A day exploring key philosophical topics relating to mind, meaning and metaphysics with Professor David Papineau, one of the world’s leading researchers in these fields. Papineau is one of Britain’s best-known and most highly-regarded philosophers, with a reputation for writing very accessible, inclusive books intended for a wide audience.
Papineau believes that we live in a natural, material world. However, there are notorious philosophical puzzles about how such a material world is able to accommodate things like consciousness, moral value and meaning. How, in particular, is it even possible for a material thing, such as a human being, to be conscious? Is it possible for a pain or some other conscious experience to be something physical, such as a brain state? And how do these squiggles, or sounds in the air, come to mean something? What is meaning, exactly?
Once we start thinking philosophically about mind and meaning, they can begin to seem almost magical – as something that the natural, material world could not possibly, by itself, contain or produce. So can mind and meaning be naturalized, and if so, how?
The day comprises three lectures – on mind, meaning and metaphysics – and a final session in which David Papineau is in conversation with Stephen Law.
Please note: this event will close to enrolments at 23:59 UTC on 6 December 2023.