“I'm not a militant atheist, just an atheist. In fact, in a largely atheist country like the UK I think it's a bit silly to be a militant atheist.” ThinkingCountryFactsBitsAtheistSillyMilitant Author:Tim Crane
“Since I don't believe in externalism, I don't think it can explain consciousness!” ThinkingBelieveConsciousnessDon't Believe Author:Tim Crane
“I do think it's important to distinguish between intentionalism about consciousness and externalism about consciousness. Intentionalism says that consciousness is a form of intentionality - the representation of things to the mind. Externalism says that these things have to exist in order for them to be represented, or presented. These are different views.” ThinkingMindImportantDifferentFormOrderViewsConsciousnessRepresentationDifferent ViewsIntentionality Author:Tim Crane
“I like to think of myself as a naturalist - insofar as that term is at all clear.” ThinkingTermClearNaturalist Author:Tim Crane
“Although a lot of my work on the mind has been rather abstract and philosophical, I'm interested in psychology and neuroscience and I don't think there are any principled distinctions between the kind of knowledge we get from science and the knowledge we get from philosophy.” ThinkingMindKindHas BeensPhilosophyPsychologyPhilosophicalAbstractDistinctionNeurosciencePrincipled Author:Tim Crane
“I do think that if you are trying to think empirically about the relationship between conscious experience and the underlying physical reality, wine provides an excellent practical example. Winemakers manipulate the chemicals they are dealing with in a way that is very sensitive to the kinds of effects it will have on the subjective experience of tasters - this is not an accident.” ThinkingTryingKindRealityConsciousWineExcellentSensitiveManipulate Author:Tim Crane
“Even if we ignore the 'non-theoretical' knowledge which we acquire through experience (such as the knowledge of what something tastes like) and concentrate on theoretical knowledge, there is no good reason to think that physics can literally give the theory of everything. Here I want to be really pedantic. Although everything may be subject to physical law, not everything can be explained or described in physical terms. Physics has literally nothing to say about society, morality and the mind, for example - but of course these are parts of 'everything'.” ThinkingGivingMindReasonTermMoralityPhysicsTheoretical Author:Tim Crane
“If I was going to sum up my approach to this whole mind issue, I would say this: the question is often formulated in a very bad way - for example, by posing the question in terms of stuff. It's better to start with the things we do know: for example, that there are people and other thinking creatures, who have mental capacities. Our next step should be to say something about these capacities.” PeopleThinkingMindTerm Author:Tim Crane
“We have no proper understanding of the relationship between conscious thought and conscious sensation. The various forms of thought and sensation are underpinned by very different neural mechanisms; so how can the neural correlate of their conscious natures be the same? I don't think we are yet in a position to make such speculations. To make progress, we have to have a good conception of the phenomenology of consciousness, among other things.” ThinkingDifferentUnderstandingConsciousnessProgressConsciousVariousSpeculation Author:Tim Crane
“I think you can have a science of the taste of chicken soup, or the taste of Chateau Latour. My point is only that knowing this science alone will not tell you what chicken soup or Chateau Latour tastes like.” Thinking Author:Tim Crane
“I do think that philosophy and science are very different intellectual enterprises, but that does not mean that when we get knowledge from philosophy it is a different kind of knowledge.” ThinkingKindMeanDifferentPhilosophyIntellectualEnterpriseDifferent Kinds Author:Tim Crane
“The thing I think I have learned from Wittgenstein is the importance of not making things up: philosophers should not invent problems, and they should also be conscious of the risk of inventing pointless 'technical' machinery which do not offer real explanations, but often just re-state the known facts in a more complex way.” ThinkingRealProblemRiskConsciousImportancePhilosopherExplanationI Have LearnedPointless Author:Tim Crane
“One odd thing about the current debate between religious people and atheists is that the participants don't seem to care that they entirely fail to communicate with the other side. They therefore have no account of why the religious or the atheists believe what they do, except that they are stupid or deluded. I think philosophers should try and make sense of their disputes with their opponents as far as possible without treating them as idiots. This applies to the religious participants in the debate as much as to the atheists.” PeopleThinkingTryingBelieveCareReligiousFailingStupidAtheistPhilosopherCommunicateDebateIdiotMake SenseOdd Author:Tim Crane
“Many people like to think that their moral or political enemies are not just wicked or wrong - as if that were not enough - but stupid or idiotic too. We tend to find this attitude too in the contemporary religion debate. It might console those on each side of the debate to think of their opponents in these terms, but if we want to make real progress in understanding what is going on here, this approach cannot help.” PeopleThinkingRealEnoughHelpingPoliticalUnderstandingTermAttitudeMoralEnemyProgressStupidDebateWickedIdiotic Author:Tim Crane
“I think we atheists should tolerate the religious not because their views are just as valid as ours, but because experience has shown that we are unlikely to convert them, and so we have to find some way to live in peace with them, even if we find their views false or otherwise objectionable.” ThinkingReligiousAtheistTolerate Author:Tim Crane
“I do not claim to have any developed or sophisticated views in political philosophy, but I think that one of the lessons of the last few hundred years of history is that the greatest threat to human prosperity and well-being is fanaticism and intolerance, even in the name of apparently laudable goals.” ThinkingPhilosophyPoliticalGoalThreatProsperityIntoleranceSophisticatedPolitical PhilosophyFanaticism Author:Tim Crane
“Science will always raise philosophical questions like, is any scientific theory or model correct? How do we know? Are unobserved things real? etc. and it seems to me of great importance that these questions are not just left to scientists, but that there are thinkers who make it their business to think as clearly and slowly about these questions as it is possible to. Great scientists do not always make the best philosophers.” ThinkingRealScientistImportancePhilosophicalPhilosopherThinkerGreat Scientist Author:Tim Crane
