Facing up to the problem of consciousness

Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (3):200-19 (1995)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

To make progress on the problem of consciousness, we have to confront it directly. In this paper, I first isolate the truly hard part of the problem, separating it from more tractable parts and giving an account of why it is so difficult to explain. I critique some recent work that uses reductive methods to address consciousness, and argue that such methods inevitably fail to come to grips with the hardest part of the problem. Once this failure is recognized, the door to further progress is opened. In the second half of the paper, I argue that if we move to a new kind of nonreductive explanation, a naturalistic account of consciousness can be given. I put forward my own candidate for such an account: a nonreductive theory based on principles of structural coherence and organizational invariance, and a double-aspect theory of information

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Giving up on the hard problem of consciousness.Eugene Mills - 1996 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 3 (1):26-32.
Moving forward on the problem of consciousness.David Chalmers - 1997 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 4 (1):3-46.
Evolutionary explanation and the hard problem of consciousness.Steven Horst - 1999 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 6 (1):39-48.
A Neurofunctional Theory of Consciousness.Jesse J. Prinz - 2005 - In Andrew Brook & Kathleen Akins (eds.), Cognition and the Brain: The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement. Cambridge University Press. pp. 381-396.
There is no hard problem of consciousness.Kieron O'Hara & Tom Scutt - 1996 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 3 (4):290-302.
Binding and the phenomenal unity of consciousness.Antti Revonsuo - 1999 - Consciousness and Cognition 8 (2):173-85.
Facing backwards on the problem of consciousness.Daniel C. Dennett - 1996 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 3 (1):4-6.
The hardness of the hard problem.William S. Robinson - 1996 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 3 (1):14-25.
The problems of consciousness.David J. Chalmers - 1998 - In H. Jasper, L. Descarries, V. Castellucci & S. Rossignol (eds.), Consciousness: At the Frontiers of Neuroscience. Lippincott-Raven. pp. 29-59.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
4,211 (#1,301)

6 months
372 (#4,261)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

David Chalmers
New York University

Citations of this work

Consciousness and its place in nature.David Chalmers - 2003 - In Stephen P. Stich & Ted A. Warfield (eds.), Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Mind. Blackwell. pp. 102--142.
Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.David John Chalmers (ed.) - 2002 - New York: Oxford University Press USA.
Grounding: necessary or contingent?Kelly Trogdon - 2013 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 94 (4):465-485.
Panpsychism.William E. Seager, Philip Goff & Sean Allen-Hermanson - 2022 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

View all 648 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

What is it like to be a bat?Thomas Nagel - 1974 - Philosophical Review 83 (October):435-50.
Minds, brains, and programs.John Searle - 1980 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3 (3):417-57.
On a confusion about a function of consciousness.Ned Block - 1995 - Brain and Behavioral Sciences 18 (2):227-–247.

View all 75 references / Add more references