Consciousness

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the problems of consciousness, one of the greatest mysteries facing science and philosophy today. The frustrations, the stubborn facts and the curiosities of today’s thinkers, philosophers, physicists and psychologists, demonstrate the elusiveness, and the utter impenetrability of consciousness. Can we explain our perception of colour, smell or what it is like to be in love in purely physical terms? Can memory, conviction and reason be explained primarily in terms of neural firing sequences in the brain? Three centuries ago Descartes famously believed that the problem was best solved by being ignored. Was he right? Could it be that the human mind is just not built to understand its own basis?

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Guests

• Ted Honderich No other episodes
  Philosopher and former Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College, London
• Sir Roger Penrose 5 episodes
  

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Programme ID: p005464j

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005464j

Auto-category: 128.2 (Mind)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. One of the greatest mysteries facing science and philosophy today is the problem of consciousness.