Philip Goff: Consciousness and Galileo's Error (#230)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2022

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Philip Goff is a philosopher and consciousness researcher at Durham University, UK. His research focuses on how to integrate consciousness into a scientific worldview. Goff argues that the traditional approaches of materialism (consciousness explained in terms of physical processes in the brain) and dualism (consciousness is separate from the body and brain) face insuperable difficulties. He therefore defends a form of panpsychism, the view that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the physical world, not confined to biological entities but is a fundamental feature of all physical matter—from subatomic particles to the human brain.. Goff’s new book, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, traces the problem of consciousness back to the foundations of the scientific revolution, in Galileo's decision to set consciousness outside of the domain of science. He offers a provocative argument for panpsychism’s radically new picture of human consciousness. Understanding how brains produce consciousness is one of the great scientific challenges of our age. Some philosophers argue that consciousness is something "extra," beyond the physical workings of the brain. Others think that if we persist in our standard scientific methods, our questions about consciousness will eventually be answered. And some even suggest that the mystery is so deep, it will never be solved. Decades have been spent trying to explain consciousness from within our current scientific paradigm, but little progress has been made. In Galileo’s Error, Goff offers an exciting alternative that could pave the way forward. Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness On Amazon www.philipgoffphilosophy.com/ https://twitter.com/Philip_Goff Please Visit our Sponsors: LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/impossible to post a job for FREE Athletic Greens, makers of AG1 which I take every day. Get an exclusive offer when you visit https://athleticgreens.com/impossible AG1 is made from the highest quality ingredients, in accordance with the strictest standards and obsessively improved based on the latest science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What is consciousness? How do you know you have it? What was Galileo's error?
0:07.0	Today we'll be covering these and many other topics including a subject known by a strange ominous sounding term called panpsychism
0:17.0	which is not paranormal but you may find it slightly abnormal after listening to my take on it. We talk today with Philip Gough, who's a professor and author of Galileo's error, a wonderful book which I read and tried reaching out to him over a year ago and it took me and him both getting on Lex Freeman's podcast for us to come together and record this episode earlier this year.
0:41.0	We've had a phenomenal growth in the podcast and I know that this episode is
0:45.5	going to keep the fires burning and stoked with passion for more guests like
0:51.0	Philip and many more to come. Richard Powers, winner of the Pulitzer Prize,
0:55.2	and I had a phenomenal interview. I know you're going to love it. It's coming up soon, and we have
1:00.9	interviews with great thinkers like Professor Jarrett Lewis, who talks about questions that boggle the mind, including where did the universe come from?
1:08.7	But today's mind-boggling conversation involves panpsychism in the notion of consciousness, the brain, and more.
1:15.1	So I hope you'll sit back, relax, and enjoy this deep dive into the impossible with a deep thinker.
1:21.6	Professor Philip Gough, author of Galileo's error, let's go.
1:27.0	Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
1:35.6	Open the pod doors please, hell.
1:37.6	Well, ladies and gentlemen, philosophers of all ages, you're in for a treat today we were talking
1:46.4	with the really renowned thinker philosopher author professor Gough, who I've been trying to get on
1:55.4	unsuccessfully for over a year on the podcast and somehow after I made an
2:00.8	appearance on Lex Friedman and he made an appearance on Lex Friedman the magic of Lex connected us right
2:07.2	fell oh it's going to be here Brian I had no idea you've been trying to contact me for a year no I mean it
2:15.0	wasn't Lex I think the first you can't I saw you pop up on Twitter DM yeah
2:20.4	I'm kind of trying to contact me for you I'm sorry yeah I was using your website which has a picture of a brain. I thought you know
2:26.6	selfishly that's a Brian or that's a that's a plea it's it's it's a sign
2:31.1	that you should you should be receptive to a missive for me and I wrote you and I think it was after
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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