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98 - Dani S. Bassett & Perry Zurn: Curiosity, Philosophy, and Network Theory

98 - Dani S. Bassett & Perry Zurn: Curiosity, Philosophy, and Network Theory

Robinson's Podcast vor 3 Jahren

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1:04:57

Dani S. Bassett is the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor of
Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Perry Zurn is
Provost Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University.
Dani and Perry both do a great deal of interdisciplinary work
within their fields, but Dani is best known for her work in
systems neuroscience, while Perry’s research is primarily in
political philosophy. The subject of this episode, however—though
systems neuroscience and political philosophy both make their
appearances—is Dani and Perry’s book, Curious Minds: The Power of
Connection (MIT, 2022). While it wouldn’t be immediately apparent
from their different fields of study, Dani and Perry are in fact
identical twins, and they write that their book “represents the
thought of one mind and two bodies” as they explore the nature of
curiosity from both philosophical and neuroscientific
perspectives, developing an account of curiosity that stresses
the relationship between ideas and people. Robinson, Dani, and
Perry discuss complex systems, how curiosity has been studied
from a variety of different academic perspectives, the three
curiosity-embodying archetypes they have identified, knowledge
networks, large language models, and more.

Curious Minds: https://a.co/d/3MeVY7m

Dani’s Website: http://www.danisbassett.com

Perry’s Website: https://www.perryzurn.com

Dani’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaniSBassett

Perry’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/perryzurn

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:52 Introduction

03:42 Human Curiosity?

06:07 Complex Systems

07:22 Curiosity from a Psychological Perspective

13:09 A Network Account of Curiosity

18:40 Foucault and Great Lakes Philosophy

29:39 Building Knowledge Networks

43:08 Walks through Knowledge Networks

57:25 Curiosity, Large Language Models, and Education

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of
mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations
with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and
everyone in-between.