Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness
Philip Goff
Pantheon (2019)

Matter exists regardless of whether or not there is an awareness of it 

According to Philip Goff, “Galileo the philosopher created physical science by setting the sensory qualities outside of its domain of inquiry and placing them in the conscious mind. This was a great success, as it allowed what remained to be captured in the quantitative language of mathematics.”

Good News: “Galileo taught us how to think of matter mathematically.”

Bad News: “If natural science is essentially quantitative and the qualitative cannot be explained in terms of the quantitative, then consciousness, as an essentially qualitative phenomenon, will be forever locked out of the arena of scientific understanding.”

So what? “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. How can we correct the error?”

Goff then suggests three options to consider (i.e. Naturalistic Dualism, Materialism, and Panpsychism) and discusses each in sufficient detail (22-23). “To solve the problem, we must somehow find a way of making consciousness, once again, the business of science.” It is driven by curiosity in response to stimulation or speculation; like a vacuum cleaner, it accumulates new, relevant information from as many different areas (i.e. primary and secondary sources); then it correlates and evaluates what it now possesses. One of the most valuable benefits of this process is that it helps to identify what XXX identified in 19XX as “the unknown unknowns.”

What is panpsychism? In the philosophy of mind, it is the view that the mind or a mindlike aspect is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality. It is also described as a theory that “the mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe.”

What you believe with regard to panpsychism will probably determine your own evaluation of this book. Goff believes that it panpsychism may be “our best hope for solving the problem of consciousness” and explains why in Chapter 4 and in the final paragraph (217).

Matter exists regardless of whether or not there is an awareness of it. Concepts (e.g. panpsychism) also exist, whether or not there is an awareness of one.

So many issues to consider. So many ambiguities. and so often, a sense of alienation from the natural world.

I commend Philip Goff on his consummate skills when building a sturdy bridge of learning (i.e. knowledge transfer) between “the foundations of a new science of consciousness” and non-scientists such as I.  There is indeed so much more for me to learn and I will, guided and informed by his Notes and Bibliography. True, I may not ever fully understand, much less appreciate what he characterizes as “re-enchanting the universe” but I welcome the ongoing opportunity to learn more about my place in that universe.