Why Your Brain Doesn't Create Consciousness: It's Always Been There (ft. Philip Goff) cover art

Why Your Brain Doesn't Create Consciousness: It's Always Been There (ft. Philip Goff)

Why Your Brain Doesn't Create Consciousness: It's Always Been There (ft. Philip Goff)

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In this conversation with philosopher Dr. Philip Goff, we dive into one of the deepest questions in science and philosophy: what if consciousness isn’t produced by the brain—what if it’s fundamental to reality?

We explore panpsychism, the “hard-to-ignore” problem of subjective experience, why physics may describe what matter does but not what it is, and what it would mean if even the smallest building blocks of nature contain a spark of experience.

Philip Goff’s work: Website: https://philipgoffphilosophy.com/ Substack: https://philipgoff.substack.com/

In this episode:

  • What consciousness is (and why it’s so hard to explain)

  • Why brain scans don’t “find” experience

  • The core argument for panpsychism

  • Galileo’s legacy: how modern science set consciousness aside

  • What physics really tells us about matter

  • Implications for meaning, spirituality, and mystical experience

  • AI and consciousness: are LLMs “aware” of anything?

Chapters: 00:00 What if consciousness isn’t made by the brain? 00:14 Pansychism in one sentence (a conscious universe) 00:40 Why consciousness breaks science’s “objective” method 01:16 Welcome + Durham vs California weather 02:35 What is consciousness? “What it’s like to be you” 03:38 Goff vs Anil Seth / Donald Hoffman (physicalism vs panpsychism) 05:10 Why consciousness is so hard to explain (objective vs subjective) 07:49 The “dogs → plants → atoms” ladder into panpsychism 08:34 Galileo’s move: taking consciousness out of science 10:23 The bold claim: even atoms/particles have experience 11:43 Plant intelligence + pea-plant learning (Monica Gagliano) 14:02 Why extend mind to the “inanimate” world? 15:14 Unifying what Galileo split: matter + experience 16:17 Consciousness as fundamental (not “emergent”) + Maxwell analogy 18:54 What panpsychism claims (and doesn’t) 19:08 Russell & Eddington: physics tells what matter does, not what it is 21:44 “Matter is what consciousness does” (the core framing) 23:16 Consciousness isn’t publicly observable (why the “hard problem” persists) 26:56 Flipping the project: start with consciousness first 33:04 Sponsor: Finding Your Best (Michael Gervais) 34:00 Flow, mystical experience, and taking inner experience seriously 36:01 Groupthink, rigor, and why “woo” ideas get dismissed 37:46 William James on trusting mystical experience 40:21 Nick’s Auschwitz experience + the limits of science 42:01 Value, depth, meaning—what experiences seem to reveal 44:26 “Science isn’t the complete story” (logic, math, value, consciousness) 46:59 Sponsor: Zapier + AI agents 49:19 AI and consciousness: is there “something it’s like” to be an LLM? 51:47 The Turing Test and redefining “thought” as behavior 54:12 Why Goff thinks LLMs aren’t conscious (and what would be) 57:54 No consensus in consciousness science + philosophy inside the lab 1:01:26 The question keeping Goff up: math, logic, and Gödel 1:05:40 What shift does Goff hope you take away? 1:07:42 Where to find Goff’s work + closing thoughts 1:09:50 Outro: ask questions, reject the status quo, stay curious

If this topic hits for you, consider subscribing—more conversations at the edge of mind, science, and reality.

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Ask questions, Don't accept the status quo, And be curious.

#Consciousness #Panpsychism #PhilipGoff #Philosophy #Neuroscience #Science #AI #Mind
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