{"id":13659,"date":"2021-01-11T12:04:22","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T20:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ideasandsociety.ucr.edu\/?p=13659"},"modified":"2021-01-13T09:10:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T17:10:14","slug":"schwitzgebel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideasandsociety.ucr.edu\/news\/schwitzgebel\/","title":{"rendered":"In Focus: Eric Schwitzgebel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Schwitzgebel<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Department:<\/strong> Philosophy
\nRank:<\/strong> Professor
\n# of years at UCR:<\/strong> 23 (~44% of my life)
\nTop three texts I would take to a desert island:<\/strong> The collected Borges, Montaigne, and Zhuangzi. See my Five Books interview<\/a> on the philosophers of wonder!
\nFavorite activity:<\/strong> Long walks in beautiful places.\u00a0Or maybe, during a lecture, the well-crafted pause — that silent moment when the attention of the audience slowly gathers.
\nSomething people might be amazed to know about me:<\/strong> I doubt that anything about me would be amazing to most people. So instead, I will share a picture of my new pet garden snail named Mermaid (image below).
\nAn \u201cadventure\u201d I am looking forward to, post-pandemic:<\/strong> Visiting England and Scotland with my family.
\nMy blog:<\/strong> The Splintered Mind<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Q: My research agenda summed up in one sentence:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Something very weird must be true about how human consciousness is related to the rest of the universe, but we\u2019re not in a good position to know where exactly the truth lies among the various weird possibilities.<\/p>\n

Q: A good portion of your recent work links philosophy and science fiction. Do your various projects have a similar or common aim?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Broadly speaking, my projects aim to\u00a0lay out the various possible theories of the mind\u2019s place in the cosmos. I aim to show that every viable theory of mind and cosmos is both bizarre and dubious. Sometimes these bizarre and dubious possibilities are best understood by way of philosophical argument. At other times, they are best understood by means of speculative empirical science or thoughtful science fiction.<\/p>\n

Q: My current project…<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u2026will hopefully convince you that the world is even weirder than you thought.<\/p>\n

Q: What started you on this research path?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

(1.) thinking about how scientific and philosophical theories of consciousness would or wouldn\u2019t apply to hypothetical aliens, artificial intelligence systems, and group minds and (2.) thinking about puzzles in cosmology concerning multiverse theory, the consequences of infinitude, and simulation theory.<\/p>\n

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Eric’s pet garden snail, Mermaid, exploring his most recent book.<\/p><\/div>\n

Q: When folks ask you what you love about your work, what do you say?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I tell them\u2026 about garden snail sex.\u00a0Garden snails are some weird alien creatures right here in our gardens, and scientific and philosophical theories of the mind struggle to make sense of them.<\/p>\n

Q: If you could change something about the structure of the university, what would it be?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019d reduce the bureaucratic burdens on faculty and staff, especially concerning grant applications and grant expenditures.\u00a0We should spend our time on the core missions of researching and teaching, rather than spending so much time requesting money.<\/p>\n

Q: Do you have a favorite resource you like to recommend?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The TV series Black Mirror is doing some of the best thinking right now on the ethics of technology.<\/p>\n

Q: What have you learned from teaching and mentoring students over the years?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I have learned\u00a0to meet people where they are and show how what you want to teach them connects through to what they were already interested in.<\/p>\n

Q: What tried and true teaching practice have you found also works well online?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Regular check-ins with your advisees.\u00a0These are easy to do online and more important in this time when some students are feeling out of touch with campus life.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

In Focus is a interview series that features faculty associates of the Center for Ideas and Society.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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