McGinn, Colin

Colin is a British philosopher of mind who is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami. He is known as a New Mysterian, the theory that human consciousness can never be explained because, as he believes, the mind is fundamentally incapable of comprehending itself fully. Eschewing all manner of nonphysical and theological explanations, Colin has made the bold conjecture that since the consciousness of our minds is nonspatial, and since whatever was “before” the Big Bang origin of the universe was also nonspatial (since space and time did not yet exist), perhaps the two are related in some deeply profound manner. If so, consciousness may be the only probe we have of what it was that gave rise to the Big Bang and the origin of the universe. His books include The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds In A Material World and The Making Of A Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy. In the former, he argues that humans can still take solace in the inexplicable mystery of consciousness because, by acknowledging our limitations, we are then free to explore other areas of human intelligence that are open to our understanding.