Max Velmans

Max Velmans (born May 27, 1942 ) is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London and has a personal chair at the University of London .

Velmans was chairman of the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology section of the British Psychological Society from 2003 to 2006 , which he helped found.

Velmans is the author of a variety of writings on the exploration of consciousness and the philosophy of mind . In doing so, he has developed an independent position that he calls "reflective monism ". The basis is the view that the world forms a unit at the lowest level of analysis or consists of a network of uniform entities . Velmans sees himself in the tradition of Spinoza , according to which the dualistic opposition of body and soul or mind and brain is to be dissolved into a doctrine of two aspects of a unified, natural phenomenon. In the course of evolution , an initially undifferentiated structure has become distinguishable physical things, some of which have developed the ability to have conscious experiences . This also includes people. Even if every conscious individual has his own perspective on his environment, he still remains integrated into the overall context of the universe and dependent on it. In this sense, the individual participates in the overall process of the world. In particular, Velmans discusses the paradox that from the third-person perspective, consciousness does not seem to contribute to the generation of information, while from the first-person perspective, it seems to be a necessary part of human action. For Velmans there is no scientific evidence that certain functions such as sight, hearing or other sensory experiences require the ability to speak and reasonably. This means that processes of consciousness are not only triggered spiritually, but experiences can also have their origin outside of consciousness. With this position Velmans turns not only against a dualism , but also against a reductionist naturalization of consciousness through a physicalism such as that represented by Francis Crick or Daniel Dennett , or against functionalism .

The view represented by Velmans shows in its process orientation closeness to the process philosophy as it was developed by Alfred North Whitehead .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Annotated list of the most important publications
2. ↑ Max Velmans: The Evolution of Consciousness. In: Michel Weber, Anderson Weekes (ed.): Process approaches to consciousness in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind. Sunny Press, New York 2009, pp. 261-272
3. ^ Max Velmans: Consciousness and the Physical World. In: Michel Weber: Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought. Volume 1, Ontos, Frankfurt 2009, pp. 371–382

Web links

• Max Velmans: Lecture The Unconscious Ground of Being , Cortona, Italy, 2009
• Max Velmans: Reflexive Monism (PDF; 494 kB)
• Max Velmans: Consciousness, Brain and the Physical World , Philosophical Psychology 3, (1), 1990, 77-99