The Problem With Consciousness

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

This is the podcast on which The guest and I disagree most strongly about most of the important things will be talking about But in a productive way. So why don't we you know we had a previous interview with David Chalmers And so some of the podcast listeners will have heard that but not all of them. Let's not assume they know anything why don'tyou tell us why there's a problem with consciousness? What it is that we're trying to figure out when we talk about consciousness?

The human brain contains roughly 85 billion neurons, wired together in an extraordinarily complex network of interconnected parts. It’s hardly surprising that we don’t understand the mind and how it works. But do we know enough about our experience of consciousness to suggest that consciousness cannot arise from nothing more than the physical interactions of bits of matter? Panpsychism is the idea that consciousness, or at least some mental aspect, is pervasive in the world, in atoms and rocks as well as in living creatures. Philosopher Philip Goff is one of the foremost modern advocates of this idea. We have a friendly and productive conversation, notwithstanding my own view that the laws of physics don’t need any augmenting to ultimately account for consciousness. If you’re not sympathetic toward panpsychism, this episode will at least help you understand why someone might be.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Philip Goff received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Reading. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Durham. His new book, Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, is being published on Nov. 5.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.