is materialism enough for consciousness?
Maybe materialism won't be enough at the end of the day, but maybe it will.
Key Insights
Progress in consciousness research depends on reframing our questions.
"The sense of mystery will dissolve... because we're finally asking the right questions."
Materialism remains a promising but uncertain path for explaining consciousness.
"Maybe materialism won't be enough at the end of the day, but maybe it will."
The brain's primary function is prediction for bodily regulation.
"The brain as a variety of a prediction machine... controlling and regulating the interior of the body."
Consciousness is deeply connected to our biological nature.
"Consciousness as we have it is intimately bound up with our nature as living creatures."
The Synthesis
Anil Seth - Theories of Consciousness: Mapping the Mind's Final Frontier
Consciousness—the last great mystery of science—is being systematically dismantled by neuroscientist Anil Seth, whose "pragmatic materialism" offers a roadmap through the mind-body problem that has stumped philosophers for centuries. At a moment when AI systems mimic cognition without subjective experience, Seth's exploration of what makes consciousness uniquely biological couldn't be more timely.
Seth's "Beast Machine" framework stands in stark contrast to Cartesian dualism, reclaiming rather than rejecting our animal nature. "Consciousness as we have it is intimately bound up with our nature as living creatures," he argues, positioning the brain as a "prediction machine" whose primary function isn't representing the external world but regulating the body's internal environment. This materialist approach doesn't reduce the mystery but transforms it—consciousness isn't some mystical force but emerges from the same biological imperatives that keep us alive.
The most provocative aspect of Seth's perspective is how it challenges both extremes of the consciousness debate: "Maybe materialism won't be enough at the end of the day, but maybe it will," he admits with refreshing intellectual honesty. When host Robert Lawrence Kuhn presses him on competing theories like panpsychism, Seth's response cuts through philosophical fog: "The sense of mystery will dissolve" not because consciousness isn't real, but because we're finally asking the right questions about what kind of physical system can generate subjective experience.