Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

CFS Lecture by Philip Goff, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Durham University, UK

Abstract:

Understanding how brains produce consciousness is one of the great scientific challenges of our age. Some philosophers argue that the mystery is so deep it will never be solved. Others believe our standard scientific methods for investigating the brain will eventually produce an answer. I will defend a third way, arguing both approaches are wrongheaded: we struggle to explain consciousness because physical science, as we currently conceive it, is not designed to deal with the issue. I will explain how Galileo's flawed philosophy of nature created the 'problem' of consciousness in the first place, and show what we need to do to solve it.

The lecture is free and open to all. Welcome!