1. The Hard Problem of consciousness, as compared with 'easier' problems, is a term famously coined by philosopher David Chalmers in the mid 1990s. The hard problem of consciousness has two roots: an outdated philosophy of science, and a deep (but not insuperable) limitation in our own ability to understand the roots of our experiences. experience. Having identified these, neuroscientists must fix those shortcomings. Figure Viewer; Download Figures (PPT) Save. If you look at the brain from the outside you see this extraordinary machine – an organ consisting of 84 billion neurons that fire in synchrony with each other. Introduction: The Hard Problem of Consciousness. If neural state N is the neural basis of the sensation of red, why is N the basis of that experience rather than some other experience or none at all? According to this idea, even if cognitive sciences can explain how the brain works, it is very unlikely that it will explain why the brain has subjective experiences. hard problem of consciousness in a completely new light. The hard problems are those that seem to resist those methods. The Hard Problem of Consciousness Torin Alter, talter@ua.edu [An abridged version of this will appear in the Oxford Companion to Consciousness, edited by Tim Bayne, Axel Cleeremans and Patrick Wilken] 1. PDF [105 KB] Download PDF [105 KB] Figures. The hard problem of consciousness is the problem of explaining how and why we have qualia or phenomenal experiences — how sensations acquire characteristics such as colors and tastes [4]. Commander Data’s functional equivalence to us guar-, antees that he has an internal space that is functionally equivalent to our phenomenal, space. 29 - 59 but there is also a subjective aspect. _ Compare to Chalmers: how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience? What it is basically saying is, how can a combination of body and mind generates a first person experience. The meta-problem of consciousness is in principle one of the easy problems, but it bears a special relation to the hard problem, which suggests that finding a solution to it could shed light on the hard problem itself. Add To Online Library Powered By Mendeley; Add To My Reading List; Export Citation ; Create Citation Alert; Share. \the hard problem" of consciousness and which has pre-occupied philosophers throughout the ages (see [5] and references therein). Our computational approach is driven by the enormous So the hard problem is an example of a well known type of philosophical problem … (Moscow, June 2016) ★The Virtual and the Real. 4 is subjective aspect is experience. The easy problems are easy precisely because they concern the explanation of cognitive abilities and functions. We can say that a being is conscious in this sense – or is phenomenally conscious, as it is sometimes put—when there is something it is like to be that being. Once we have specified the neural or computational mechanism that performs the function of verbal report, for example, the bulk of our work in explaining reportability is over. ‘Naturalistic Dualism’, Chapter 4 from his The Conscious Mind: In Search of a This issue try to look at how can a physical being generate a subjective experience. 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