Philip Goff is a philosopher who thinks consciousness pervades the universe. Keith Frankish is a philosopher who thinks consciousness* doesn't even exist. From their very different perspectives, Keith and Philip interview leading scientists and philosophers of consciousness, engaging and debating in a friendly way in pursuit of truth. Mind Chat aims to be highly accessible, allowing those with no background in science and/or philosophy to get a grip on the cutting edge of the field. (*To be ...
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Sarah Lane-Ritchie & Aidan Lyon: What Can Psychedelics Tell Us About Mind & Reality?
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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!…
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Kevin Mitchell: Do We Have Free Will?
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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 Mitch…
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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 …
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Halloween Special! The Purpose of the Universe
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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
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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…
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Eric Schwitzgebel : Is the United States Conscious?
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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 …
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Michelle Liu and Edouard Machery: Is the 'Hard Problem of Consciousness' Nonsense Invented by Philosophers?
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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 th…
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Frank Jackson: The Greatest Argument Against Materialism
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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 k…
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Francois Kammerer and Luke Roelofs: Illusionism or Panpsychism?
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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…
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Noam Chomsky: Chomsky on Consciousness
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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
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Angela Mendelovici: How Does Consciousness Connect us to Reality? Part II
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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 focu…
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Ann-Sophie Barwich: Smellosophy--The Philosophy & Neuroscience of Smell
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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.…
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Philip Goff: Is Physics Different in the Brain?
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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.
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Sean Carroll and Barry Loewer: What Does Physics Tell Us About Consciousness?
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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…
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Helen Steward: Do We Have Free Will?
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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…
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David Papineau: How Does Consciousness Connect Us To Reality?
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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-o…
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David Chalmers: Are We Living in a Simulation?
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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 th…
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Christmas Special: Panpsychism or Illusionism?
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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 illusio…
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Sean Carroll: Is Consciousness Emergent?
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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://conscienceandconsc…
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Anil Seth: Is Consciousness a Controlled Hallucination?
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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.'
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Helen Yetter-Chappell: Is Reality Made up of Consciousness?
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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 …
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Matthias Michel: Is a Science of Consciousness Possible?
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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 …
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Christof Koch: The Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness
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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.
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Janet Levin: The Materialist Theory of Consciousness
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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.
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Tim O'Connor: Interview with a Dualist
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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 phys…
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