THE SECRET CODES OF THE MIND: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY: Book VI

Module X: The 20th Century and Contemporary Philosophy

• Lecture 37 examines pragmatism and utilitarianism, tracing their evolution from the classical ideas of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey to contemporary neopragmatism by Richard Rorty and pragmatic realism by Hilary Putnam. It also explores utilitarian ethics from Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill to the provocative bioethics and global responsibility ethics of Peter Singer.
• Lecture 38 dives into the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Discover Freud’s psychoanalysis, followed by Jung’s analytical psychology, the collective unconscious, archetypes, individuation, and connections to Eastern philosophical traditions. Explore how psychoanalysis interacted with Marxism, structuralism, feminism, existentialism, and political theory.
• Lecture 39 introduces analytic philosophy and the philosophy of language, focusing on Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle's logical positivism, and postpositivist philosophy of science. Concepts such as logical atomism, language games, verificationism, and the philosophy of consciousness — including Daniel Dennett’s ideas and John Searle’s famous Chinese Room argument — are discussed.
• Lecture 40 presents phenomenology as a powerful philosophical method influencing modern sciences and humanities. Edmund Husserl’s foundational concepts, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, and Emmanuel Levinas’s ethical phenomenology enrich our understanding of human consciousness, ethics, and intersubjectivity. The lecture critically evaluates phenomenology’s impact on cognitive science, psychology, medicine, and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence phenomenology and existential psychotherapy.

Module XI: Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Science

• Lecture 41 explores political philosophy, from Niccolò Machiavelli’s views on power and pragmatism to John Rawls’s influential theory of justice. It critically examines globalization's impact on sovereignty, environmental and social challenges, and postmodern political critiques by Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. It also includes Ivan Ilyin's orthodox conception of the state and Noam Chomsky's incisive critique of contemporary political structures, offering insightful comparisons and interdisciplinary connections with economics, sociology, and law.
• Lecture 42 addresses the philosophy of science, discussing pivotal contributions by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Karl Popper, and Thomas Kuhn, alongside philosophical evolutions from neopositivism to postpositivism. Special attention is given to modern technological developments — quantum computing, big data, artificial intelligence — and debates surrounding techno-optimism versus technoskepticism. The lecture also delves into contemporary bioethics, consciousness and artificial intelligence philosophy, posthumanism, transhumanism, and ongoing discussions about scientific objectivity and methodology. The volume concludes by exploring the philosophy of science's interdisciplinary connections, influencing current scientific research and future technological advances.