In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with philosopher Philip Goff about panpsychism, the nature of consciousness, the potential limits of materialism, and much more.
Find Philip Goff here: https://www.philipgoffphilosophy.com/
Philip Goff’s twitter: https://twitter.com/Philip_Goff
US version of Philip Goff’s book ‘Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness’: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/599229/galileos-error-by-philip-goff/
UK version of Philip Goff’s book ‘Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness’: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117019/galileo-s-error/9781846046018.html
Philip Goff’s podcast ‘Mind Chat’: https://www.youtube.com/c/MindChat
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Music for the show is by Eleventyseven and The Jellyrox.
Stephen Bradford Long 
This is a very interesting topic to me and I wasn’t aware there was a term for it. Much of what Phillip Goff was talking about regarding consciousness and panpsychism reminds me very much of Morgue’s work in Hyperianism. I’m not sure about the whole consciousness thing either, or if I even 100% buy it, but I like learning about it, and like you, I’m open to it. Between Morgue’s work and listening to your podcast today I’m even more intrigued about the subject. You can find Morgue’s work on YouTube if you’re interested.
Thank you for another great episode. Hail Satan! 🤘
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Ohh I’ve never heard of Morgue or Hyperianism. I will have to investigate.
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Looking forward to this one for sure.
For obvious reasons, I think the “hard problem” of consciousness is the single most interesting mystery there is. How do you even define consciousness? Why would it have evolved at all? Is it discrete or emergent? Where do you draw the line?
It’s interesting…despite being an atheist materialist for the longest time, after a lot of thought and study…I’m finding myself becoming more and more convinced by the overall thesis of panpsychism. I think it’s nowhere near as easy to dismiss as many seem to think.
And of course….Hail Satan!
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I agree. While I’m not completely sold (yet) on panpsychism, I think it’s worth taking seriously.
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On the vagueness of consciousness Mr. Goff puts forward that vagueness or a borderline consciousness doesn’t make sense. One either has experiences or not and that the “sharp cutoff” from one to the other doesn’t seem plausible. This makes sense to me. But it never occurred to me to make the jump past the simplest forms of life into non-living things and I’m not sure that I can. What doesn’t make sense to me is a proton or neutrino experiencing consciousness, even at an infinitesimal level. I say all that to then say that perhaps in the long process that was the first development of life on Earth there can somewhere be found the “vague” consciousness. In the precursors to life such as self-replicating molecules, viruses and the like.
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