Michael Egnor: Is Your Brain the Same as Your Mind?
Is the mind an emergent property of the brain? Or is there something else going on? Robert J. Marks discusses the different theories of the mind — including materialism, panpsychism, and dualism — with Dr. Michael Egnor.
Show Notes
- 00:37 | Introducing Dr. Michael Egnor, Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook
- 01:32 | We can use our minds to understand our minds
- 01:55 | What defines a good theory of the mind?
- 02:26 | The mind vs. the soul
- 03:51 | The self-refuting theory of eliminative materialism
- 07:12 | A reasonably good explanation that fits the facts
- 08:09 | What theories of the mind make sense?
- 08:32 | A materialist perspective of the mind
- 10:04 | The idea of emergence
- 11:26 | The wetness of water
- 13:27 | Qualia — the way things feel
- 14:17 | Two problems of explaining consciousness
- 15:40 | Panpsychism
- 17:49 | Dualist theories of the mind
- 18:29 | Cartesian dualism
- 20:00 | Hylomorphism
- 21:17 | Comparing theories of the mind
- 25:32 | The emerging field of neuroscience and its effect on theories of the mind
Additional Resources
- Michael Egnor at Discovery Institute
- Michael Egnor’s articles at Mind Matters News
- Michael Egnor’s podcast with Edward Feser
- “Michael Egnor Demolishes the Myth of Materialism” video
- Eliminative materialism at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Emergence at Wikipedia
- Qualia at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- David Chalmers’ website
- Panpsychism at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Are Electrons Conscious? by Michael Egnor at Mind Matters News
- Hylomorphism/Hylemorphism at Encyclopædia Britannica