Episode · The Rich Roll Podcast · 2023-03-06
Books mentioned on What Is Consciousness? Philip Goff On The Nature of Reality & The Science of Mind
What is consciousness? Where does it come from?
Rich Roll recommended Galileo's Error by Philip Goff. Philip Goff discussed What Is It Like to Be a Bat? by Thomas Nagel, Selves by Galen Strawson, The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, and Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Galileo's Error
Galileo's Error by Philip Goff is an exploration of panpsychism and the philosophy of mind, arguing that standard physical science struggles to account for the intrinsic nature of human consciousness.
Recommended“which is a theory that he explores in his fascinating book called Galileo's error which I highly recommend”
Where to get it
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What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
Thomas Nagel's philosophical essay What Is It Like to Be a Bat? explores the fundamental nature of consciousness and the limitations of physicalist explanations.
Discussed“So Nagel said in his famous paper what's it like to be a bat from the 70s, he said something's conscious if there's something that it's like to be it”
Where to get it
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Selves
Discussed“my PhD Mentor Galen strawson has a book selves where he defends the idea that there are unified selves but they just last a couple of seconds”
Where to get it
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The Varieties of Religious Experience
William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience is a foundational exploration of human spirituality, religious sentiment, and psychological states of consciousness.
Discussed“I always come back to the um you know to that challenge, I always come back to the response of William James in his great book in the 19th century the varieties of religious experience”
Where to get it
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Mind and Cosmos
Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel is a concise philosophical work by a prominent non-religious thinker that challenges the fundamental limits, assumptions, and problems of a strictly materialist framework on the world.
Discussed“he had this book in 2012 um mind and Cosmos where he defended the idea of what he called teleological laws”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
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