Phillip Goff

All of our scientific data is It's just neutral. It's compatible with both of those possibilities. So what do we do? We could say, we don't know. Maybe we just don't know. Or we can just try and evaluate these different hypotheses, maybe in terms of simplicity, maybe in terms of how well they do with their explanatory aspirations, and just try and work out which looks more plausible.

All of our scientific data is It's just neutral. It's compatible with both of those possibilities. So what do we do? We could say, we don't know. Maybe we just don't know. Or we can just try and evaluate these different hypotheses, maybe in terms of simplicity, maybe in terms of how well they do with their explanatory aspirations, and just try and work out which looks more plausible.

All of our scientific data is It's just neutral. It's compatible with both of those possibilities. So what do we do? We could say, we don't know. Maybe we just don't know. Or we can just try and evaluate these different hypotheses, maybe in terms of simplicity, maybe in terms of how well they do with their explanatory aspirations, and just try and work out which looks more plausible.

And I think when we do that, panpsychism, the view that mind or consciousness is the fundamental basis of reality, starts to look like the more plausible contender.

And I think when we do that, panpsychism, the view that mind or consciousness is the fundamental basis of reality, starts to look like the more plausible contender.

And I think when we do that, panpsychism, the view that mind or consciousness is the fundamental basis of reality, starts to look like the more plausible contender.

Yeah. Well, this is seen as one of the big challenges to panpsychism. Okay, you postulate these simple forms of consciousness at the level of fundamental physics, maybe conscious particles. but how do they come together to make our consciousness, the complex consciousness of the human or animal brain, which is, after all, at the end of the day, what we want explained.

Yeah. Well, this is seen as one of the big challenges to panpsychism. Okay, you postulate these simple forms of consciousness at the level of fundamental physics, maybe conscious particles. but how do they come together to make our consciousness, the complex consciousness of the human or animal brain, which is, after all, at the end of the day, what we want explained.

Yeah. Well, this is seen as one of the big challenges to panpsychism. Okay, you postulate these simple forms of consciousness at the level of fundamental physics, maybe conscious particles. but how do they come together to make our consciousness, the complex consciousness of the human or animal brain, which is, after all, at the end of the day, what we want explained.

And, I mean, there are lots of different research programs at the moment exploring this in different ways, and I don't want to get into too much of the technical details. Where I've ended up with this, I suppose, is...

And, I mean, there are lots of different research programs at the moment exploring this in different ways, and I don't want to get into too much of the technical details. Where I've ended up with this, I suppose, is...

And, I mean, there are lots of different research programs at the moment exploring this in different ways, and I don't want to get into too much of the technical details. Where I've ended up with this, I suppose, is...

I think the problem looks a lot harder when you assume a very reductionist story, when you assume that everything that's happening is really reducible to what's going on with fundamental physics, you know, particles or fields, um, And then we need to tell a very reductionist story about my consciousness or your consciousness.

I think the problem looks a lot harder when you assume a very reductionist story, when you assume that everything that's happening is really reducible to what's going on with fundamental physics, you know, particles or fields, um, And then we need to tell a very reductionist story about my consciousness or your consciousness.

I think the problem looks a lot harder when you assume a very reductionist story, when you assume that everything that's happening is really reducible to what's going on with fundamental physics, you know, particles or fields, um, And then we need to tell a very reductionist story about my consciousness or your consciousness.

How does my consciousness arise from the interactions of conscious particles? And that's hard to make sense of because one distinctive thing about consciousness is it seems to involve this deep unity. You know, if you think about your consciousness right now, it has all sorts of different aspects, colors, the sound of my voice, the tactile sensations of your clothes against your body.

How does my consciousness arise from the interactions of conscious particles? And that's hard to make sense of because one distinctive thing about consciousness is it seems to involve this deep unity. You know, if you think about your consciousness right now, it has all sorts of different aspects, colors, the sound of my voice, the tactile sensations of your clothes against your body.

How does my consciousness arise from the interactions of conscious particles? And that's hard to make sense of because one distinctive thing about consciousness is it seems to involve this deep unity. You know, if you think about your consciousness right now, it has all sorts of different aspects, colors, the sound of my voice, the tactile sensations of your clothes against your body.

But these don't come in kind of isolated packets, right? Intuitively. there's a fundamentally unified experience that involves all these different sub-experiences. So how does that arise from bumping around of conscious particles? But I'm more and more inclined to think that that very reductionist story is not what science is teaching us.

But these don't come in kind of isolated packets, right? Intuitively. there's a fundamentally unified experience that involves all these different sub-experiences. So how does that arise from bumping around of conscious particles? But I'm more and more inclined to think that that very reductionist story is not what science is teaching us.