Why do physicists suck at philosophy?

After listening to hours of physicists failing at philosophy and falling victim to basic logical falicies, I'm convinced there is some systemic sucking going on.

Over the past week or so I’ve been listening to physicists like Sean Carroll & Brian Greene argue with philosophers about consciousness. Time and time again they ignore all the thorough and mature philosophical arguments completely and just say, “We can explain what causes consciousness with physics.”

When the philosopher then says, “Yeah maybe, but you haven’t and you can’t even explain what causes photons and electrons to move or gravity to pull or any of the fundamental elements of the core theory of physics…” the physicist inevitably replies, “I just don’t see why we have to invent some magical thing to explain consciousness.”

Which brings us to the primary evidence that physicists suck at philosophy. Dualism, or the mind-body problem, is a very old and well established philosophical concept that is completely incompatible with physicalism/materialism. It says that mind and matter are completely separate things. And as Elisabeth, the Princess of Bohemia, had to point out to Descartes almost 400 years ago, if you propose that the mind and body are separate, you must also explain how they connect because they are undeniably connected. Most modern physicists, including Carroll and Greene, deny that they are separate while at the same time claiming that consciouness just appears out of physical processes… like magic…

Despite the philosophical incompatibility with physics and the well-established philosophical arguments against dualism, physicists like Carroll and Greene will still accidentally make the argument for dualism when they say that consciousness emerges as a separate property on top of physical matter when the conditions are just right for it. Then, again and again, when the philosopher patiently points out that they are saying they believe in dualism, they simply deny and deflect or change the subject.

I may have an idea of why so many physicists are so very bad at philosophy. I think there is something about the advanced study of physics that just fills their cup all the way to the tippy top so that there is no room for anything else. They are so full of it, or so it would seem, that they can’t even think well enough to do basic philosophy. This is the exact opposite of the modus operandi of a philosopher. Most philosophers will tell you that they have to empty their cup of all knowledge and preconceptions in order to think properly.

Physicists are so attached to, and rewarded for, what they know that they have never really needed training in pure, potent thinking. It probably doesn’t help that they are lofted to such heroic heights of knowledge and understanding by the press and popular culture as to be treated like scientific rock stars. Like their brains are the most valuable brains in the world because they filled them with words and formulas from books. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the value of brains is not in the knowledge they contain but the truth they can perceive and understand.

In conclusion, don’t listen to physicists about anything but physics, and even then you might want to find someone with experience in the philosophy of physics because they are much less likely to fall victim to logical fallacies like Mr. Carroll & Mr. Greene.