THE MIND BODY PROBLEM & THE PANPSYCHISM SOLUTION - Galen Strawson PhD #78

THE MIND BODY PROBLEM & THE PANPSYCHISM SOLUTION - Galen Strawson PhD #78

From Chasing Consciousness by Freddy Drabble

September 1, 2025 · 1h 22m · Season 5 · Episode 78

About this episode

The episode explores the mind-body problem and panpsychism with philosopher Galen Strawson.

How can consciousness emerge from non-conscious material? If there is only one type of stuff, how is the potential for consciousness encoded in the building blocks of the universe? In this episode we have the ancient philosophical mind-body problem to get our heads around, and the ever more popular solution, panpsychism: That is, the belief that everything material, no matter how small, has always had a component of consciousness in it. We get into what consciousness is, why it’s not an illusion; into subjective experience; we cover the rich history of the mind-body problem in philosophy, and we also confront the apparently magical emergence of consciousness from non-consciousness by exploring the arguments for panpsychism, and how new understandings from the last 100 years of science might change preconceptions about a panpsychist solution. Fortunately, to understand this we have the hugely experienced author and analytical philosopher of mind, for many years at the university of Oxford and now at the university of Texas, professor Galen Strawson! Alongside over 140 papers, he has also written 12 books including “ Consciousness and its place in nature”, “ Things that bother me…

People in this episode

Host: Freddy Drabble

Guest: Galen Strawson

Topics covered

  • mind-body problem
  • panpsychism
  • consciousness
  • philosophy
  • subjective experience
  • identity metaphysics

Keywords

  • consciousness
  • panpsychism
  • mind-body problem
  • philosophy
  • qualia
  • identity metaphysics
  • subjective experience

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Oxford, University of Texas

Books & works: Consciousness and its place in nature, Things that bother me: Death, Freedom, the self etc, Stuff, Quality and Structure

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