Nova: Secrets of the Mind

Neuroscience Meets

the Philosophy of Mind

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Consciousness

The subjective character of experience. What it’s like to be something.

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Big Question of Consciousness

(Blakemore) Is consciousness a special added extra that we

conscious humans are lucky to have, or is it something that necessarily comes along with all those evolved skills of perceiving, thinking, and feeling? (Consciousness: A Brief Introduction, p. 11)

Chalmers: YES!Nagel: We can’t knowDennett: NO!

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The “Explanatory Gap”

Seems like something that materialism can’t capture (or explain)Chalmers: “neuroscience cannot provide a

full account of conscious experience”Easy Problem: “the objective mechanisms

of the cognitive system” (p. 81)Hard Problem: “the question of how

physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience.”

5The “Explanatory Gap”, con’tSeems like something that materialism

can’t capture (or explain)Nagel: Science is objective,

consciousness is subjective.Two completely different approaches, science

can’t appropriately study consciousness.We also have to expect that some facts will be

unknowable.

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Neuroscience

Collecting data on brainsDr. Ramachandran

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Our questions:

What can the data provided by Neuroscience show us about the mind/body problem?

What can neuroscience tell us about conscious experience?

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Re: Mind/Body Problem

Seems to: provide “clues about how certain

brain structures control fundamental thought processes”

Could this fill in the “explanatory gap”?

Indicate that what we think can affect the brain’s processing

Cf. phantom limbs and mirror box

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Re: Consciousness

Seems to show:that some elements of conscious

experience might be necessary for human interaction.Does this answer the “Big question”?Does this answer Chalmers’ “hard

problem”?Does it help with Nagel’s challenge?