#95 Robert Kurzban: The Hidden Agenda of Our Minds, Modularity, and Politics

The Dissenter - A podcast by Ricardo Lopes

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Robert Kurzban is a former Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the nature of evolved cognitive adaptations for social life. Dr. Kurzban has served as both the editor-in-chief of the journal Evolution & Human Behavior and President of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. He’s also the author of the books Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite, and The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind.  In this episode, we talk about the approach to the mind as being composed by a multitude of evolved cognitive modules that helped us deal with problems during our evolutionary history. We go through some of the main topics of both of Dr. Kurzban’s books, and talk about how our subconscious mind works and some of the implications of it, particularly about a new perspective on phenomena like cognitive dissonance and self-deception. And we also go through some of the implications that it has for politics. Time Links: 00:51 The mind as modules  04:37 The notion of “self”      05:40 The subconscious parts of our minds, and how they work   11:52 Cognitive dissonance and self-deception 15:25 Is the subconscious wrong or irrational?   19:38 Why don’t people stick with their resolutions?      23:21 About personality 27:37 Are people really divided in two political tribes? 30:26 Moral condemnation and politics 33:10 Follow Dr. Kurzban’s work! -- Follow Dr. Kurzban’s work: Personal website: http://www.robkurzban.com/ Articles on Researchgate: https://tinyurl.com/y9xuko7h Books: https://tinyurl.com/y7kf7g37 -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g