“Nothing is more real than nothing.” Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies Those who are never lost are forever lost. Only those who know they are lost and that life is a shipwreck have a chance to find their way to shore. The world’s great religions, including Taoism and Existential philosophy, understand that at the heart of... Read More

The most important thing in the universe can’t be seen, touched, tasted, smelt or heard. No scientific instrument can detect it or measure it. Indeed, everything that science knows and understands about it could be written on the full stop at the end of this sentence. Then again, from the scientific point of view there... Read More

————————— Can there be a science of mind? There has of course been a philosophy of mind since the time of the Ancients, but is this really an area that the scientific method can penetrate? A growing body of academics from several disciplines are betting that it is. Hoping to find out whether or not... Read More

OK, I've arrived here in Tucson for the Toward a Science of Consciousness conference. Didn't really absorb much from the first day's meeting. I caught a really bad cold the day before leaving New York, so to protect my ears from damage when flying, I dosed up on Benadryl. Didn't work. At least, the drying... Read More

Consciousness — what on earth is it? Most of us, if pressed on the matter, would confess a vague dualism. There is, we would say, mind-stuff and matter-stuff. Though non-physical, mind-stuff can push matter-stuff around somehow. Further, mind-stuff comes in discrete units, each unit attached in some more or less inextricable way to the brain... Read More