A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
An analytic philosopher argues that physical science describes structure and behavior while leaving intrinsic conscious nature unexplained, motivating panpsychism.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
It clearly states a live alternative to both reductive materialism and substance dualism. The book helps travelers distinguish scientific measurement from the metaphysical assumptions used to interpret it.
Good starting place if…
You want an accessible philosophical argument that modern science's treatment of subjective qualities created the hard problem of consciousness and that panpsychism may offer a way forward.
Know before you begin…
Goff defends a controversial metaphysical position, not an experimentally established discovery. Panpsychism faces difficult questions about how simple forms of experience could combine, and other philosophers reject the book's history and solution.
