Why We Liken the Brain to a Computer

    52:11 - Is There An Evolutionary Reason For Consciousness?

    56:29 - Studying Unconscious Perception?

    1:01:21 - Is Consciousness Unified? Split-Brain Patients

    1:15:10 - Attention and Consciousness

    1:19:04 - What Would a Conscious Chatbot Even Look Like?

    1:25:13 - Consciousness as a Controlled Hallucination

    1:34:19 - Do Scientists Actually Study “Consciousness” At All?


    - CONNECT

    My Website: https://www.alexoconnor.com

    Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicskeptic

    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmicskeptic

    Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/cosmicskeptic

    TikTok: @CosmicSkeptic


    - CONTACT

    Business email: contact@alexoconnor.com

    Brand enquiries: David@modernstoa.co

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    1 hr and 42 mins
  • #151 John Lennox - What Nearly Dying Taught Me About God
    Apr 13 2026

    Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access.For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.-John Lennox is a Northern Irish mathematician, bioethicist, and Christian apologist originally from Northern Ireland. He has written many books on religion, ethics, the relationship between science and God, and has had public debates with atheists including Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. -

    Exclusive discount: Listeners to my show can get 30% Off John Lennox’s autobiography, My Story when shopping directly from his publishers. Visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/my-story and enter AOC30 at checkout to get 30% off. - TIMESTAMPS00:00 - How Pressure Can Produce the Best Work02:29 - Does the Incarnation Make Sense?06:22 - John’s Richard Dawkins Debate14:39 - What Did the New Atheists Get Wrong About God?26:21 - Science Cannot Explain Everything31:22 - What Did the New Atheists Get Right?35:18 - Why Does God Hide From So Many People?44:36 - Why Does God Allow Arbitrary Suffering?56:25 - Is Faith “Belief Without Evidence”?1:00:33 - How Could God Punish a Mere Lack of Faith?1:08:14 - How Christopher Hitchens Agreed with Jesus1:13:03 - Does Christianity Cause Evil?

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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • #150 Materialist AND Panpsychism are True - Galen Strawson
    Apr 8 2026

    Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.Galen Strawson is a British analytic philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind, metaphysics, John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Is Radical Emergence Possible?08:15 - Can Physics Describe Consciousness?12:01 - Is Everything Made of Consciousness?18:34 - Why Are People Resistant to Panpsychism?21:19 - Can Experience Alone Tell Us What Consciousness Is?23:50 - Does Consciousness Require Complexity?29:03 - Panpsychism vs Idealism: What’s the Difference?36:08 - The Combination Problem40:03 - What is the “Self”?43:16 - Do We Even Need to Explain Consciousness?48:25 - Is Consciousness a Scientific or Philosophical Question?53:25 - Is It Possible for AI to Become Conscious?

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    58 mins
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