What are the easy and hard problems of consciousness?

The easy problems of consciousness are those that seem directly susceptible to the standard methods of cognitive science, whereby a phenomenon is explained in terms of computational or neural mechanisms. The hard problems are those that seem to resist those methods.

Why is the hard problem of consciousness hard?

This indicates that a physical explanation of consciousness is fundamentally incomplete: it leaves out what it is like to be the subject, for the subject. There seems to be an unbridgeable explanatory gap between the physical world and consciousness. All these factors make the hard problem hard.

What is the hard problem of matter?

The hard problem of matter arises for any structural description of reality no matter how clear and intuitive at the structural level. Like the hard problem of consciousness, the hard problem of matter cannot be solved by experiment and observation or by gathering more physical detail.

What is Chalmers solution to the hard problem of consciousness?

He also adds the premise that what cannot be physically explained is not itself physical (Chalmers, 2003). Therefore he is convinced that the only solution to the hard problem is to endorse some sort of ontological dualism, most preferably a form of property dualism.

What is the hard problem of consciousness according to David Chalmers quizlet?

The hard problem was coined by David Chalmers as a means of understanding if brain processes can be accompanied by an experience inner life, and whether there is a subjective experience attached to that of consciousness. What is it like to be a bat?

Who invented the hard problem of consciousness?

David Chalmers
1. The hard question is not the hard problem. David Chalmers (‘Facing up to the hard problem of consciousness’ [1]) focused the attention of people researching consciousness by drawing a distinction between the ‘easy’ problems of consciousness, and what he memorably dubbed the hard problem.

Why can’t science solve the problem of consciousness?

In a nutshell, science has largely been unable to solve this problem because matter can be seen with the eyes, but consciousness can’t. It’s an internal experience. Physics, which many would assume should be able to solve this problem, tells us nothing about the intrinsic nature of matter: what matter is, in and of itself.

Is there a reductive explanation for consciousness?

Chalmers contends that such reductive explanations are available in principle for all other natural phenomena, but not for consciousness. This is the hard problem. The reason that reductive explanation fails for consciousness, according to Chalmers, is that it cannot be functionally analyzed.

How do you get to pure consciousness?

By deep meditation. It’s the only way to calm the senses, still the body, still the mind, and your thoughts. Once you do that (that is a herculean task in itself), then you can experience pure consciousness.

Is consciousness a physical phenomenon?

And even though we may have good reason to believe that consciousness is a physical phenomenon (due to considerations of mental causation, the success of materialist science, and so on), we are left in the dark about the bat’s conscious experience. This is the hard problem of consciousness.