Author: Philip Goff

I woke up Saturday morning with a strange, unpleasant feeling in my stomach. I initially thought it was indigestion, but after a certain amount of reflection I diagnosed it as guilt. I feel my last post was a bit dismissive and defensive, and so I’d like to make recompense by giving a calmer and more…

In recent academic philosophy, panpsychism has gone from being an object of public ridicule to being a respected minority view. A recent article by Olivia Goldman covered this development. A couple of neuroscientists, Anil Seth and Kevin Mitchell, have written strongly worded articles in response. There is a lot I could say in counter-response to…

It was great to see lots of responses in the latest edition (December/January) of Philosophy Now magazine to the edition I recently edited on ‘Radical Theories of Consciousness’. Of course, not all are sympathetic! I’d like to take the opportunity to respond to some of the objections and criticisms which were raised. John Radcliffe thought…

The last thing I wrote in 2017 was something (here) on Star Wars and panpsychism, to give me an excuse to see the film during work hours. My lovely 6 month sabbatical is now over…managed to write 2/3 of a pop book on consciousness and lots of articles…actually, I’m a bit sick of writing in…

I recently published a piece in The Guardian on the Paradise Papers tax revelations concerning Bono. This led to three interviews on this topic: one in the Swiss newspaper “Tages-Anzeiger” (here), one with the Greek newspaper “Εfimerida ton Syntakton” (here), and one that was used as research for an open letter to Bono in the…

With the publication of the Paradise Papers the public has once again been shocked by the extent of tax cheating by the wealthy elite. But precious little of the coverage has focused on what needs to be done stop it happening. Where there is such discussion, it has almost exclusively focused on closing loopholes. Whilst…

Most people I speak to either love Jeremy Corbyn for his politics or hate Jeremy Corbyn for his politics. I previously found myself in the rarer group of being strongly in favour of his policies, whilst having severe reservations about his political skills and his ability to cut through to the public. Before the campaign…

I’ve written quite a few articles recently outlining my ‘simplicity argument’ for panpsychism. One persistent questions is, ‘Why on earth should we suppose matter has an intrinsic nature????’. In this article for LSE’s ‘The Forum’ I try to layout the article in a bit more detail. It’s an old and much discussed argument. I think…

Seeing as it’s National Poetry Day in UK, I thought I’d re-post the poem I commissioned for the issue of Philosophy Now magazine I guest edited on ‘Radical Theories of Consciousness.’ Big fan of Machter’s work…I may put up some more of his stuff… Living With A Panpsychist by Thomas Machter “Simpler to suppose: all has…

I have written a lot of short pieces addressing this question (the answer is always no). But this piece for Aeon magazine is the most extensive thing I’ve written so far, and goes into much more detail about the nature of ownership. I’m always amazed at how much this stuff angers people. I’ve been enjoying…