Speaker
,Author
Galen Strawson
Professor of Philosophy at Reading and one of the UK’s leading public intellectuals, his original work on free will and the self has been widely influential.

Professor of Philosophy at Reading and one of the UK’s leading public intellectuals, his original work on free will and the self has been widely influential.
Galen Strawson Videos

Life Story
Making sense of the self

Beyond innocence and guilt
Is moral responsibility a mere illusion?

The Mind's Eye
Consciousness and the soul

The return of metaphysics
Should we return to grand stories about reality?
Galen Strawson Articles
More Videos

Minds, Machines and Magic
Is human creativity no more than mechanics?

Life Story
Making sense of the self

Story Time
Is objective news an illusion?

The Art of Life
Are biographies fiction?

Philosophy in the Bedroom
Exploring pain and pleasure

The Art of Imagination
Is art the ultimate arbiter of truth?

The Key to Creativity
Do restrictions breed inventiveness?

Imagining Reality
Can we create fantasy worlds?

Authenticity, Reality and Being
What is it to be real?

At the World's Edge
Fantasy, fiction, and desire

The Doubleness of Oscar Wilde
What's behind the gentlemanly facade?

The King's Will
Mystery and death in the House of Tudor

Strange New Worlds
A new vision of reality

A Spider in the Eye

Authenticity is a Con
The problem with 'truthful' politics

Canon Under Fire

Mirror, Mirror
Can plastic surgery make you more authentic?

Conditions for Creativity
Does censorship create great art?

Myths for Modernity
Fictions and fantasies in an age of reason

The Old Gods: England's Mythic Past

How to Rediscover Your Creativity
Why blue sky thinking is essential

Dark Satanic Mills
Do our landscapes determine our selves?

Taking Humour Seriously
Is humour an essential form of subversion?

Imagining the Truth
Can fantasy reveal reality?

Killer Stories
Why do we fall for narratives?

The Arc of Life: Michael Morpurgo
How reading cultivates empathy

In the Moment

The Fantasy of Technology
Is technology the driver of progress?

The Great Escape
Is fantasy fiction a dangerous crutch?

Visions of Apocalypse
Is the end always nigh?

A Field Guide to Reality
Overcoming the tyranny of realism in literature

Death of the Hero
Icons for a new era

Verses for Eternity

The Mirror to Nature
The wonder of the wild vs. our imagination

Writing the End Times

Tales of an Extravagant Stranger

Austen vs Woolf
The female fantasy

Poetry and the Transmission of Errors
The poetical errors that matter

Uncharted Territory

Lust, Love and the Late Madame Picasso
Seduction, suicide and a courtcase. Godfrey Barker sheds light on Picasso’s final years.

Irony, Truth and Reality
Confronting the limits of sincerity

Our Hopeless Future & Other Comedy

Shooting Truth

The Mara Crossing

Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
Does Shakespeare’s mystery and magic resonate in a rational age?

Rhyme and Punishment
Art for prisons

Dangerous Virtues
When enticing stories sell shady truths

Order out of Chaos

Based on a true story
Is an objective story of the past possible?

How to learn from history
Learning the lessons from our past
More Articles

Me, myself and others

Knowing what to believe
Free will: an impossible reality

What physicists get wrong about consciousness

The brain doesn't create consciousness

Are you responsible for your unconscious self?

The Dangers of Musk’s Neuralink

Consciousness is the collapse of the wave function

Free will or no free will, punishment is justified

The impotence of reason

Schrödinger and the conscious universe

Why panpsychism is baloney

Imagination, consciousness and animal dreams

The free will debate has real-world consequences

Denis Noble: Free will is not an illusion

Consciousness may not require a brain

Big tech doesn’t want AI to become conscious

Pinker on the power of irrationality

Future AI in the therapist's chair

When are intuitions a good guide to reality?

Nietzsche: ignorance sets us free

Why Steven Pinker is wrong about rationality

Consciousness begins with feeling, not thinking

The absurdity of mind as machine

Is rationality a fiction?

Brain noise doesn't explain consciousness

David Nutt: entropy explains consciousness

Bias doesn't always undermine truth

Brain vs Heart: a false dichotomy

Free will is an invention