Pat Flynn joins Anthony Alberino to discuss his latest book: The Best Argument for the Existence of God. Amazon link to Pat's book: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Argument-God-Patrick-Flynn/dp/1644137801/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23JG38HM01ZCR&keywords=the+best+argument+for+god+patrick+flynn&qid=1692900330&sprefix=the+best+argument+for+g%2Caps%2C229&sr=8-1 Link to Pat's YouTube Channel Philosophy for the People: https://www.youtube.com/@PhilosophyforthePeople/videos

In this final episode in the series, we take aim at the most popular view of the mind among physical reductionists: the computational theory. Many today believe the mind is nothing more than a complex biological computer and that thinking is nothing more than running the right kind of program. The computational view of the mind is without question the greatest source of optimism for the project of reproducing human intelligence in a machine. But there are series problems with this view. We look at two from philosopher John Searle here. First there is the famous Chinese Room Argument and then the lesser known, but very powerful, argument that computation is itself a mind-dependent and observer-relative feature that is imposed from the outside and is not intrinsic to any physical system. Together these arguments show that any attempt to model the mind on a digital computer is bound to fail, and with it the greatest single hope for the prospects of building a truly intelligent machine.

In this episode we begin to consider the problem of rationality with a look at the Argument from Reason.

Dr. James Dolezal joins Anthony Alberino on Think for Christ to discuss his book, All That Is in God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism.

In the previous episode we looked at what I consider to be the best hope and strongest motivation for the belief that artificial intelligence could one day become actually intelligent. That is the philosophical view called physical reductionism. We saw that there is widespread belief among computer scientists, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers of mind that the human mind is nothing more than a kind of biological computer. According to this view, mental states and processes are nothing over and above the physical states and processes of the brain. We also saw that, if this is true, then the idea of machine sentience is not only possible, but is already actual, since every person on the planet is already a kind of wholly material thinking machine. So that the idea of creating a machine that is as intelligent and even more intelligent than a human being is entirely possible in principle, even if not actually feasible given the current state of our technology. However, those who ground their belief in the possibility of a sentient AI on physical reductionism face a serious problem. It’s a problem that by extension confronts any effort to construct an intelligent machine from the ground up. This problem has it’s own name in the philosophy of mind. It’s called The Hard Problem of Consciousness. Join us in this episode of Think for Christ as we consider the nature of consciousness, a subject that takes into a discussion of qualia, intentionality, the knowledge argument, the zombie argument, the construction problem, the unity of conscious experience, the construction problem, the binding problem, and more.

Why do so many people, including academics, believe that it is possible to make a fully intelligent AI? In this episode, Anthony Alberino explores the thinking behind the claim of AI sentience and examines a widely held view in the philosophy of mind regarding the nature of human intelligence that makes the notion of a fully intelligent AI plausible.

The topic of artificial intelligence has become a critical one lately. There is a ton of chatter about AI right now; it has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. Unfortunately, in the midst of all this noise, I think the most important and profound question about AI is getting very little attention. That question is this: Is it possible for AI to become truly intelligent? This is the question we are asking today on Think for Christ. Now, it’s not as if this that this question isn’t being asked at all. It’s just not being asked seriously enough, and it’s not being asked to right people. Popular culture is looking to technology moguls, computer engineers, and cognitive scientists for the answer. But I submit that the question of whether an AI can ever truly be intelligent is not one that can be answered by scientists because it is not a scientific question. Before we can ever know whether AI is or can be intelligent like a human being, we first have to know the nature of human intelligence; but, of course, to ask about the nature of intelligence is ask a philosophical question, not a scientific one. Which is why I’ve invited philosopher Dr. J. T. Bridges to join me on this episode of Think for Christ to help us think through this critical philosophical question. You can find Dr. Bridges' YouTube channel, A Considerate Life, here: https://www.youtube.com/@jtbridges/videos

There was a popular saying that was a kind of mantra in the Middle Ages that went like this: "Theology is the queen of the sciences and philosophy is its handmaiden." What does this mean? And how is philosophy related to Christian theology? In this episode Dr. Anthony Alberino recounts the failure of Greek philosophy to reconcile itself with Greek religion and the success of Christian theology to reconcile itself with Greek philosophy. The God revealed in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures brings together the philosophical notions of first cause and ultimate principle with the religious notion of a creator God providentially directing the affairs of men. Christian revelation at once provided philosophy with the insight it needed to move from the stagnate plane of the essential to the living and active plane of the existential. The interpenetration of Christianity with Greek philosophy at once lifted the latter to heights it could not reach on its own and enriched the former with an indispensable asset and tool that would become essential for the formulation and defense of the faith.

As I said in the previous episode, many contemporary philosophers do not find the literal meaning of the term 'philosophy' (lit. the love of wisdom) to be very enlightening or helpful when understanding the nature of the subject. Most philosophy textbooks ignore this original meaning and instead define philosophy by more or less looking around and observing what philosophers are up to today. But to the mind of the classical philosopher, you can’t possibly pursue philosophy if you don’t understand what it means to pursue wisdom. So, to get at the nature of philosophy as it was originally intended, we have to go back to see how it was defined and explained by the guys who kicked off the philosophical project. And when it comes to defining and unpacking the meaning of philosophy for the classical period, there is no better source that the man who was unquestionably the greatest of the Greek philosophers, and in my opinion probably the greatest philosopher who has ever lived, Aristotle. In this episode, Dr. Anthony Alberino takes a look at the original meaning of philosophy as the love of wisdom as it was understood by Aristotle as well as by almost everybody in the first 2000 years of philosophical history.

So, what is philosophy anyway? In this introductory episode we take a look at the nature of philosophy, its characteristics, and its various fields. We then consider a working definition of philosophy. Philosophy is generally divided into three broad fields. First there is Metaphysics, or the study of being; then epistemology, or the study of knowledge; finally there is value theory, or the study of value in general and ethics in particular. Logic is also sometimes classed as a philosophical field, but it's better to think of logic as a tool or instrument that philosophers us rather than as a field of study. The nature of philosophy is somewhat brought to light when we see the general fields of inquiry that philosophers concern themselves with. It can also be helpful to see philosophy at work insofar as it functions as second-order discipline. A second order question is a question about another question, a so-called first-order question. So, for example, a first-order question will have the structure “What is X?” whereas a second-order question will be structured as a question about the first-order question: “What is the meaning of the question, ‘What is X?’” Likewise, a second-order discipline is an inquiry that studies another discipline, a first-order discipline. First-order disciplines are subjects of study that concern themselves with some particular aspect or order of reality; these are familiar to us: mathematics, biology, psychology, history, etc. Second-order disciples, on the other hand, inquire into the nature of these first-order disciplines by examining their underlying assumptions, criticizing their methods, clarifying concepts that they deploy, and evaluating the truth claims made. Philosophy can be defined as the attempt to think rationally and critically about the most important questions.There are three elements to this definition and each one captures something essential to the nature of philosophy. First, philosophy is a rational enterprise. To be rational is to be guided by reason, to hold views that are based on reasons; that are supported by evidence and argument. Philosophers strive for clarity and precision in language and carefulness in reasoning. Philosophers don’t just make claims and hold opinions, they try to provide cogent and sound arguments to support their claims and opinions. Philosophy is also a critical enterprise. To be critical in this sense is to subject all claims to truth to rigorous analysis. Philosophers examine assumptions, clarify concepts, require justification, and test all claims against the light of reason, evidence, and arguments. Finally, philosophy deals with the most important questions in life. It’s hard to imagine more important questions than those that deal with the fundamental nature of reality, knowledge, and morality. Philosophy is also for everybody and it's something that everybody does. At various points in our lives, we all consider the most important questions of life, questions related to the nature of reality, to knowledge, to ethics and morality. Moreover, we all want to hold views that are rational and we all criticize views that we disagree with and scrutinize them in the light of reason. Philosophy is not a domain exclusive to scholars in ivory towers, it’s not something that only professionals can engage in. Now, the fact that we all do philosophy from time to time doesn’t mean that we all do it well. To be honest, most people in our intellectually shallow society are pretty crappy at thinking rationally and critically about the big questions in life. So, since philosophy is actually unavoidable for you in life, you may as well try to get better at it.