meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
In Our Time: Philosophy

Consciousness

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.51.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 1999

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the problems of consciousness, one of the greatest mysteries facing science and philosophy today. The frustrations, the stubborn facts and the curiosities of today’s thinkers, philosophers, physicists and psychologists, demonstrate the elusiveness, and the utter impenetrability of consciousness. Can we explain our perception of colour, smell or what it is like to be in love in purely physical terms? Can memory, conviction and reason be explained primarily in terms of neural firing sequences in the brain? Three centuries ago Descartes famously believed that the problem was best solved by being ignored. Was he right? Could it be that the human mind is just not built to understand its own basis?With Ted Honderich, philosopher and former Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College, London; Sir Roger Penrose eminent physicist, mathematician and author of The Large, The Small, and the Human Mind.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Thanks for down learning the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.

0:09.0

I hope you enjoy the program.

0:11.0

Hello, one of the greatest mysteries facing science and philosophy today is the problem

0:15.7

of consciousness.

0:16.7

Can we explain our perception of color or smell or what is likely being loved in purely physical

0:22.0

terms? Can memory, conviction and reason be explained

0:24.9

primarily in terms of neural firing sequences in the brain? Three centuries ago, Descartes famously

0:31.7

believe that the problem was best solved by being ignored.

0:34.8

Was he right?

0:35.8

Could it be that the human mind is just not built to understand its own basis?

0:39.8

With me to try to unravel the complexities of consciousness at the philosopher Ted

0:43.4

Hondrick recently retired from his post as a great professor of the philosophy of

0:47.5

mind and logic at University College London and the eminent physicist and

0:51.2

mathematician Sir Roger Penrose, author of, amongst many other books,

0:54.6

the large, the small and the human mind.

0:56.8

He's the former Raus Bowe Professor of Mathematics at Oxford.

1:00.6

Is it possible, elliptically or or briefly to say what consciousness is, Roger Panrais?

1:06.0

Well, that's a difficult question, but I mean by consciousness I would tend to mean basically awareness,

1:12.0

but also that's the sort of passive aspect of

1:16.6

consciousness but also free will whatever these things mean I would say is included in sort of the active aspect of consciousness.

1:25.0

But basically being aware, it's hard to define because I don't think we really know what it is yet.

1:31.0

Well, that's Ted Henrich.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.