The Scientific Case for a Purposeful Universe - Dr Samuel Wilkinson
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- Опубліковано 13 лип 2024
- Dr Samuel Wilkinson is a professor at Yale, a psychiatrist, and the author of the new book: Purpose: What Evolution and Human Nature Imply About The Nature of Our Existence.
His book makes a compelling and provocative case that life (particularly human life) is inherently purposeful, drawing from evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience in order to do so.
In this conversation, we explore:
- Dr. Wilkinson‘s view that life is fundamentally a test and the implications this has for how we live our lives
- How each of us have the potential for both good and evil contained within
- Why relationships are the number one variable in happiness, our sense of purpose, and mental health.
- The cognitive illusions that cause us to search for happiness in the wrong places, and how to overcome them.
And more.
You can learn more about Dr. Wilkinson‘s work and get a copy of the book at samueltwilkinson.com.
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Samuel T. Wilkinson is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Yale Depression Research Program. Dr. Wilkinson received his B.S. in mechanical engineering, summa cum laude, from Brigham Young University and later his medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Yale, where he joined the faculty following his post-graduate medical training.
His primary research has focused on depression and suicide prevention and has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
His research and articles have been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. He has been the recipient of many awards, including Top Advancements & Breakthroughs from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (2017 and 2020), Top Ten Psychiatry Papers by the New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch, the Early Career Scholar Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the Samuel Novey Writing Prize in Psychological Medicine (Johns Hopkins), the Seymour Lustman Award (Yale University), and the rank of Eagle Scout.
As a young man, he served a mission for his church in Nevada from 2002-2004, where he learned to speak fluent Spanish and to enjoy a variety of Latino cultures. He continues to serve in his church and community in as many ways as he can. He lives with his wife and their five children in southern Connecticut.
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Meaning of Life
08:39 - Human Nature Metaphors
13:58 - Altruism and Evolution
19:16 - Elephant and Writer Story
28:47 - Lessons from Spitz Research
32:26 - Relationships and Well-being
36:29 - Understanding Free Will
40:08 - Consciousness Exploration
42:30 - Life's Purpose Reflections
46:35 - Parenthood Reflections
50:40 - Dr. Wilkinson’s Work
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- Samuel Wilkinson’s website - samueltwilkinson.com
- Samuel Wilkinson’s books - amzn.to/4aZgtNq
Dr. Wilkinson I am 86. Over fifty years ago I composed a little poem that could complement your ideas. The title is : REALITY and ETERNITY. I have been the sky and I have been the sea I have been the wind and I have been the tree. This is why I know that through the atoms of my body I will always be, in an infinite number of forms.
This is beautiful.
❤️👏
Lovely
This is a beautiful interview. As a psychologist, the most rewarding part of my work week is my group; the magic that occurs is profound. As a human who did not have biological kids, the most meaningful time of my life was taking care of Simba, pictured here. There is just nothing like loving someone more than you love yourself. There is compelling reason to believe that consciousness has its own life outside the brain, so I look forward to be able to take care of him again someday.
We truly live when we love someone, somebody, more than ourselves.
This comment warmed my heart, wishing you a great day
@@micheldisclafani2343 Absolutely; the tradeoff is the pain of loss, but we'd be empty without the experience of love, so we have no choice.
@@danielmartin7721 Thank you so much; your response warmed my own heart
Darwin said -
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.
He did not say survival of the fittest as Wilkinson is trying to imply that causes aggression greed etc.
Thank you, I needed this today. 😊
IM TIRED OF BEING TESTEDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!
E NOUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Geniuses. Thank you. ❤️🙂🙏🤗
I love the shipwreck stories. There's a book on the Grafton's experience called Wrecked on a Reef by Franois Raynal.
Thanks for sharing the interview. There are foods for thoughts in the video....There are problems in the theory of evolution. We need a better and updated one. I like the "assembly theory" by supported by Sara Walker.
Not just flesh of my flesh..all children are precious. It takes a village-)
Cowardice. The weakness i am most proud of overcoming in life. It opens up so many progression trees through lifes many Tests
Life is an ethical exam. A chance to develope your own set of morals. Life is physical exams. Life i s driving exams. Life is fighting exams.
Don't let your elephants get drunk
A purposeful argument against purpose would be odd. Never stops people though.
What do you think you mean by this?
37:00 And there it is, his definition of free will isn't morally culpable, isn't worthy of praise, reward or punishment. If you add up all the influences then you have a completely deterministic picture, there's no magic in there that lets you "choose " differently in any meaningful way.
If you add up all the influences and have knowledge of them you are observing all the influences. Observation is an influence that generates randomness (unpredictability with full certainty). Put another way, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle applies to the point of view from where one would “add up all the influences”, generating the unpredictability/randomness that makes room for free will. (Just testing out this argument as I write it, your point is what I think would be most usually accepted by scientists today).
@@danielmartin7721 The uncertainty principle is applied to quantum behavior not the macro scale influences like culture, womb environment, gene sensitivity, stress levels hormones and nutrition interpolated over development, trauma, etc, that when added up determine your behavior. Decoherence prevents the fundamental randomness of the uncertainty principle having any meaningful influence on behavior but to be clear, even if it did, that would only further diminish arguments trying to find room for free will. There's no magic in there, just sophisticated orchestrations of complexity, beautiful and determined.
40:43 Umm… 🤔 No. I am not THAT stupid to choose to go through all this shit for nothing.
Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.there has never been a creation
Nah. Not buying it. An argument isn't evidence. Just live your life. Living is the purpose of life.
*_Indeed, life is a test which is an Islamic concept, The ultimate judge is our creator._*
It's not a test! Life is a free-for-all
😂@@TuesdayMarket
Imagination is your creator
I'll be the judge of that, then
@@johncarter1150 *_Imagination brought about the creation of the Universe._*
The evolutionary purpose, which is not the result of an agent, is survival of entity/processes in the environment. The other fundamental process is about the growth of complexity which tends to develop along precedents rather than start from scratch. We as part of a vast whole will never fully achieve clarity about whatever purpose might mean at that level
Wouldn’t that be the puepose of the organism rather than the purpose of the process of evolution?