Patterson in Pursuit

Simon Dixon and I talk about theories surrounding the hijacking of Bitcoin, the connection with Jeffrey Epstein, and some history about Bitcoin's funding and development.Simon's channel: ‪@SimonDixon21‬ Get the Hijacking Bitcoin book: https://www.hijackingbitcoin.com/ Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

There’s a purely rational argument for the divinity of love. The core Christian claims can be translated into straightforward analytical philosophy without appealing to mystery, faith, or superstition.I am not saying this argument is true, merely that it’s reasonable, coherent, and understandable in the context of standard philosophy.Here’s the argument:1) Patterns are real and mind-independent (we’ll call them “Forms”).2) There is a metaphysical hierarchy of Forms.3) At the top of the hierarchy is the Form of the Good.4) The highest form is Love.5) Therefore, Love is the Form of the Good.We can break this argument into two parts: Propositions 1-3, which can be understood as a simple Platonism (using the word “patterns” instead of the usual term “universals”); and Propositions 4-5 which can be understood as an empirical Christian claim which clarifies and updates the Platonic idea.What I mean by PlatonismBy “Platonism,” I do not mean a faithful reconstruction of Plato’s ideas—rather, a metaphysical framework which says that patterns, abstractions and relations are real features of existence, separate from our minds. There are cats, and there is Cat-ness, the pattern which all cats have in common, which sits outside the material world in an abstract domain.The point of this article is not to make an argument for this kind of Platonism (which I’ve done extensively elsewhere.) The point is to say that within this view, there is a hierarchy of Forms. As you go up the abstraction ladder, you reach higher and higher forms. Eventually you’ll find the Form of Justice Itself, which is an extremely high-level, high-dimensional pattern that every just action participates in.Impersonal Form of the GoodAt the top of this hierarchy, the Platonist wants to say, is the Form of the Good. This form is so absolute, so fundamental, that it’s the Form which grounds all of our ethical judgements. The form of the Good isn’t something which can be judged “good” or “bad”—it is Goodness itself, the Form-that-we-use to determine goodness.Functionally, this Form plays a similar role to God in theism. However, the classical Form of the Good is critically impersonal. If there is a Creator-God (or “demiurge” in the Platonic vocabulary), he sits underneath the Form of the Good, participating in it. The theistic God, by contrast, has nothing above him; he sits at the apex of the metaphysical hierarchy.That gives us the meaning of Propositions 1-3 of the original argument. Now the Christians come along.Empirical RevelationThe Christian wants to say: by the way, it turns out the Form of the Good is not a distant, impersonal abstraction.The Form of the Good turns out to be Love.In other words, Love is The Good. Love is Goodness itself—it’s the thing which we use to determine the goodness of everything else; it’s the Value underpinning all other values; it’s the objective meaning of life; it’s the first and final cause of everything.And Love is in the Form of a Person. Love is alive.This is not an aprioristically-true claim. It’s an empirical claim—that is how we can understand the meaning of “divine revelation”—God reveals his face, not through a purely logical argument, but through Incarnation.The Form of the Good “comes down from [Platonic] heaven” to live among us.Immediately, if such a thing happened—or if it plausibly happened—we would find ourselves grappling with the same philosophical questions as the early Christians. Divine Love is fully instantiated by Jesus Christ. So, what was Jesus’s exact relationship with God? Clearly he was a man, yet divine at the same time... and suddenly we’re back in the 4th century.So that’s the claim. If there is a hierarchy of Forms, then the Christians are saying Love is the highest Form and the essence of God.Note:If we want to replace the Platonic conception of the “Form of the Good” with the Neo-Platonic idea of “the One,” the Christian argument still holds.So we can swap out premise (3) for the claim “At the top of the hierarchy is The One,” which would change the conclusion to: (5) Therefore, Love is The One. Either formulation works. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

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Even more recently, I’ve become drawn to Catholic Christianity, but these articles capture my thoughts from a few years ago. Part 1:Part 2: Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

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Patri Friedman shares his experiences and research about sleep apnea, after struggling with it for decades. Patri’s website: https://patrifriedman.com/ Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Original article here: And yes, this narration was generated by an AI clone of my voice. Incredible. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Eric Brakey joins me to talk about his recent experience getting detained at the border after returning from a cruise. His papers and electronics were searched, and the border guards told him that his Constitutional rights didn’t apply. A story we should pay attention to. Free State Project: fsp.org Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

The desire to understand mechanism has led scientists, doctors, and researchers into grave error—the “mechanism fallacy”—thinking that correlations are not causally connected if the mechanism is not understood. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

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We've become desensitized to the novelty of the Trinity. I am joined by Dr. Jared Ortiz to discuss the history and importance of the Council of Nicaea. Guest's website: https://hope.edu/directory/people/ortiz-jared/index.html Guest's book: The Nicene Creed: A Scriptural, Historical, and Theological Commentary Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

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There are too many anomalies in archaeology to ignore. Our paradigms will have to be revised.My conversation with Michael Button, a rising star from the next generation of scholars. Check out his YouTube channel here. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

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Textbook calculus is wrong because it's fundamentally continuous. We can do better, and a discrete calculus might even change how we build computers. Interview with Ryan X Charles. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

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I'm joined by Aaron Day of the Daylight Freedom Foundation to talk about... a completely different subject than we originally planned. He shares his story about moving away from atheist materialism, and we also discuss the role (and dangers) of social hierarchies and other topics. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

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The biggest hangup I have with Catholicism (and all the mainline branches of Christianity) is the Trinity. I can understand a lower-case-t trinitarianism—that the concepts of “Father God”, “Son of God” and “Holy Spirit” are valid and useful—but the official doctrine of the Trinity still confuses me. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

The best Christian philosophy I’ve heard comes from the ancient traditions—Catholicism and Orthodoxy. I would never have expected it five years ago, but I’m coming around to Catholicism in particular… Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

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The world outside our mind is actually glued together; relations are mind-independent; and patterns are objectively real. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Trying to envision life alongside AI. How will our culture change? What will the norms be around beloved robots? Should we let the machines hijack our emotional circuitry? Will AI become the highest-level decision makers within governments? Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

The world is ablaze with discussion about the risks and benefits of AI like ChatGPT I have not been persuaded by the doomsdayers concerns about rogue AI, but that doesn't mean the technology is actually safe. I investigate some philosophical concepts surrounding AI with Alexandros Marinos. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Wonderful conversation with my old friend Isaac Deitz who shares his personal religious journey. After decades of being a Christian, he no longer identifies with that label. In my opinion, that's only because "Christian" is a terrible term nowadays. By some metrics, Isaac is a raging Christian. By others, he is a heretic. In that respect, I am coming to many of the same ideas about religion and truth--spiritual truth is often at odds with religious dogma. Better to give up a label than give up the pursuit of truth. Isaac's website: http://www.isaacdeitz.com/ Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

The best explanation for the current madness of the world is that we're in a dark age and have been for at least a century. The epistemic standards of the 20th century were not high enough to overcome social, psychological, and political entropy. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

A couple of months ago, my friend Isaac Morehouse asked me to talk about the philosophy of mathematics and why I consider it so important. Appeals to mathematics are everywhere, from COVID lockdowns to NFL play calling, and if our concepts about math are flawed, we make the world a significantly worse place. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

What does scientific progress look like? Is it steady progress, getting ever closer to the truth? Or does it go through waves? What about cases where we seem to have lost knowledge or the foundations of a theory we’ve been building on turned out to be wrong? Can that still be useful? Is that still progress? These are some of the questions I explore with Dr. Geoff Anders. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

A critical thinker must have the ability to zoom in and zoom out - to hyper-focus on cause and effect and to see how things interconnect in the big picture. It's a common and critical error to be too-zoomed-in or too-zoomed-out. The over-focused mind is like the mathematician who doesn't realize the assumptions of his model are non-mathematical and likely wrong. The under-focused mind is like the mushroom-enthusiast that's content concluding "All is one", with no finer-resolution of analysis. The careful thinker must be constantly zooming in and zooming out, gathering ideas from all levels of resolution. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Libertarians like myself tend to focus on the abuse of power hierarchies. The existence of a "ruling class" makes most of us uneasy. However, might these sociological structures serve a valuable purpose? Are they inevitable parts of human society? Samo Burja joins me to discuss. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

For years, I've been making anti-Platonist arguments. Now, I think I was wrong. The universe seems to be composed of both concrete and abstract stuff. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 100 of Patterson in Pursuit! Wow, what a milestone. Thanks to everybody who has listened to and supported the show. I hope it's created value for you. In this episode, I share my personal thoughts about the show, some of my motivations, the conversations that were impactful to my own philosophy, and some funny experiences along the way. And of course, more heretical thoughts about the philosophy of mathematics. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Do logic and rationality have limits? Are there ways to "get outside" of rational thinking? Do altered states caused by psychedelics provide true insight about the world, or are they illusory? These are the questions I discuss with Dr. Bernardo Kastrup, who shares some of his personal experiments and insights gained psychedelic drugs. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Is everything ultimately mental? Do we need a theory of a physical world at all? Dr. Bernardo Kastrup joins me again to talk about idealism. This time, we go into great detail, both put our ideas to the test, and the result was one of my favorite interviews ever. I end up asking Bernardo some of the most difficult questions in philosophy. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Finally, after investigating for more than 20 years, I have a concept of God I can rationally grasp. The idea is one of the oldest in existence, and it turns baroque theological claims into true and important insights. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Dualism is an attractive philosophy with an Achilles' heel. Dualists since Descartes have never given a good answer to the problem of interaction. Finally, I think I've got one. I have a working resolution to the problem of interaction that I call a theory of indirect interaction, which allows effective interaction between objects in different ontological categories. Original article here: http://steve-patterson.com/mind-body-dualism-solving-problem-interaction/ Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Lots of confusion is caused by the nature of language. This is a narration of the article "There Are No Objective Definitions", which you can read here: http://steve-patterson.com/there-are-no-objective-definitions/ Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Doron Zeilberger is the Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University. He's also a math heretic who thoroughly rejects the orthodox conceptions of infinity in modern mathematics. So we got along quite well. We had a fantastic conversation covering a wide range of topics, including set theory, calculus and limits, pi, irrational numbers like the square root of two, real analysis, and Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. If you're interested in the philosophy of mathematics, this is a must-listen. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

The most requested interview breakdown ever - my conversation with Thaddeus Russell about the postmodern theory of truth. Fun episode! Can we know that experience is happening? If somebody denies that they know, is it possible to convince them? Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Christopher Langan is an independent intellectual known for having the highest IQ in America - somewhere around 200, which is six standard deviations above the norm. His story is fascinating. Chris is not working within the academy. Instead, he's splitting his time between ranching and philosophizing. We spoke about a wide range of topics, including the problems of modern academia, the concept of IQ, and his attempt at a Theory of Everything entitled "The Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" - or the "CTMU". You can find more information about the CTMU at: http://hology.org/ You can also find Chris's work and support him on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/CTMU Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? If you've been in the Bitcoin world for a while, you know that's the last question you should try to answer. However, I've recently come across a story that I find quite plausible, written by Phil Wilson (aka Scronty). Phil documents the thinking-process behind the Bitcoin invention, in addition to providing many historical details around the creation of Bitcoin. His story also explains the perplexing existence of Craig Wright. It's the only narrative that implies Craig is both a) Part of the Satoshi team, and b) largely fraudulent, at the same time. It explains how Craig was able to convince notable people like Gavin Andreson of being Satoshi, while also explaining his extremely poor writing and communication skills. It also fits the facts of Satoshi's extremely careful Op Sec - though not in the way you might think. The story isn't perfect - and Phil admits as much - but taken together, his story is the best I've heard, and worthy of 7 hours of interviewing. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

My conversation with Dr. Walter Block about abortion and natural rights, which is one of the trickiest issues in any political philosophy, libertarianism included. He's the creator of a theory called "evictionism," which tries to take a middle ground between pro-life and pro-choice positions. In my analysis, it's a reasonable compromise. I cannot think of any principled objections from the pro-choice side, and though a pro-lifer might have objections, the core of Block's argument is pro-life at heart and in the long run could result in the universal protection of pre-birth humans. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe