“When I was younger, I thought that you could think your way to an understanding of the universe. As I get older, I am more convinced that all of the interesting stuff happens in engagement with the world.”

Neuroscientist Dr Rishidev Chaudhuri shares his trajectory from studying physics with a platonic idealistic philosophy, to studying biology with a pragmatist philosophy. Unlike physics, there is no fundamental theory of how brains work, and everything’s messier. In this context, we ask: what is meant by a useful theory in science? We then discuss our views on the hard problem: how consciousness arises in the material world.