Andy Clark is a leading and incredibly influential philosopher and cognitive scientist. Among other things, Andy has done pioneering work on predictive processing and the extended mind thesis. Here Keith and Philip discuss with Andy his most recent book 'The Experience Machine.' https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/04/the-experience-machine-how-our-minds-predict-and-shape-reality-review...
Dec 10, 2024•2 hr 30 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Philip recently went public with his conversion to a heretical form of Christianity (see article and video below). In this episode Keith and Philip discuss this and open up to Q&A. • Why This Famous Atheist Became a Prog... https://aeon.co/.../i-now-think-a-her... . IMPORTANT NOTE: I accidentally said that "Jesus" didn't approve of gay sex, but I meant to say "Paul." Philip...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Annaka Harris is author of bestselling book "Conscious" and writer and producer of the forthcoming audio documentary series "Lights On." In this episode we mainly focused on panpsychism, although we also touched on free will and the self. Annaka is sympathetic to panpsychism, so Philip and Annaka compared their reasons for taking the view seriously, whilst Keith and Annaka tried to work out why they disagreed.
Dec 09, 2024•2 hr 49 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Can taking psychedelics teach us more about the mind than science and philosophy? Is it rational to trust what mystical experiences seem to be telling us about ultimate reality? These are questions Keith and Philip would like the answers to, and apparently Sarah Lane-Ritchie and Aidan Lyon have them. Join us to find out what they are!
Apr 28, 2024•2 hr 42 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Kevin Mitchell is Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He is also the author of the wonderful recent book 'Free Agents: How Evolution Gave us Free will', a robust defence of the reality of free will. Between the three of us, we aim to definitely establish whether or not humans are free. For more on Kevin Mitchell: https://press.princeton.edu/books/har... https://www.kjmitchell.com/ Timings 0:00 – Amusing Banter 4:41 – Introducing Kevin Mitchell 6:07...
Apr 28, 2024•2 hr 45 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Recently Philip and Sabine Hossenfelder had a discussion on Twitter about the relationship between science and the entities referred to in scientific theories: https://twitter.com/Philip_Goff/status/1725487476695830778. We're going to interview philosopher of science doctoral candidate Cat Gillen (Durham University) on the debates between realists and instrumentalists in the philosophy of science. To support this podcast, please consider donating to our Patreon, including joining the Mind Ch...
Nov 27, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Keith and Philip will discuss Philip's new book 'Why? The Purpose of the Universe.' https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Purpose-Universe-Philip-Goff/dp/0198883765
Nov 06, 2023•2 hr 39 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Donald Hoffman is a cognitive scientist at UC Irvine and author of 'The Case Against Reality.' He believes that the world we experience is an illusion, whilst ultimate reality is composed of networks of conscious agents. Keith and Philip probe Professor Hoffman's view from their very different perspectives on the nature of consciousness. Here's the paper we discuss at length which argues that Donald's argument from evolution is self-defeating: https://link.springer.com/articl...
Jul 25, 2023•2 hr•Season 3Ep. 6
Eric Schwitzgebel is professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. His research interests include philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind, moral psychology, classical Chinese philosophy, epistemology, metaphilosophy, and metaphysics. He has also written a number of pieces of philosophical science fiction, which have been published in leading science fiction magazines.
Jul 25, 2023•2 hr 54 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Many philosophers worry about David Chalmers' 'hard problem' of how brains produce consciousness. But do ordinary people who haven't been exposed to the peculiarities of academic philosopher share Chalmers' intuition that there's a problem here? Professor Edouard Machery (University of Pittsburgh-Carnegie Mellon University) answers 'no.' Machery thinks the concept of 'phenomenal consciousness' that gives rise to these intuitions is an invention of academic...
Apr 10, 2023•2 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Professor Frank Jackson (Australian National University) came up with one of the most influential arguments against materialism about consciousness, a version of the 'knowledge argument', involving the story of Black and White Mary. Ironically, Jackson later recanted and is now a committed materialist. Keith and Philip will discuss with Frank the knowledge argument, why he changed his mind, and what he thinks about consciousness now. (Philip secretly hopes to bring Frank back to the fold...
Apr 10, 2023•2 hr 56 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Mind Chat is back!! We've been a bit delayed due to illness in the family and Philip needing to finish a book. This is our delayed Christmas special, and will involve sherry, mince pies, and Christmas jumpers. Last Christmas special, Keith and Philip debated illusionism versus panpsychism. This year, we thought we'd invite a leading illusionist and panpsychist from the next generation of thinkers. Dr Francois Kammerer and Dr Luke Roelofs are both Postdoctoral Research Associates at the C...
Apr 10, 2023•2 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Noam Chomsky is an intellectual giant, who has made major contributions to linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive science. In this episode Keith and Philip explore Professor Chomsky's views on consciousness and the mind. Streamed live on Sep 15, 2022
Sep 25, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Angela Mendelovici (University of Western Ontorio) is a prominent proponent of the 'Phenomenal Intentionality Theory': the view that all mental representation is at least partly grounded in consciousness. This view contrasts with David Papineau's as to how consciousness connects us to reality, which we discussed in an earlier episode. Our main focus will be to explore the Phenomenal Intentionality Theory, but Angela also happens to be a panpsychist, so Philip is hoping this will finally be a gue...
Jul 24, 2022•3 hr 59 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Ann-Sophie Barwich is a cognitive scientist and empirical philosopher, and author of 'Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind' (Harvard University Press). Ann-Sophie explores how the neuroscience of smell challenges philosophical assumptions about the nature of perception. Streamed live on Jun 16, 2022 Ann-Sophie's website http://www.smellosophy.com/ Publisher's webpage for Smellosophy https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674983694...
Jul 23, 2022•2 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In a special follow-up episode, Philip shares some personal reflections on the recent discussion 'What Does Physics Tell Us About Consciousness?' with Sean Carroll and Barry Loewer.
Jun 28, 2022•54 min•Season 2Ep. 6
We previously had a long chat with Sean Carroll. A big bone of contention with Philip and Sean was the degree to which physics constrains our theory of consciousness. We decided it would be good to explore this issue in its own right, with a bit of help from esteemed philosophy of physics Sean Carroll (Rutgers University). These are Sean's articles we discuss (the latter is a response to Philip's book 'Galileo's Error'): https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.07884 https://philpapers.org/rec/CARCAT-33 . Rec...
Jun 28, 2022•2 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Helen Steward is a philosopher and author of Metaphysics for Freedom (Oxford University Press), which argues that agency itself—and not merely the special, distinctively human variety of it—is incompatible with determinism. Keith and Philip Mind Chat with Helen about whether we have free will, and what that would entail about the ultimate nature of reality,...
Mar 30, 2022•2 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Keith and Philip interview David Papineau (Professor of Philosophy at King's College London) about his recent book 'The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience'. David is also a materialist who believes in consciousness, so there'll probably be a big old fight about that too. Link to David's book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-metaphysics-of-sensory-experience-9780198862390?cc=gb&lang=en&...
Mar 19, 2022•3 hr 59 min•Season 2Ep. 4
David Chalmers is one of the most important and influential philosophers of consciousness on the contemporary scene. He coined the phrase 'the hard problem of consciousness', and defends 'naturalistic dualism' as an alternative to materialism. In his new book 'Reality+', aimed at a general audience, David explores the big questions of philosophy through the lens of virtual reality. He argues that we don't know whether or not we are in a computer simulation, but that even if we are, it doesn't fo...
Feb 25, 2022•3 hr 49 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In the Mind Chat Christmas special, Keith and Philip take it in turns to interrogate each other about their favoured view of consciousness (illusionism and panpsychism, respectively), based in part on viewers' questions. The episode will culminate in a 15 min twitter poll, in which viewers will decide once and for all whether panpsychism or illusionism is the correct view of consciousness.
Dec 16, 2021•3 hr 48 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll joins us to discuss whether it make sense to think of consciousness as an emergent phenomenon, and whether contemporary physics points in this direction. We discussed Sean's essay responding to Philip's book 'Galileo's Error,' and Philip's counter-response essay. Both are available here: https://conscienceandconsciousness.com/2021/08/01/19-essays-on-galileos-error/ We also discussed Philip's Scientific American article making the case that the move...
Nov 15, 2021•3 hr 15 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Anil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. In this episode we discuss his new book 'Being You: The New Science of Consciousness.'
Oct 13, 2021•2 hr 58 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Dr Helen Yetter-Chappell is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Miami. Idealism is the view that the fundamental nature of reality is made up of mentality or consciousness. Inspired by the 18th century idealist philosophy George Berkeley, Helen has developed a version of Berkeley's idealism which dispenses with his commitment to the existence of God. http://yetterchappell.net/Helen/...
Oct 11, 2021•2 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Matthias Michel is a philosopher whose work focuses on the science of consciousness. In a recent paper he outlines how scientists working on consciousness have been having the same debates for 150 years without reaching consensus. In this episode, we will explore why the science of consciousness is more challenging than other scientific endeavours and examine possible ways forward.
Aug 15, 2021•3 hr 39 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Christof Koch is a neuroscientist and proponent of the integrated information theory of consciousness, or 'IIT". In this episode we explore with Christof the science and philosophy of IIT.
Jul 20, 2021•2 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Professor Janet Levin is a materialist about consciousness. She thinks our feelings and experiences are identical with physical processes in the brain. In this episode we will explore Janet's position and how she responds to arguments that try to show that consciousness alludes physical explanation.
Jun 03, 2021•2 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Tim O'Connor is a dualist: someone who thinks consciousness is not physical. People tend to think of dualists as believing in the soul, a supernatural entity distinct from the physical workings of the body and the brain. However, Tim's dualism is very different. He thinks consciousness resides in the brain, and is brought into existence by the physical particles that ultimately make up the brain. Nonetheless he rejects the idea that we can explain consciousness in terms of the kind of electro-ch...
May 22, 2021•2 hr 56 min•Season 1Ep. 1