Thoughts on the Scientific Study of Phenomenal Consciousness
Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice 8 (74-80) (2021)
Abstract
This Target paper is about the hard problem of phenomenal consciousness (i.e., how is subjective experience possible given the scientific presumption that everything from molecules to minerals to minds is wholly physical?). I first argue that one of the most valuable tools in the scientific arsenal (metaphor) cannot be recruited to address the hard problem due to the inability to forge connections between the stubborn fact of subjective experience and physically grounded models of scientific explanation. I then argue that adherence to the physicalist tenets of contemporary science has a limiting effect on a full appreciation of the phenomenon under discussion.Author's Profile
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Citations of this work
Quantification, Conceptual Reduction and Theoretical Under-determination in Psychological Science.Stan Klein - 2021 - Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice 8 (1):95-103.
The pragmatic use of metaphor in empirical psychology.Rami Gabriel - 2022 - History of the Human Sciences 35 (3-4):291-316.
References found in this work
The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory.David J. Chalmers - 1996 - Oxford University Press.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.Thomas Samuel Kuhn - 1962 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press.