The Hard Problem of Consciousness

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"The hard problem of consciousness is that what it's like to be something, right? So i can make a kind of a reasonable guess, based on how i think and feel. Some cognitive psychologists say the self is an illusion," he says. "Well, if it is, it's a great illusion. It's pretty powerful." 'I'm not claiming perfection but i'm not any kind of tecpher in this situation,' adds Dr James Randazza.

In recent decades, many philosophers and cognitive scientists have declared the problem of consciousness unsolvable, but Antonio Damasio is convinced that recent findings across multiple scientific disciplines have given us a way to understand consciousness and its significance for human life. In his latest work, Feeling & Knowing, Damasio helps us understand why being conscious is not the same as sensing, why nervous systems are essential for the development of feelings, and why feeling opens the way to consciousness writ large. He combines the latest discoveries in various sciences with philosophy and discusses his original research, which has transformed our understanding of the brain and human behavior.