On What It’s Like It has become orthodox to state the mind-body problem using the locution “what it’s like”. Consciousness is defined as there being something it’s like. Pain is conscious because there is something it’s like to be in pain (it feels a certain way). I will argue that this is neither necessary nor […]
Reduction Redux I have been too harsh on reductionism; it really isn’t such a bad thing, correctly understood. It all depends on the kind of reduction. Materialist reduction has given it a bad name, because it is just not plausible (as typically formulated anyway). The OED defines “reduce” as “make or become smaller or less […]
Hi Colin: Happy New Year! As you know, I’m a fan of your blogs, save them all. Two I find especially relevant for the Landscape of Consciousness, as they are original and insightful, and encourage new ways of thinking. I took each of the blogs and framed them in Landscape style, using your words as […]
Explore Berggruen Prize Essays Theories Maps Implications Landscape Explore Ask AI Home / Materialism / Phylogenetic/Evolutionary / McGinn’s Living Consciousness McGinn’s Living Consciousness Elementary consciousness does not exist in all things, but it does exist in all organic things. The mind is confined to animate things. There are traces of it in all living tissue, […]
Explore Berggruen Prize Essays Theories Maps Implications Landscape Explore Ask AI Home / Materialism / Relational / McGinn’s Brain Perception McGinn’s Brain Perception Consciousness is perceiving your own brain. This isn’t because all consciousness is a brain state; it’s because all consciousness is brain perception. Consciousness is brain awareness—awareness of the brain. All consciousness […]
A (Really) Brief History of Knowledge This is a big subject—a long story—but I will keep it short, brevity being the soul of wisdom. We all know those books about the history of this or that area of human knowledge: physics, astronomy, mathematics, psychology (not so much biology). They are quite engaging, partly because they […]
Knowledge and Time I shall make some remarks about a topic neglected by epistemologists—the relationship between knowledge and time, particularly future time. The relationship is not simple or easily grasped; there is a reason for the neglect. I will try to keep it as uncontroversial as possible; this is to be preliminary groundwork. Truisms not […]
An Answer to the Skeptic Skepticism gains traction from the true justified belief theory of knowledge, because it can be argued that our beliefs are seldom if ever justified. But that is just one theory, not a datum. What if we adopt another type of theory? I observe, to begin with, that other types of […]
