Eye on A.I. · Monday, June 29, 2026
Philip Goff argues that Galileo's decision to separate consciousness from the domain of science, by deeming it purely mathematical and quantitative, created the mind-body problem. Goff suggests that this division, influenced by religious context and Galileo's own philosophical innovations, led to science focusing on the physical world while leaving subjective experiences like qualia outside its scope. He proposes pansychism as a way to reintegrate consciousness into a scientific framework.
“And, um, and one way into this is I I think the problem of consciousness was built into the way we design science, right? By the father of modern science, Galileo, right? He was a great experimental scientist, but he was also a great philosopher, and it was his philosophical innovations that really shaped the foundations of the scientific revolution.”
“But Galileo appreciated, you can't capture these subjective qualities we directly encounter in our experience, the colors, the sounds, the smells, the tastes. You can't fully capture those in the purely quantitative language of mathematics.”
“So what did Galileo do? He took consciousness outside of the domain of science, right? He basically divided reality into two. On the one hand, we've got the domain of science with its purely mathematical, quantitative story. On the other side, we've got consciousness, that's in the soul, that's got these funny qualities, colors, sounds, smells, tastes.”