Tag Archives: Philosophy

What about subjective experience implies anything non-physical?

Posted on March 9, 2017 by

Mary’s room is a classic philosophical thought experiment about consciousness.  The Wikipedia article on what’s called the knowledge argument quotes Frank Jackson, the originator of the argument, as follows: Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced … Continue reading →

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What do scientific theories actually tell us about the world?

Posted on February 9, 2017 by

One of the things that’s exciting about learning new things, is that often a new understanding in one area sheds light on what might seem like a completely separate topic.  For me, information about how the brain works appears to have shed … Continue reading →

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A possible answer to the hard problem of consciousness: subjective experience is communication

Posted on December 19, 2016 by

In 1995, David Chalmers coined the “hard problem of consciousness”: It is undeniable that some organisms are subjects of experience. But the question of how it is that these systems are subjects of experience is perplexing. Why is it that … Continue reading →

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The illusion of phenomenal consciousness?

Posted on December 12, 2016 by

Philosopher Peter Hankins at Conscious Entities has a write-up on the November 12 issue of the JCS (Journal of Consciousness Studies) in which philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists such as Keith Frankish, Daniel Dennett, Susan Blackmore, and Michael Graziano, debate whether it makes … Continue reading →

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Is consciousness a simulation engine, a prediction machine?

Posted on December 4, 2016 by

Back in September (which now seems like a million years ago), I did a series of posts on consciousness inspired by Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt’s recent book, ‘The Ancient Origins of Consciousness: How the Brain Created Experience‘.  In that series, … Continue reading →

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The problems with philosophical zombies

Posted on October 3, 2016 by

In any online conversation about consciousness, sooner or later someone is going to bring up philosophical zombies as an argument for consciousness being non-physical, or at least some portion of it.  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy introduces the p-zombie concept as follows: … Continue reading →

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The range of conscious systems and the hard problem

Posted on September 21, 2016 by

This is the fifth and final post in a series inspired by Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt’s new book, ‘The Ancient Origins of Consciousness: How the Brain Created Experience‘.  The previous posts were: What counts as consciousness? Predators and the … Continue reading →

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