The Philosophy Sharing Foundation annual conference will be held on Friday, March 1 at 6pm at the Excelsior Hotel, Floriana.

British philosopher Stephen Law will be talking on ‘Philosophy of mind: Can physicalism be true?’

Dr Law obtained a doctorate in philosophy from The Queen’s College, Oxford. He was a former lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London having just retired recently.

He is at present an Honorary Research Fellow in Philosophy at Roehampton and the editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal Think.

Dr Law has published several books and academic papers on a variety of topics that include Wittingstein, modality, philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion.

The lecture will delve into the fact that many people believe that thoughts, feelings, sensations and memories are located in the brain and that science will one day reveal our brain states and processes – just as lightning has been found to be an electric discharge. Everyone seems to acknowledge that thoughts and brain processes happen at the same time and are therefore casually related.

But there’s another school of thought that intuitively points to the existence of a separate phenomenon known as the mind which resides outside the physical realm of the brain. And what goes in the mind must be something non-physical. Such people argue that thoughts and feelings are not the same thing as the brain, even though there is a casual relation between them.

So in essence, are minds and brains two separate identities? Or are they one and the same thing when the conceptual obstacle to their separate state is removed?

Dr Law will argue in his lecture that this is a philosophical problem not a scientific one, and it will thus require philosophical methods to be solved.

The event is open to the public free of charge. To register, send an e-mail to philosophysharingmalta@gmail.com. Registration deadline is today. For more information, visit www.philosophysharing.org.