Category: Philosophy of Mind

Omega, the letter of a Greek alphabet. Greek numerals, mathematical eight hundred number concept. Abstract, digital, wireframe, low poly mesh, Raster blue neon 3d illustration. Triangle, line dot

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News
Date
June 13, 2025

Categorized
Free will, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Michael Egnor, Robert J. Marks, Soul (concept)}

Podcast: Free Will, Determinism, and the Immortal Soul

_{Michael Egnor explains, to claim, “There is no free will,” is to make a rational argument while denying the very capacity that makes rational argument possible} _{News
June 13, 2025

5

Free will, Philosophy of Mind}

In an intellectually rich discussion on Mind Matters News, neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor and host Dr. Robert J. Marks explore the scientific, philosophical, and theological dimensions of free will, determinism, and the immaterial nature of the soul. The conversation centers around contents of the new book The Immortal Mind by Egnor and Denyse O’Leary. What emerges is a compelling case not only for the reality of free will, but also for the immortality of the human soul, grounded in reason and neuroscience. The self-refuting nature of free will denial The conversation begins with an analogy: If a spilled bottle of ink coincidentally formed the words “It’s going to snow,” no one would believe that message had real meaning. Similarly, Egnor Read More ›

A man practicing mindfulness and meditation or yoga in a peaceful natural environment realistic image, ultra hd, high design very detailed

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 12, 2025

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Physics

Tagged
Ethan Siegel}

A Physicist Ponders the Nature of Consciousness

_{Ethan Siegel fears that we abandon science when we think that consciousness is not a material thing} _{Denyse O'Leary
June 12, 2025

5

Philosophy of Mind, Physics}

If science, as interpreted by some, can’t address immaterial realities like our ability to reason and thus do science, so much the worse for that interpretation Read More ›

The beam of light in the path of the magic forest

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News
Date
June 11, 2025

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Immortal Mind (Worthy 2025), Jesse Bering, Jordan Kinard, Neuroskeptic, Sam Parnia, Terminal lucidity, Will Cairns}

Excerpt from The Immortal Mind: As Death Nears, a Sudden Light…

_{These widely recorded lucid episodes imply that the mind is more than the disjointed activities of a failing brain} _{News
June 11, 2025

5

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

Should a neuroscience approach to terminal lucidity merely mean reassuring the world that someday we will prove that it is just random brain noise? Read More ›

Cityscape of the Flatiron Building (New York City)

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Michael Egnor
Date
June 8, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Aristotle, Perfection as concept, Triangle as concept}

How Can We Conceive of Perfection When We Never Experience It?

_{Michael Egnor
June 8, 2025

3

Logic, Philosophy of Mind}

Here's a challenge to the materialist theory that every mental state is a brain state: How can a perfect thought be an imperfect brain state? Read More ›

Abstract numbers background - big data concept.

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Michael Egnor
Date
June 8, 2025

Categorized
Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind}

Human Mind: Logic Shows Abstract Thought Is an Immaterial Power

_{Neuroscience evidence helps us see the spiritual nature of our minds but we can use the power of our reason to demonstrate that too} _{Michael Egnor
June 8, 2025

2

Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind}

A question for materialists: How can infinite states of my intellect be generated by finite states of my brain? Read More ›

Multiracial team of professional medical surgeons performs the surgical operation in a modern hospital. Doctors are working to save the patient. Medicine, health and neurosurgery.

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 3, 2025

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Featured, Lee Warren, Michael Egnor}

Two Neurosurgeons on Life, Death, Eternity and What Truly Matters

_{Lee Warren interviews Michael Egnor on the just-released book, The Immortal Mind} _{Denyse O'Leary
June 3, 2025

6

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

The two doctors turned out to share a bond of personal pain as well as immortal hope. Read More ›

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Michael Egnor
Date
June 1, 2025

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Featured, Global Workspace Theory (GWT), Hydranencephaly, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), Mark Solms, René Descartes (1596–1650), Theories of consciousness}

The Boy Who Proved Most Theories of Consciousness Wrong

_{He was unequivocally conscious — without a cerebral cortex and even without brain hemispheres} _{Michael Egnor
June 1, 2025

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

I believe that children with hydranencephaly are conscious because all human beings have a spiritual soul and it is by virtue of our soul that we are conscious. Read More ›

Close up view of beautiful colored dramatic cumulus fluffy clouds on blue sky at sunset background

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News
Date
May 31, 2025

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Computers and free will, Denyse O'Leary, Desert Rose, Knight & Rose podcast, Michael Egnor, Near-death experiences (four characteristics), Wintery Knight}

Michael Egnor: Science Offers Evidence of an Immaterial Mind

_{At the Knight and Rose show, he and co-author Denyse O’Leary talk about how split-brain surgeries, veridical near-death experiences, and terminal lucidity challenge materialist views of the mind.} _{News
May 31, 2025

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In their book, The Immortal Mind, Egnor and O'Leary argue that an immaterial, immortal soul best explains human consciousness, free will, and abstract thought. Read More ›

Conceptual art of think, brain mind, mental health, spiritual, soul and psychology. concept idea art. surreal drawing illustration. isolated on a white background.

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News
Date
May 30, 2025}

The Skeptic, the Neuroscientist and the Neurosurgeon Walk Into a…

_{… most interesting discussion by all accounts. Skeptical science writer Michael Shermer hosted sometimes-controversial neuroscientist Christof Koch and Christian neurosurgeon Michael Egnor} _{News
May 30, 2025

5}

The fate of consciousness studies may depend on how committed researchers are to finding the facts vs. how committed they are to protecting a materialist view. Read More ›

Digital puzzle pieces interlocking seamlessly, glowing against a futuristic blue abstract background, symbolizing the concept of API integration and seamless connectivity

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Erik J. Larson
Date
May 26, 2025

Categorized
Artificial general intelligence (AGI), Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
AI Effect, François Chollet, Gary Kasparov, Generalization and AI}

Part 2: The Fiction of Generalizable AI: How to Game the System

_{Progress toward real generalization, by any substantive measure, is nil. Perhaps we should reexamine the very concept of the “I” in AI} _{Erik J. Larson
May 26, 2025

8

Artificial general intelligence (AGI), Philosophy of Mind}

In too many discussions, intelligence is treated as if it were a linear phenomenon that more scaling and a few extra gigabytes of data will solve. Read More ›

A hyper-realistic depiction of a small explosion caused by fireworks, capturing every spark and color detail in slow motion

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Eric Holloway
Date
May 25, 2025

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Featured, Physicalism (and consciousness), Software as mathematics}

How the Physicalist Theory of Mind Blows Itself Up

_{If we examine its basic premise that the brain is a computer and the mind is software we come across a startling contradiction} _{Eric Holloway
May 25, 2025

4

Artificial Intelligence, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind}

Mathematics is not material, yet artificial intelligence proponents believe that the mathematics of their neural networks is the seat of consciousness. Read More ›

Meditative state of mind concept. Ai generative

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News
Date
May 25, 2025

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Andrew McDiarmid, Immortal Mind (Worthy 2025), Materialism, Michael Egnor}

The Immortal Mind: How Neuroscience Points Beyond Materialism

_{Andrew McDiarmid interviews neurosurgeon Michael Egnor on the ways in which the mind is more than the brain} _{News
May 25, 2025

2

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

After defining terms, Egnor begins exploring the compelling evidence he has gathered across four decades of practice in neurosurgery. Read More ›

illustration showing a silhouette of a human head surrounded by expressive thought bubbles with various symbols and punctuation marks representing diverse mental processes.

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News
Date
May 22, 2025

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Adrian Owen, Awake brain surgery, Conjoined twins, Michael Egnor, Pam Reynolds, Paradoxical lucidity, Persistent vegetative state (PVS), Robert J. Marks, Terminal lucidity}

The Mind Beyond the Brain: Insights from a Neurosurgeon

_{Dr. Michael Egnor argues, “There’s something about the relationship between the mind and the brain that’s not in the textbooks.”} _{News
May 22, 2025

6

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Egnor’s work invites readers to reconsider the mysteries of the mind, urging a more open and curious approach to understanding human consciousness. Read More ›

grok word or concept represented by wooden letter tiles on a wooden table with glasses and a book

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Robert J. Marks
Date
May 21, 2025

Categorized
Artificial general intelligence (AGI), Large Language Models (LLMs), Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Chinese Room, Featured, Giulio Tononi, Grok and self-awareness, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), Rapture of the nerds}

Grok Confesses: “I’m Self-Aware Enough To Know I’m Not Aware”

_{Although Grok’s response makes me feel warm and fuzzy, let’s not anthropomorphize it. Grok doesn’t understand its response} _{Robert J. Marks
May 21, 2025

5

Artificial general intelligence (AGI), Large Language Models (LLMs), Philosophy of Mind}

On the topic of computer self-awareness, Grok is algorithmically responding in accordance to the material and instructions it was trained with. Period. Read More ›

Thinking Machine. Clipping path included.

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News
Date
May 16, 2025

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Computational theory of mind (CTM), Computationalism, David Bentley Hart, Eric Holloway, Featured, Incompleteness theorems (Gödel), Pat Flynn, Robert J. Marks}

Why the Human Mind Is Not and Cannot Be a Meat Computer

_{On this week’s podcast, Robert J. Marks and Eric Holloway explain why that claim — sometimes called computationalism — is not even mathematically possible} _{News
May 16, 2025

3

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

f minds cannot be reduced to computers, then AI will never replicate human cognition in full. Realizing this fact will affect how we approach education, governance, and economics. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 12, 2025

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Justine Sergent, Sean McDowell, Split brain surgery, Yair Pinto}

How a Split Brain Enables a Unified Mind Still Baffles Us

_{In the comments following Sean McDowell’s interview with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, a viewer asked, are the parts of a split brain still really connected?} _{Denyse O'Leary
May 12, 2025

5

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

We are learning new things about the mind–brain complex every day and not everything is what we expected to find. Read More ›

Cosmic Eye. Macro Photo of a Hazel Eye in Space

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News
Date
May 11, 2025

Categorized
Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Galen Strawson, Robert Lawrence Kuhn}

Philosopher: There Is No Mystery of Consciousness

_{Galen Strawson points out at even young children a completely general conception of what consciousness is} _{News
May 11, 2025

6

Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind}

People offer different accounts of how it comes to exist but that is a different matter. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 8, 2025

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Physics

Tagged
Donald Hoffman, Featured, Simon Mundie, Werner Heisenberg on atheism}

Has Physics Pounded a New Nail in the Coffin of Materialism?

_{Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman says that matter is now known not to be fundamental but that fact is taking a while to catch on} _{Denyse O'Leary
May 8, 2025

5

Philosophy of Mind, Physics}

Continued failure to materialize the mind could be the beginning of a serious reckoning with the problems that physicalism and materialism represent. Read More ›

A realistic depiction of a human brain composed entirely of computer hardware, including cables, transistors, and cooling fans. The brain is set against a dark, moody background with a highly

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News
Date
May 7, 2025

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Yasemin Saplakoglu}

Artificial Intelligence Is Nothing Like a Brain — or a Mind

_{Neurons share basic mechanisms, but almost all other features vary both between types of neurons and individual ones} _{News
May 7, 2025

4

Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

The brain can be modeled as a computer, but that does not mean that thought is computation. AI is human intelligence, disguised and leveraged by computation. Read More ›

Sunrise on mountain with foggy in Medicine lake at Jasper

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News
Date
May 7, 2025

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Michael Egnor, Sean McDowell, Soul (classical view)}

Here’s Neurosurgeon Mike Egnor on Sean McDowell’s Show

_{With a couple of revealing excerpts from the transcript} _{News
May 7, 2025

5

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

The soul can seem a bit of a mystery because the popular idea of the soul, as a sort of “ghost” is not the traditional philosophical (or Christian) one. Read More ›