Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/09/2023
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Location
The Duke of Battersea
The phenomenon of consciousness has always posed a severe problem for philosophical materialism (also called physicalism or naturalism in modern philosophy). Arguably highly problematic by the very definition of materialism, as consciousness seems to be an entirely, radically, unphysical “thing” . The materialist metaphysics that underlies standard versions of the biological theory of evolution is a case in point. It has therefore been proposed that consciousness is merely an “epiphenomenon” (causally useless or inert), or a “spandrel” biologically speaking, functionally inert. Or even an illusion, with no existence whatsoever.
Kieran will make an argument for Philosophical Idealism (paradigmatic example: George Berkeley) as an alternative metaphysics to materialism
Kieran will give his talk in The Duke of Battersea, but this meeting will also be on Zoom see SLPC Zoom Meeting