Slugfester

Philip Goff

Philip Goff's Slugfester profile includes score averages, opponents faced, topic performance, and linked debate scorecards.

Background

About Philip Goff

Philip Goff is a philosopher and author whose work centers on consciousness. He defends panpsychism, the view that consciousness is a basic feature of reality, and explores alternatives to standard physical explanations of experience.

Biographical source ↗

Published debate record

5 eligible one-on-one scorecards. Average published score: 81.6/100. Scores describe these debates, not the person's overall ability or worth.

Philip Goff vs Sean Carroll: Is Consciousness Fundamental? · 2023

Goff defended consciousness-first metaphysics from private experience and explanatory gaps; Carroll answered through multilevel emergence, empirical constraints, and comparative challenges.

Philip Goff: 84 · Sean Carroll: 84. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.

Sharon Dirckx vs Philip Goff: Does Consciousness Point to God? · 2019

Dirckx argues consciousness fits a divine personal ground, while Goff presents panpsychism as a parsimonious alternative and challenges the specifically theistic inference.

Sharon Dirckx: 79 · Philip Goff: 81. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.

Philip Goff vs Graham Oppy: Is Finite Theism Preferable to Naturalism? · 2026

Goff’s finite God unifies purposive value and suffering through limited power; Oppy’s naturalism counters with simplicity, modal uncertainty, and evolutionary explanation, producing a tie.

Philip Goff: 79 · Graham Oppy: 79. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.

Richard Swinburne vs Philip Goff: What Best Explains Cosmic Purpose? · 2023

Goff wins by separating cosmic purpose from omnipotence and fitting suffering better, while Swinburne offers substantial design, freedom, compensation, and simplicity defenses.

Richard Swinburne: 76 · Philip Goff: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.

Philip Goff vs Joe Folley: Consciousness, Mystical Experience, and Fine-Tuning · 2026

Goff offers a unified consciousness-based worldview; Folley’s targeted challenges to extrapolation, mystical warrant, and cosmic probability produce the stronger overall evidential case.

Philip Goff: 81 · Joe Folley: 86. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.

Team and other excluded appearances

These records do not contribute to individual averages.

Rowan Williams, Philip Goff, Elizabeth Oldfield, and Alex O'Connor: Between God and Atheism · 2024

Williams, Goff, and Oldfield defend traditional, revised, and experiential Christianity; O'Connor presses fine-tuning limits, suffering, Gnosticism, and purpose.

Rowan Williams, Philip Goff, and Elizabeth Oldfield: 80 · Alex O'Connor, with Jack Symes moderating: 82. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.

William Lane Craig, Jessica Frazier, Philip Goff, and Joe Folley: Did God Create Reality? · 2026

Craig defends classical Christian theism as the best explanation of reality and objective meaning; Frazier, Goff, and Folley press Hindu, mystical, and agnostic alternatives that complicate God, value, experience, and morality.

William Lane Craig: 80 · Jessica Frazier, Philip Goff, and Joe Folley: 82. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.