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Information about Hard Problem Of Consciousness

The term hard problem of consciousness, coined by David Chalmers[1], refers to the "hard problem" of explaining why we have qualitative phenomenal experiences. It is contrasted with the "easy problems" of explaining the ability to discriminate, integrate information, report mental states, focus attention, etc. Easy problems are easy because all that is required for their solution is to specify a mechanism that can perform the function. Hard problems are distinct from this set because they "persist even when the performance of all the relevant functions is explained".[2].

Various formulations of the "hard problem":
  • "Why should physical processing give rise to a rich inner life at all?"
  • "How is it that some organisms are subjects of experience?"
  • "Why does awareness of sensory information exist at all?"
  • "Why do qualia exist?"
  • "Why is there a subjective component to experience?"
  • "Why aren't we philosophical zombies?"
  • "What is it like to be a bat", or other conscious organism? (Thomas Nagel)
It has been argued that the Hard Problem has had other scholarly inquiries considerably earlier than Chalmers. For instance, Leibniz wrote:

“Moreover, it must be confessed that perception and that which depends upon it are inexplicable on mechanical grounds, that is to say, by means of figures and motions. And supposing there were a machine, so constructed as to think, feel, and have perception, it might be conceived as increased in size, while keeping the same proportions, so that one might go into it as into a mill. That being so, (we should, on examining its interior, find only parts which work one upon another, and never anything by which to explain a perception. [3]


And as Isaac Newton wrote in a letter to Henry Oldenburg: "to determine by what modes or actions light produceth in our minds the phantasm of colour is not so easie".[4]

Some philosophers, such as Daniel Dennett,[5] oppose the idea that there is a Hard problem.

References

1. ^ The Place of Mind, ed. Brian Cooney
2. ^ "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness", David Chalmers, Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (3), 1995, pp. 200-219, , Retrieved 2007-06-26.
3. ^ Leibniz, monadology, 17, quoted by Istvan Aranyosi
4. ^ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Panpsychism
5. ^ Commentary on Chalmers: Facing Backwards on the Problem of Consciousness by Daniel Dennett

See also

External links

David John Chalmers (born April 20, 1966) is a philosopher in the area of philosophy of mind. He is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University.
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Qualia" (IPA: [ˈkwɑːliə]) is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us"[1].
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A philosophical zombie or p-zombie is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, sentience, or sapience. When a zombie is poked with a sharp object, for example, it does not feel any pain.
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Thomas Nagel (born 1937) is an American philosopher, currently University Professor and Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. His main areas of philosophical interest are philosophy of mind, political philosophy, and ethics.
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Born July 1 (June 21 Old Style) 1646
Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony
Died November 14 1716
Hannover, Hanover
Nationality German
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Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton at 46 in
Godfrey Kneller's 1689 portrait
Born 4 January 1643(1643--) [OS: 25 December 1642]
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Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science.
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David John Chalmers (born April 20, 1966) is a philosopher in the area of philosophy of mind. He is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University.
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David John Chalmers (born April 20, 1966) is a philosopher in the area of philosophy of mind. He is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University.
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mind-body dichotomy is the view that "mental" phenomena are, in some respects, "non-physical" (distinct from the body). The mind-body dichotomy is the starting point of Dualism, and became conceptualized in the form is currently known in the Western world in René Descartes's
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Philosophy of mind is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body. The mind-body problem, i.e.
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Qualia" (IPA: [ˈkwɑːliə]) is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us"[1].
..... Click the link for more information.
Two dimensionalism is an explanatory approach in analytic philosophy. The term 'Two-dimensionalism' was first used by Robert Stalnaker. The characteristic feature of the two-dimensionalist approach is its appeal to two separately contributing accounts of a philosophical problem.
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Further information: quantum mind


"Consciousness causes collapse" is the name given to the claim that observation by a conscious observer is responsible for the wavefunction collapse in quantum mechanics.
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Jaron Zepel Lanier[1] (born May 3, 1960[2] in New York City) is a virtual reality developer. He was a pioneer in, and popularized the term "Virtual Reality" (VR) in the early 1980s [3].
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