The Conscious Mind (1996)

Written on September 22nd , 2023 by James

Author: David Chalmers

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

I wanted to complete this book because if it’s importance in the recent decades in the science and philosophy of consciousness, but it was too hard going. The first few chapters were good. But it got too heavy beyond that.

Chalmers is best known for formulating the theory of the “hard problem” of consciousness.

The “easy” problems of understanding consciousness, despite their complexity, concern the functional and behavioral aspects of consciousness, such as how the brain processes stimuli or controls behavior. These problems, in theory, can be addressed with our current scientific methodologies.

In contrast, the “hard” problem of consciousness pertains to the question of why and how we have subjective experiences or qualia. That is, why do certain processes in the brain feel like something? Why is there an inner, subjective aspect to our experiences? Chalmers argues that even if we were to fully understand the brain’s mechanisms, we would still lack an explanation for the emergence of subjective experience. This gap suggests, to Chalmers, that there might be fundamental aspects about consciousness that our current scientific framework cannot capture.