The mind-body problem Down UnderThe mind-body problem Down Under
All In The Mind
Mind. Brain. Are they the same thing, or is the mind something special? The conundrum has perplexed us for centuries. Descartes split the two - into a spiritual, soul-like mind and fleshly, material brain. But in 1956 a group of 'renegade' Oxford graduates Down Under, now international stars in philosophy, launched a challenge. Consciousness and the brain were united, and any talk of mental spooks and ghosts in the machine was out...almost. Now in their 80s, David Armstrong and Jack Smart and others reminisce on taking Descartes to task.
30:15•3 Feb 2007
Is Your Mind Just Your Brain? Australian Philosophers Take On Consciousness
Episode Overview
- Australian philosophers like Ut Place, Jack Smart and David Armstrong argued that the mind is identical with the brain, sparking the mind–brain identity theory.
- Critics of materialism worry that treating the mind as non-physical leaves it mysterious and outside the reach of science.
- David Chalmers argues for a form of dualism, claiming that conscious experience is something over and above brain processes, highlighted by the “hard problem” of consciousness.
- Gerard O’Brien stresses that linking brain activity with experience is not enough; a successful theory must explain why those physical patterns feel like anything at all.
- Several guests suggest that future progress on consciousness will depend heavily on detailed neuroscientific work, even while philosophical debate continues.
“"If it's not in the brain, where the hell is it? Is it some sort of ghost in the machine?"”
Ever wondered what it takes to make sense of how your mind and brain fit together? This episode of *All In The Mind* heads straight into that puzzle, with a distinctly Australian flavour and plenty of dry humour along the way.
You’ll hear how a group of so‑called “renegade” Oxford graduates who moved to Australia helped kick off what became known (half-jokingly) as Australian materialism, with papers like Ut Place’s *Is Consciousness a Brain Process?* Smart recalls being mocked by northern-hemisphere colleagues, yet as his aunt once said to him, when he claimed the mind is identical with the brain, "she looked at me and she said, but what else could it be?" David Chalmers then shakes things up by arguing that consciousness is “something over and above the brain”, laying out the famous “hard problem” of why brain activity should produce the rich feel of experience – the redness of red, the taste of a cream bun, or the sense of being a self.
Host Natasha Mitchell brings together some of the biggest names in philosophy of mind, including Jack Smart, David Armstrong, David Chalmers and Gerard O’Brien, to look at a question that has haunted thinkers for centuries: is the mind anything over and above the physical brain, or is it, as Smart and his colleagues argued in the 1950s, that "the mind is the brain" – full stop.
As Gerard O’Brien puts it, "it's not enough simply to be able to point to particular patterns of activation in the brain"; an explanation has to connect those patterns to lived experience. With lively debates about dualism, science, religion, kangaroos and even a philosopher’s brain on display in a museum, this episode suits anyone curious about what consciousness might be made of. If the mind isn’t the brain, as one guest bluntly asks, "where the hell is it?"
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