CategoryPhilosophy of Mind
Human Tools Found From a Tumultuous Period 2.7 Million Years Ago
The authors talk much about “evolutionary” and “evolution.” But actually, it doesn’t sound as if there was much evolution at all. It sounds more like one enduring insight
This Is New: Top Thinkers Debate Terminal Lucidity
Steven Pinker tells Charles Murray at the Wall Street Journal that people are merely imagining a sudden gain in awareness before dying
Surprisingly Polite Response to Non-Materialist Book on the Mind
The discussion with well-known skeptic Michael Shermer and leading neuroscientist Christof Koch was notably polite and productive
Can an AI Really Develop a Mind of Its Own?
Specifically, can an AI develop a mind with its own goals and desires, capable of plans and strategies — as the authors of If Anyone Builds It believe?
At Psych Mag: How Your Brain Allegedly Invented God…
Not THIS again, you say? Yes, this again. Straight out of the 1970s, as if the last fifty years of research never happened
Podcast: Evidence For the Existence of the Human Soul
Michael Egnor and Denyse O'Leary argue that there is abundant scientific data demonstrating the immaterial existence of the human person and that this reality continues after we die
Why Materialism Will Probably Drift Into Panpsychism
I predict that “Nothing is conscious” will be superseded, among fashionable thinkers, by “Everything is conscious.”
“Here’s My Number. Call Me When You Have Evidence.”
On Standing for Truth, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor describes the approach he takes to those who defend materialist theories about human beings
The Problem of Smith: When Mind Uploading Multiplies Identity
One Reason Why Near-Death Experiences Are Difficult to Study
Philosopher Bernardo Kastrup talks at Closer to Truth about the problem of trying to communicate experiences for which there are no words
Was the Legendary Jane Goodall (1934–2025) the End of an Era?
Perhaps. A more realistic appraisal of the reality of human uniqueness is needed if we hope to prevent the extinction of chimpanzees in the wild
COSM 2025 Panel to Tackle the Hard Problem: Consciousness
Michael Egnor sees the failure to find a “material center of consciousness” in the brain as a science success, not failure. It points to an important truth about us
Philosopher of Mind and Language John Searle Has Died
His Chinese Room thought experiment, an argument for why computers can seem clever without having minds, was widely understood among the lay public
Why the Soul Doesn’t — and Can’t — Weigh Anything
The question has nothing to do with whether or not the soul exists
Brain Surgeon Shows Why AI Can Never Become Human
Spoiler alert: AI requires physical hardware; the mind does not
Materialism in Science: Touching Another Hot Button
With a discussion of the findings of rigorous research into telepathy, the challenge to the presumption of materialism in science is beginning to be sounded loud and clear
What If Science Tried Doing Without Materialism?
In a thoughtful review of The Immortal Mind, John Zmirak points to the way it currently underlies most popular presentations of science
Consciousness Can’t Be Uploaded as AI? — Of Course It Can’t!
Converting ideas and memories into bits in a computer program does not recreate in the computer the person whose minds and memories they are — only a simulation