Keith Frankish is an Honorary Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Sheffield, a Visiting Research Fellow with the Open University, an Adjunct Professor with the Brain and Mind Program at the University of Crete, and editor of the Cambridge University Press series Elements in Philosophy of Mind. He is best known for his “two-level” view of the human mind, covered in his book Mind and Supermind, and his defense of the philosophical thesis known as illusionism, which holds that phenomenal consciousness is an illusion. Robinson and Keith discuss a variety of aspects of illusionism, including just what it is—and isn’t—its relationship to free will, and how the thesis engages with academic literature outside of philosophy (please see http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/#CB for Kevin O’Regan’s demonstrations of change blindness, which are referenced in the conversation). You can keep up with Keith and his work on his website, Keithfrankish.com, or through his Twitter account, @keithfrankish. He is also, along with Philip Goff, the host of the podcast MindChat, which you can find at https://www.youtube.com/@MindChat/.

Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:43 Introduction

5:42 What Is the Hard Problem of Consciousness?

16:40 Tactics for Accounting for Anomalous Phenomena

22:14 An Illusionism Primer

42:13 Eliminative Materialism and Illusionism

45:18 Reading the Scientific Literature

59:19 Observing Other Minds

1:14:37 Is Free Will an Illusion?

1:23:18 Cognitive Science and Illusionism

1:55:34 A Thought Experiment Concerning Anesthesia

2:02:46 A Poetry Reading

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.