Science was originally designed to deal with physical quantities, not the qualities of your mind. Galileo Galilee thought science should focus on essentially a small number of properties of matter like size shape location and that's how you get contemporary science. But if you could somehow bring back Galileo to the current age and show him modern neuroscience which is trying to figure out how consciousness occurs from firing to neurons he would probably say, well, wait a minute, what are you doing? I mean, the whole point of how I design science is that it's only supposed to deals with physical quantities but we have minds as well.
Neuroscientist and author Erik Hoel talks about his book, The World Behind the World, with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. Is it possible to reconcile the seemingly subjective inner world of human experience with the seemingly objective outer world of observation, measurement, and science? Despite the promise of neuroscience, Hoel argues that this reconciliation is surprisingly difficult. Join Hoel and Roberts for a wide-ranging exploration of what it means to be human and the limits of science in helping us understand who we are.