galileos error

Galileo's definition of science

The study of what can be quantified and measured—size, shape, motion.

Consciousness exclusion in science

Galileo excluded consciousness and qualitative experience (color, taste, sound) from the domain of science.

Galileo's error

Mistaking a methodological exclusion of consciousness for a metaphysical truth.

Goff's proposal

To re-integrate consciousness into the scientific worldview as a real, fundamental aspect of nature.

The hard problem of consciousness

The question of why physical brain processes produce subjective experience, introduced by David Chalmers.

Easy problems vs hard problem

Easy problems explain functions (like perception), while the hard problem asks why experience exists at all.

Materialism's claim about consciousness

That consciousness is brain activity, but this does not explain qualitative experiences known as qualia.

Emergentism's failure

It fails to explain why complexity of brain processes yields subjective experience.

Eliminative materialism

The stance that denies consciousness, contradicting our direct awareness of it.

Goff's conclusion about science and consciousness

That solving the hard problem requires a new scientific paradigm treating consciousness as a fundamental property of the universe.