Some prominent physicists and neuroscientists who cannot accept the idea of a separate immaterial reality (dualism) turn to the simplest alternative, that the whole universe participates in consciousness (panpsychism).
Neuroscience
Winston Ewert explains why the mind is not a computer
“An abstract mathematical device cannot experience qualia or consciousness. If they could, we would expect mathematical formulas like the quadratic formula or the area of a sphere to experience consciousness. But that seems absurd, so we must conclude that a computer cannot exhibit consciousness. Put another way, consciousness is not a form of computation.”
Forty years ago, Douglas Hofstadter was sure a materialist explanation of the brain would work…
“There is, quite simply, no mechanical explanation of how the human mind has emerged from brawling chimpanzees over the course of millions of years of evolution.” That keeps happening with materialist theories. We thought their hat had way more rabbits.
Michael Egnor: A materialist neuroscientist continues the argument with himself
Dr. Ali seems to take both sides of the question.
Michael Egnor: Now Dr. Ali argues with Dr. Ali
In short, he argues that it’s no surprise that cutting the brain in half has no effect on abstract thought, and then he argues that delicate complexity and interconnection is essential for abstract thought. Dr. Ali is debating Dr. Ali.
Michael Egnor: Why abstract thoughts cannot arise from material things
Abstract thought is qualitatively different from concrete thought. To understand this, consider a chiliagon. A chiliagon is a closed regular polygon with 1000 sides. It is very simple to understand abstractly. However, it cannot be imagined concretely
Philosopher: Morality is merely community norms
Why is it that the people most likely to be attracted to this sort of naturalism (nature is all there is), often called “materialism,” also appear to be full of rage against what they perceive to be injustice, smashing stuff and people? And none of their theories about how they’ll make anything better sound very convincing.
J.P. Moreland on the reality of the mind tested by psychiatric disorder
Moreland: We are a unity of body, mind, spirit, emotions, and will and they all affect one another. And so, if my brain is damaged and it’s not producing the kinds of chemicals that it needs to help me have a good mood, then medication feels like oiling the engine or vitamins for your brain.
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor takes on a materialist neurologist
Egnor: Novella refutes himself. He first asserts that everything he knows is an illusion. Then he insists that his illusions have slapped him in the face with reality.
At Peaceful Science: An anti-creationist psychiatrist misunderstands evidence for an immaterial mind, says Michael Egnor
In neurosurgeon Michael Egnor’s view, “Here is one way of seeing it” If someone took a sledgehammer to your computer and pulverized it, yet it still worked fairly well, you would conclude that there was something rather strange about the computer that you had not previously considered: I am not arguing that fMRI imaging of […]
Is much modern psychology a “scientized version of original sin”?
But with bureaucratic efforts to mold behavior.
Researchers: Comatose people do show self-awareness
Michael Egnor: This study is consistent with the work of Wilder Penfield, who showed that higher-level abstract thought did not seem to arise from the brain in a material way.
New robotic device is controlled only by thought, no brain implant
If the mind is an illusion, how can it act directly on external things, by the force of decision-making alone?
Materialism’s secret of success, Hint: It’s not evidence
Materialism enables irrational ideas about ourselves to compete with rational ones on an equal basis. It won’t work
Neurosurgeon asks, Do we have free will or not?
Michael Egnor: Determinism at the quantum level is not true. Nature is not deterministic.