Episode 82, 'The Nature of Consciousness' with Susan Blackmore (Part II - Further Analysis and Discussion)
The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast
Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane
4.8 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2020
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The smell of coffee, the taste of asparagus, the warmth of a hug, and the agony of death: conscious experience makes up the fabric of our world, yet many consider it to be the most intractable mystery in philosophy and science. What is it like to undergo experience? What is the function of consciousness? Where does consciousness occur? What are the contents of this experience? Is our stream of consciousness unified?
The hardest problem of all, might be the origin of consciousness itself: how, why, or are we, subjects of experience? In one sense, it shouldn't come as a surprise - after all, in the words of physicist Michio Kaku, 'Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe; 100 billion neurons, each connected to 10,000 others'. However, for many, the brain doesn't seem like the right type of thing to give rise to consciousness. How can soggy grey matter feel like anything? As McGinn put it, you might as well believe that numbers emerge from biscuits or ethics from rhubarb!
Challenging our understanding of consciousness and reframing the mystery is psychologist and author, Visiting Professor at Plymouth University, Dr Susan Blackmore. Best known for her books The Meme Machine, Zen and the Art of Consciousness, Consciousness: An Introduction, and Seeing Myself, Susan's work spans across hundreds of publications in over 20 different languages, making huge contributions in the fields of psychology, memetics, religion, philosophy of mind, supernatural experience, and many other areas. It is no surprise to find her ranked amongst 2013's 30 Most Influential Psychologists Working Today and 2015's Top 100 Global Minds.
It's time to smell the coffee, and reflect on your experience, to see the dark with the light on: what is the nature of consciousness?
Contents
Part I. Mystery and Illusion
Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pan |
| 0:02.0 | PAN |
| 0:03.0 | Psygast |
| 0:05.0 | Part 2, further analysis and discussion. |
| 0:22.2 | Oh, sorry, it's me, isn't it? |
| 0:23.6 | William James noted how at one moment we can be aware of the noise, like in our experience. |
| 0:29.1 | So right now, I can hear a seagull on my roof, and now thinking about it, it's been squawking and walking around for last five minutes. |
| 0:38.7 | And it's almost as if someone's been listening the whole time. |
| 0:41.4 | I wasn't aware of it a moment ago. |
| 0:43.0 | And so you give an example in your, William James' isn't the Siegel example. |
| 0:47.5 | I think he gives one of, like, is it a clock? |
| 0:50.4 | You give one of walking up a hill and you look at your watch and a few moments late, |
| 0:56.7 | you realise that you just looked at your watch and check the time, but at the moment you weren't |
| 1:00.1 | quite consciously aware of it. Do we have an explanation from psychology or philosophy for how |
| 1:05.4 | we can seemingly not be aware of our conscious experience yet kind of undergoing it at the same |
| 1:10.7 | time? Oh, you're wonderfully tripping yourself up there. not be aware of our conscious experience yet kind of undergoing it at the same time. |
| 1:12.3 | Oh, well, you're wonderfully tripping yourself up there. |
| 1:15.6 | I felt like I was. |
| 1:17.9 | I mentioned to us when you said, not quite conscious. |
| 1:20.1 | You're hedging your bets there. |
| 1:21.9 | I suspect, I might be completely wrong, but I suspect that you're kind of imagining that |
| 1:26.2 | thoughts have to be either |
... |
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