Philip Goff (philosopher)

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Philip Goff
Philip Goff.jpg
Goff in 2018
NationalityBritish
Alma mater University of Leeds (MA), University of Reading (PhD)
SpouseEmma Goff
Era 21st-century philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School Analytic philosophy
Main interests
 Philosophy of mind
Notable ideas
 Panpsychism
Website philipgoffphilosophy.com

Philip Goff is a British author, idealist philosopher, and professor at Durham University whose research focuses on philosophy of mind and consciousness. [1] Specifically, it focuses on how consciousness can be part of the scientific worldview. Goff holds that materialism is "incoherent" and that dualism leads to "complexity, discontinuity and mystery". [2] Instead, he advocates a "third way", a version of Russellian idealist monism that attempts to account for reality's intrinsic nature by positing that consciousness is a fundamental, ubiquitous feature of the physical world. "The basic commitment is that the fundamental constituents of reality—perhaps electrons and quarks—have incredibly simple forms of experience." [3] [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Goff has written that he has been obsessed with the problem of consciousness for as long as he can remember.[ citation needed ] At the age of 14, he declined to undergo Catholic confirmation and came to negatively associate philosophical dualism with his religious upbringing.

As a philosophy undergraduate at the University of Leeds, he felt he had to choose between dualism and materialism; he became a committed materialist. [7] : 93  He passionately debated religious dualists, defending the view that the mind and the brain are synonymous. Later, he began to doubt the coherence of this position because it failed to account for personal experiences that have subjective qualities we know firsthand.[ citation needed ] This cognitive dissonance finally peaked one evening in a bar when the thrum of vivid sensations clashed with his assumed worldview. "I couldn't deny it anymore. I'd already accepted that if materialism was true, then I was a zombie. But I knew I wasn't a zombie; I was a thinking, feeling human being. I could no longer live in denial of my consciousness." [7] : 93  Yet he had to finish his studies, so Goff became a "closet dualist" while continuing to write a dissertation in which he argued that the problem of consciousness was unresolvable. Disenchanted with philosophy, he went on to teach English in Poland.

Later, when he came across Thomas Nagel's article "Panpsychism", Goff discovered a neglected third way of connecting matter and consciousness, rekindling his interest in academic philosophy.

Career

Goff got his PhD at University of Reading under Galen Strawson, one of the few proponents of panpsychism at that time, who was rediscovering Bertrand Russell's and Arthur Eddington’s earlier work on monism. [7] : 97  Goff then did postdoctoral work at the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University.

He was at The University of Hertfordshire and King's College London. He was an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Central European University [4] and the Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham.

He is currently an Associate Professor at Durham University.

In 2014, Goff attended the Consciousness Cruise off Greenland, sponsored by Dmitry Volkov and the Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies. It was a floating conference that featured prominent philosophers of mind such as David Chalmers, Paul Churchland, Patricia Churchland, Andy Clark, Daniel Dennett, Keith Frankish, Nicholas Humphrey, Jesse Prinz, and Derk Pereboom. Goff gave a talk about his developing position on and defense of panpsychism. [8] [9]

Goff and Keith Frankish, a colleague who defends the opposing view of illusionism, started the YouTube channel "Mind Chat” in 2021, interviewing scientists and philosophers of consciousness such as Tim O'Connor, Janet Levin, Christof Koch, Anil Seth, and Helen Yetter-Chappel. [10]

Views

Panpsychism

Galileo inaugurated modern science by dividing the world into the quantitative realm of science and, on the other hand, the qualitative realm of subjective experience. While this division ushered in the modern scientific era, Goff argues, it likely made it impossible that scientific naturalism could ever account for consciousness without either eliminating its qualitative aspects or falling victim to the liabilities of dualism. Goff was unconvinced by David Chalmers's and Kelvin McQueen's attempts to establish a type of naturalistic dualism based on quantum mechanics. Though Goff thinks the idea deserves more attention, he concluded that even if dualism is compatible with science, we should be wary of it on the grounds that it is less simple than other theories of consciousness. [7] : 43 

Goff argued that the qualities of consciousness cannot be captured in the purely quantitative vocabulary of physical sciences. Though the optimistic materialist may hope that further or more detailed quantitative descriptions might someday explain why and how a purely physical brain produces intrinsic personal experiences, Goff used a series of a priori thought experiments to argue that this is likely a false hope. [3] In his book Galileo's Error, Goff used Frank Jackson's Knowledge Argument to show that a purely physical description of the world is not complete. Next, he used Chalmers's Conceivability Argument to argue that materialism cannot possibly be true. Goff concluded, "Materialists who claim both that reality can be exhaustively described in the objective vocabulary of physical science and that there are subjective properties are quite simply contradicting themselves." [7] : 59 

Instead Goff supports a "third way", a version of Russellian monism that attempts to account for reality's intrinsic nature by positing that consciousness is a fundamental, ubiquitous feature of the physical world. "The basic commitment is that the fundamental constituents of reality—perhaps electrons and quarks—have incredibly simple forms of experience." [3] [4] [5] Because the claim is that consciousness is fundamental, Goff's view does not provide an account of consciousness that reduces it to something else. He says "it is a prejudice of materialism to suppose that this is obligatory." [7] : 96 

Though the idea of electrons having experience is counterintuitive to most people, Goff clarified that most modern panpsychists do not believe that any clump of matter results in complex consciousness. "Most panpsychists will deny that your socks are conscious, while asserting that they are ultimately composed of things that are conscious." [7] : 94 

Response

While panpsychism remained a minority view amongst professional philosophers, since the work of Galen Strawson and Goff in the 21st century and their rediscovery of Russell's and Arthur Eddington's 1920's work on consciousness, it's become more widely discussed and debated. Goff has debated panpsychism against thinkers as diverse as physicalist Massimo Pigliucci and idealist Bernardo Kastrup. [11] [12]

In 2021, the Journal of Consciousness Studies published 20 essays by scientists, philosophers, and theologians responding to Goff's work. Goff published a response essay in the same issue. [13]

Environmentalism

Goff sees hope in panpsychism to solve human indifference to the climate crisis. Noting that Naomi Klein blames dualism for our degradation of the environment, Goff speculates that children reared in a panpsychist tradition would be less indifferent to and more protective of the environment. [7] : 153,155 

Politics

Goff calls himself a "vigorous opponent of neoliberalism" and a "huge fan of taxation". [4] He has argued against the libertarian idea that taxation is theft, on the basis that people do not own their pretax income. [14] In 2011 Goff instigated a protest against singer Bono that involved inflating a balloon in the front row of his concert to draw attention to Bono's band U2's financial behaviour, which Goff said amounted to Bono being a "tax rogue". [15] Goff has written that Bono's behaviour, as revealed in the Paradise Papers, is part of a general trend of the wealthy moving their money to tax havens at developing countries' expense (citing Christian Aid's estimate that this amounts to $160 billion annually). [15]

Religion

On his website, Goff calls himself a "practising agnostic", writing that Christianity might not be true but that he finds its practice enriching. [4] His ideas relate to various philosophical projects such as pantheism, Christian atheism, and religious naturalism. [16] But in 2024, Goff announced his conversion to a "heretical form of Christianity". [17] He said that though he describes himself as a Christian, he is only "close to 50%" sure that his version of Christianity is true. [18]

Publications

Goff has published over 46 academic papers, 10 book reviews, guest edited an issue of Philosophy Now and written over 35 articles in the popular press in outlets such as The Guardian , The Times Literary Supplement . He has appeared in 70 podcasts and various debates. [4] In 2021, the Journal of Consciousness Studies featured Goff's work as the topic of 20 essays by scientists, philosophers, and theologians. Goff responded to their essays in the same journal. [13]

Personal life

Goff plays in a rock band, writing on his website that "we still gig occasionally". [4]

Books

Related Research Articles

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Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions of material things. According to philosophical materialism, mind and consciousness are caused by physical processes, such as the neurochemistry of the human brain and nervous system, without which they cannot exist. Materialism directly contrasts with monistic idealism, according to which consciousness is the fundamental substance of nature.

Neutral monism is an umbrella term for a class of metaphysical theories in the philosophy of mind, concerning the relation of mind to matter. These theories take the fundamental nature of reality to be neither mental nor physical; in other words it is "neutral".

In philosophy, physicalism is the view that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything supervenes on the physical. It is opposed to idealism, according to which the world arises from mind. Physicalism is a form of ontological monism—a "one substance" view of the nature of reality, unlike "two-substance" or "many-substance" (pluralism) views. Both the definition of "physical" and the meaning of physicalism have been debated.

Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind.

In the philosophy of mind, the explanatory gap is the difficulty that physicalist philosophies have in explaining how physical properties give rise to the way things feel subjectively when they are experienced. It is a term introduced by philosopher Joseph Levine. In the 1983 paper in which he first used the term, he used as an example the sentence, "Pain is the firing of C fibers", pointing out that while it might be valid in a physiological sense, it does not help us to understand how pain feels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subjective idealism</span> Philosophy that only minds and ideas are real

Subjective idealism, or empirical idealism or immaterialism, is a form of philosophical monism that holds that only minds and mental contents exist. It entails and is generally identified or associated with immaterialism, the doctrine that material things do not exist. Subjective idealism rejects dualism, neutral monism, and materialism; it is the contrary of eliminative materialism, the doctrine that all or some classes of mental phenomena do not exist, but are sheer illusions.

Eliminative materialism is a materialist position in the philosophy of mind. It is the idea that the majority of mental states in folk psychology do not exist. Some supporters of eliminativism argue that no coherent neural basis will be found for many everyday psychological concepts such as belief or desire, since they are poorly defined. The argument is that psychological concepts of behavior and experience should be judged by how well they reduce to the biological level. Other versions entail the nonexistence of conscious mental states such as pain and visual perceptions.

Timothy Lauro Squire Sprigge, usually cited as T. L. S. Sprigge, was a British idealist philosopher who spent the latter portion of his career at the University of Edinburgh, where he was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, and latterly an Emeritus Fellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panpsychism</span> View that mind is a fundamental feature of reality

In the philosophy of mind, panpsychism is the view that the mind or a mind-like aspect is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality. It is also described as a theory that "the mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe". It is one of the oldest philosophical theories, and has been ascribed in some form to philosophers including Thales, Plato, Spinoza, Leibniz, Schopenhauer, William James, Alfred North Whitehead, and Bertrand Russell. In the 19th century, panpsychism was the default philosophy of mind in Western thought, but it saw a decline in the mid-20th century with the rise of logical positivism. Recent interest in the hard problem of consciousness, and developments in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and quantum mechanics have revived interest in panpsychism in the 21st century.

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<i>The Conscious Mind</i> 1996 philosophy book by David Chalmers

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Interactionism or interactionist dualism is the theory in the philosophy of mind which holds that matter and mind are two distinct and independent substances that exert causal effects on one another. An example of your mind influencing your body would be if you are depressed, you can observe the effects on your body, such as a slouched posture, a lackluster smile, etc. Another example, this time of your body affecting your mind would be: If you struck your toe very forcefully on a door, you would experience terrible pain. Interactionism is one type of dualism, traditionally a type of substance dualism though more recently also sometimes a form of property dualism. Many philosophers and scientists have responded to this theory with arguments both supporting and opposing its relevance to life and whether the theory corresponds to reality.

Joseph Levine is an American philosopher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who received his PhD from Harvard University in 1981.

Keith Frankish is a British philosopher specializing in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and philosophy of cognitive science. He is an Honorary Reader at the University of Sheffield, UK, Visiting Research Fellow with The Open University, and adjunct Professor with the Brain and Mind Programme at the University of Crete. He is known for his "illusionist" stance in the theory of consciousness. He holds that the conscious mind is a virtual system, a trick of the biological mind. In other words, phenomenality is an introspective illusion. This position is in opposition to dualist theories, reductive realist theories, and panpsychism.

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<i>Galileos Error</i> 2019 book by Philip Goff

Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness is a 2019 book authored by British philosopher Philip Goff. The book presents a defense of the theory of panpsychism as the solution to the hard problem of consciousness. The title of the book refers to Galileo inaugurating science by dividing the world into two “radically different kinds of entities” — the quantitative characteristics, which became the domain of science, and the qualitative characteristics which are the soul’s response to the physical world.

References

  1. ↑ "Panpsychism and the Nature of Consciousness". CBC Radio. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  2. ↑ Goff, Philip. "Panpsychism is crazy, but it's also most probably true". Aeon.
  3. 1 2 3 Cook, Gareth. "Does Consciousness Pervade the Universe?". Scientific American. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Goff, Philip. "Philip Goff Philosophy" . Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  5. 1 2 Goff, Philip; Seager, William; Allen-Hermanson, Sean (18 July 2017). "Panpsychism". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  6. ↑ "Staff Profile Dr Philip Goff". durham.ac.uk/. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Goff, Philip (2019). Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness. Vintage, Pantheon. ISBN   978-0525564775.
  8. ↑ Goff, Philip. "Presentation of Philip Goff on consciousness. Greenland cruise 2014". YouTube. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  9. ↑ "Greenland cruise". hardproblem.ru. Center for Consciousness Studies. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  10. ↑ Goff, Philip; Frankish, Keith. "MindChat". YouTube. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  11. ↑ Pigliucci, Massimo; Goff, Philip (2020). "Panpsychism and the Science of Consciousness".
  12. ↑ Goff, Philip (9 July 2020). "A conscious universe: Panpsychism vs idealism". IAI.
  13. 1 2 Goff, Philip (1 August 2021). "19 Essays on 'Galileo's Error'". Conscience and Consciousness Academic Philosophy for a General Audience. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  14. ↑ Goff, Philip (21 September 2017). "Is taxation theft? The assumption that you own the contents of your pay-packet, although almost universal, is demonstrably confused". Aeon.co. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  15. 1 2 Goff, Philip (7 November 2017). "Tax rogues like Bono are harming the world's poorest people". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  16. ↑ Burnett, Thomas (13 November 2023). "Why? The Purpose of the Universe". John Templeton Foundation.
  17. ↑ Goff, Philip (1 October 2024). "My leap across the chasm" . Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  18. ↑ Goff, Philip (1 October 2024). "Why This Famous Atheist Became a Progressive Christian (Dr. Philip Goff)" (Interview). Interviewed by Bertuzzi, Cameron. Capturing Christianity.
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