Can Science Explain Consciousness?
New post on my Substack: https://philipgoff.substack.com/p/can-science-explain-consciousness
View ArticleCan Science Explain Consciousness?
New post on my Substack: https://philipgoff.substack.com/p/can-science-explain-consciousness
View ArticleIs Consciousness an Illusion?
I’ve just started a Substack, which I’m going to use instead of this blog. Please do subscribe to it. Here is my first post: https://philipgoff.substack.com/p/is-consciousness-an-illusion
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Are Roses Really Red?
Photo by Milly Sime on Unsplash I’m grateful to Edward Feser for commenting on my work. We share a common starting point, namely our conviction that the qualities we encounter in experience cannot be...
View ArticleMore on Fine-Tuning & the Multiverse
I’ve thought of a simpler way of making the argument from my last post. Suppose Jack is the defendant, and the lawyer for the prosecution shares with the jury that Jack carries a knife around with...
View ArticleWhy the Multiverse Can’t Explain Fine-Tuning
A startling discovery of recent decades is that the laws of physics are fine-tuned for the possibility of life. That is to say, for life to be possible, certain numbers in physics had to fall in a...
View ArticleCan You Prove a Miracle?
I’m currently taking a week off work, having submitted a draft of my book manuscript (‘The Purpose of Existence: Between God and Atheism’). Sometimes when I take time off, I get lost in a rabbit hole...
View ArticleAre There Objective Values?
A lot of my Twitter debating time recently has been spent defending the claim that there are facts about value that hold independent of our desires. The example I always press is that there is an...
View ArticleA Surprise Point of Agreement With Sean Carroll
I’ve had some great philosophical interactions with Sean Carroll, of late. I was on Sean’s podcast a while back, and more recently he kindly contributed to a volume of essays responding to my book...
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Can Calculators Add? Can Brains Add?
Suppose you had a rubbish that calculator that could only deal with numbers below 100. Assuming that, apart from that limitation, it behaved as calculators normally behave, you’d naturally interpret...
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Materialism Remains the Majority View…But Only Just!
The 2020 PhilPapers Survey of Anglophone academic philosophers’ views has just been published. On the philosophy of mind, physicalism (AKA materialism) remains the view of the majority, but only just,...
View ArticleThe Multiverse for Breakfast
I’m really looking forward to my first in person philosophy talk since the start of Covid, which will take place at the ‘How the Light Gets In‘ festival’ Sunday 19th March. It’s a festival of...
View Article19 Essays on ‘Galileo’s Error’
In October, there will be a special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies consisting of 19 essays responding to my work (by scientists, philosophers, and theologians) and one essay in which I...
View ArticleThe ‘Free Speech Union’ opposes the right of athletes to take the knee. You’d...
As a philosopher, I like to use thought experiments. Suppose a BBC newsreader tweeted that there were more and more black families moving into their area and it was really bringing down the tone of...
View ArticleThe Lottery Fallacy, Fine-Tuning, and the Multiverse
Our best current science suggests that our universe is fine-tuned for life. That is to say, certain numbers in basic physics – e.g. the strength of gravity, the mass of electrons, etc. – are, against...
View ArticleDoes Quantum Mechanics allow for Free Will?
Do the laws of physics rule out free will? Neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell has a recently argued (paper and blog post): If the laws of physics are deterministic, then free will is ruled outIf the laws...
View ArticleIs it the Job of Science or Philosophy to Account for Consciousness?
The success of natural science over the last five hundred years has been truly mind-blowing. It doesn’t follow, however, that science is well-suited to answering all questions. Sam Harris has...
View ArticleWhat ‘The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty’ leaves out
The BBC’s recent documentary of ‘The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty’ is worth watching. However, two important details from the history it conveys were missed out: During 2011, Murdoch was attempting to...
View ArticleSpecial Issue of ‘Journal of Consciousness Studies’ on ‘Galileo’s Error’
I’m delighted to announce that there will be a special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies on my book Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, which will be edited by...
View ArticleResponse to Bernardo Kastrup
I have just published a piece in the Institute of Art and Ideas, raising some objections to Bernardo’s Kastrup’s analytic idealism. One aspect of the disagreement between Bernardo and I is whether the...
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