Why Can’t the World’s Greatest Minds Solve the Mystery of Consciousness?

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Can’t the World’s Greatest Minds Solve the Mystery of Consciousness?
Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, 2019/01/28
This is generally a good article providing an overview of the contribution of David Chalmers to the consciousness debate. I like the way Chalmers frames the question as "the hard problem". Consciousness is not the sort of thing we can understand by understanding the physical mechanisms that produce it, it seems. But I disagree with the artticle's suggestion that the debate has only recently emerged. The problem of consciousness periodically produces some of the best work in philosophy, such as Thomas Nagel's What is it Like to be a Bat? For those interested in my own position on consciousness, you can always read my paper on the subject here. More...