Our guest on this episode is Professor Michel Bitbol. Michel is currently Directeur de Recherche Emeritus at the CNRS / École Normale Supérieure, in Paris, based at the Archives Husserl—a center of research in Phenomenology. His career, which spans the fields of medical science, quantum physics, and philosophy of mind, had its origins in a very simple childhood desire to know, in his words, “the secrets of the universe.”

While he knew that was quite an ambitious goal, he also believed it was one he could achieve through studying multiple fields of science. But along the way, there was one basic question that became harder and harder to ignore: What role does consciousness play in scientific research?

In pursuit of this question, Michel found great solace in the work of Edmund Husserl and the field of phenomenology. Th ...