Galileo's Error Quotes

“The appropriate attitude to mystical experiences for those who haven’t had them is probably one of agnosticism, the withholding of belief either that mystical experiences provide genuine insight into the nature of reality or that they are delusions.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“Panpsychism is the view that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of physical reality.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“Panpsychists believe that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the physical world. An increasing number of philosophers and even some neuroscientists are coming around to the idea that it may be our best hope for solving the problem of consciousness”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“If Galileo traveled in time to the present day to hear that we are having difficulty giving a physical explanation of consciousness, he would most likely respond, “Of course you are, I designed physical science to deal with quantities not qualities!”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“the success of physical science in the last five hundred years is due to the fact that Galileo narrowed its scope of inquiry. Just as my head of department said to me, “Don’t bother for now with administration,” so Galileo said to physical scientists, “Don’t bother for the moment with the sensory qualities.” The argument from “Physical science has been extremely successful” to “Physical science will one day explain the sensory qualities of consciousness” is not supported by the history of science. Let me repeat for the sake of clarity: I’m not saying that this proves that physical science cannot explain consciousness. But it does undermine arguments that try to show that it inevitably will.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“Conspiracy theories thrive in an environment in which certainty is expected,”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“Here’s a prediction: In twenty years’ time, the idea that panpsychism can be quickly dismissed as “crazy” will seem, well, crazy.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“Eddington’s panpsychism was not dualistic. His view was not that particles have two sets of properties: physical properties (mass, charge, spin, etc.) on the one hand and nonphysical consciousness properties on the other. The view is rather that the physical properties of a particle (mass, spin, charge, etc.) are themselves forms of consciousness.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“In other words, Eddington’s proposal is that consciousness is the intrinsic nature of matter. It is consciousness, for Eddington, that breathes fire into the equations of physics.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“In recent years we have gotten used to taking “science” and “physical science” to be synonymous. At the same time, we look to scientists to give us a complete theory of reality. These two demands on science cannot be reconciled. So long as “science” is equated with “physical science,” it will be subject to the following limitations: It will be unable to account for consciousness, as the qualitative reality of consciousness cannot be captured in the quantitative language of physical science. It will be confined to telling us what matter does, remaining silent on its intrinsic nature.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“The Problem of Intrinsic Natures—Physical science restricts itself to providing information about the behavior of the things it talks about—particles, fields, spacetime—and tells us nothing about their intrinsic natures.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“We are now in a position to understand why the mere possibility of zombies is inconsistent with materialism. For materialism tells us that feelings and brain states are identical. But according to the identity principle, if feelings and brain states are identical, then they couldn’t possibly exist apart.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“The whole concept of faith is fundamentally irrational. It asks you to believe without evidence!”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“The “hard problem” of consciousness, in contrast, was the challenge of explaining why the activity of the brain gives rise to experience: feelings, emotions, sensations, the subjective inner world each of us knows in her or his own case.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“When it comes to the basic causal workings of the universe, scientists provide mathematical laws which describe with great accuracy how matter behaves, but they provide no explanation of why matter behaves in that way.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“Panpsychists believe that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the physical world.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“Galileo’s error was to commit us to a theory of nature which entailed that consciousness was essentially and inevitably mysterious. In other words, Galileo created the problem of consciousness.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“quantum entanglement,” technically defined as a situation in which the quantum state of one particle cannot be described independently of the quantum state of another.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“Contemporary materialism is not a solution but a stubborn refusal to face up to the problem.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

“particle in a superposition between location X and location Y is in a strange state of being both at X and at Y while being definitely at neither.”
― Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness