# #118 Professor Daniel McShea - Exploring the Nature of Consciousness & Field Theory

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/awonderjunkie-6912885/118-professor-daniel-mcshea-exploring-the-nature-of-consciousness-field-theory.md
Podcast: [AWONDERJUNKIE](https://stenobird.com/podcast/awonderjunkie-6912885)
Published: 2026-01-29T08:06:00+00:00
Episode link: https://awonderjunkie.podbean.com/e/118-professor-daniel-mcshea-exploring-the-nature-of-consciousness-field-theory/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/ur292ce35ndp7pvv/riverside_daniel_mcshea_jan_26_2026_001_ryan_anderson_s_stubtu7v.mp3
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Duration seconds: 3651

## Resource

Professor Daniel McShea discusses his journey from paleobiology to philosophy, focusing on the nature of consciousness, goal-directedness, and the interplay between biology and philosophy. He introduces his theory of goal-directed systems, emphasizing the role of fields in guiding behavior across various organisms, including humans. The discussion explores the implications of this theory for understanding human desires, decision-making, and the influence of culture and language on cognition. McShea also addresses critiques of his ideas and shares insights on the importance of recognizing the continuity of life and the interconnectedness of all beings. He concludes with reflections on the nature of consciousness and the significance of acknowledging our passions in decision-making. Professor Daniel McShea’s interest is hierarchy theory, especially the causal relationship between higher-level wholes and their components (Spencer, Simon, Campbell, Salthe, Wimsatt). In biology, for example, we might want to know how large-scale processes within a multicellular organism act to control the smaller-scale processes within its component cells. Or, in the area of his current research, how do the emotions in mammals (and perhaps other animals) act to initiate and control conscious thought and behavior? It seems clear from the philosophical work of Hume (A Treatise of Human Nature) that the preferencing or valuing that motivates or drives conscious thought and behavior, and in particular conscious decision-making, must arise from the emotions. This is true because the only alternative, reason (in the sense of pure rationality), is value-neutral, and utterly incapable of motivating anything. As Hume put it, ”Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions and can never pretend…

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