Consciousness

Question 1

What is consciousness?

Answer 1

When one is in a conscious mental state, ‘there’s something it it like’ for one to be in that mental state.
Cf. bat is conscious if it’s able to experience world through its echo-locatory senses.

Question 2

What is the materialist conception of consciousness?

Answer 2

Conscious mentality explained in terms of the physical.

Question 3

What is the knowledge argument against consciousness?

Answer 3

Assume all physical facts known about some conscious experience. But not all is known about mind. Missing knowledge non-physical. 
Cf. what's it like to be a bat. 
Cf. Mary's room. 
Rep: imagine. 
Obj: authors. 

Rep: learns same fact dif. way.

Question 4

What’s the hard problem of consciousness?

Answer 4

Problem of explaining how or why we have qualitative or phenomenal experiences.

Question 5

What is Chalmers’ formulation of hard problem?

Answer 5

How is it that systems are subjects of experience? How can we explain why there is something it is like to entertain a mental image?
Contrasts hard problem with easy problems (reportability, attention, wakefulness/sleep).

1. Immediacy, 2. Independence, 3. Indescribability.

Question 6

Outline two responses to hard problem of consciousness.

Answer 6

1. Consciousness fundamental (panexperientialism). Described using non-physical terms.
   Rep: Occam’s Razor.
   Rep: difficult to explain.
2. Deflationary account. Hard overcome by solving easy problems.
   Rep: ignores subjective.
   Obj: subjective nonexistent.