Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content

Making Sense of Consciousness

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Dec 15, 2022

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David Chalmers, a philosopher known for the 'hard problem' of consciousness, starts the discussion by questioning the nature of subjective experiences. Thomas Metzinger critiques the concept of philosophical zombies, while Anil Seth offers a scientific approach to the 'easy problems' of consciousness. Iain McGilchrist discusses insights from split-brain research, revealing how different brain hemispheres influence identity. Finally, the group touches on panpsychism and the evolutionary significance of consciousness, challenging traditional views and exploring new theories.

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INSIGHT

Consciousness As Undeniable First-Person Fact

Consciousness is the undeniable presence of subjective experience that cannot coherently be called an illusion.
Even if perceptions are false, the fact of there being something it is like remains the only self-evident truth.

INSIGHT

The Hard Problem vs Easy Problems

The 'hard problem' distinguishes functional explanations from the question of why processing gives rise to experience.
Correlating neural mechanisms (the easy problems) doesn't explain why any processing feels like anything from the inside.

ANECDOTE

Assembling A Clone Reveals The Puzzle

Building a perfect physical copy of you raises three intuitions: gradual emergence, an on/off 'flicker', or no consciousness at all (a zombie).
That imagined assembly frames questions about where consciousness could come from in physical parts.

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Filmmaker Jay Shapiro has produced a new series of audio documentaries, exploring the major topics that Sam has focused on over the course of his career.

Each episode weaves together original analysis, critical perspective, and novel thought experiments with some of the most compelling exchanges from the Making Sense archive. Whether you are new to a particular topic, or think you have your mind made up about it, we think you’ll find this series fascinating.

And make sure to stick around for the end of each episode, where we provide our list of recommendations from the worlds of film, television, literature, music, and art.

In this episode, we survey the landscape of consciousness and get acquainted with the mystery of the mind. We start with an attempt to define consciousness–and veterans of conversations on consciousness will know that this is a huge part of the challenge.

David Chalmers begins with his conception of what he coined “The Hard Problem of Consciousness” and a famous question offered by the philosopher Thomas Nagel.

We then construct a “Philosophical Zombie” before the philosopher Thomas Metzinger explains why he is thoroughly unimpressed by the ability to imagine “such a thing,” while he simultaneously warns us against ever attempting to build one. Anil Seth brings some hope of whittling away the intuition gap of the hard problem by pursuing the “easy” problems, with clear scientific reasoning.

Later, Iain McGilchrist lays out the intuition-shattering implications of the famous Roger Sperry experiments with split brain patients that suggest that consciousness can be cut with a knife… at least temporarily. Annaka Harris then shifts the conversation to the realm of panpsychism, which suggests that consciousness is nomologically fundamental and potentially permeates all matter.

Finally, Don Hoffman explains that consciousness is not only fundamental and non-illusory, but that the physical world we appear to be navigating is merely a virtual space-time interface, which has evolved to hide the true nature of reality from us.