Episode 86

The third episode in a series wherein Mark Taylor talks with me about the mind-body problem and the so-called "hard problem" of consciousness. We continue talking about disenchantment and Richard Dawkins' role as "unweaver of the rainbow" and as one of the "Four Horsemen of New Atheism". Returning to Daniel Dennett's "zombie problem", Mark then explains Dennett's notion of "intuition pumps" and applies this to Descartes' ideas about the physical location of consciousness. This leads us off on a strange tangent about the pineal gland and Dr. David Luke's DMT experiences with pinecone-shaped entities covered in eyeballs and an artist who has produced some truly extraordinary paintings since being diagnosed with cancer of the pineal gland. We eventually find our way back to the "hard problem" of consciousness and I again invoke Thomas Nagel's seminal paper "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" as I try to get Mark to explain Dennett's materialist "explanation" of consciousness.

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Some relevant links:

• Daniel Dennett
• the "hard problem" of consciousness
• Dennett's "zombie problem"
• solipsism
• Richard Dawkins
• R. Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow (1998)
• Sam Harris
• "Four Horsemen" of the new atheism
• intuition pumps
• René Descartes
• pineal gland
• Shawn Thornton (artist who suffered from cancer of the pineal gland)
• DMT
• David Luke
• Thomas Nagel
• T. Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" (1974 article)
• pine cones