What Is Consciousness? | TV-Talk with David Chalmers | Sternstunde Philosophie | SRF Kultur

He is a highly decorated Professor of Philosophy and sings in a rock band. He got top marks in his Maths degree and believes that the world is imbued with a soul of sorts. And he believes the question of consciousness is the most difficult problem in philosophy. Barbara Bleisch talks to David Chalmers.


We all have a wonderful film in our heads: A lot of things happen non-stop, there are colours, sounds and even smells and tastes, we can rewind and remember things and forward and plan things. And the best thing about it: we experience the film. But the question is: what does that actually mean? Is the I, who is experiencing the film, part of the film – or outside of it and something entirely different? Is our consciousness ultimately just an effect that's part of an amazing filming device, which we call our brain?

Physicalists do indeed believe that consciousness can be explained from a purely scientific perspective. The Australian philosopher David Chalmers has a different opinion. The question of consciousness remains unsolved in his eyes. Barbara Bleisch talks to one of the most creative philosophers of our times.

Bibliography:
👉 David J. Chalmers: The Character of Consciousness (Philosophy of Mind). Oxford University Press, 2010.
👉 David J. Chalmers (ed.): Philosophy of Mind. Classical and Contemporary Readings. Oxford University Press, 2002.

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Sternstunde Philosophie vom 30.06.2019
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[joebremmer]

Does David understand German or is this an editing trick?

[JustAbitCurious]

In the course of this discussion, have they even once tried to really define the term "consciousness"?
And why are they constantly jumping from one distantly related topic to the other? Yes, the capability to suffer should be part of the discussion. But to me, it really seems to be a core problem.

[backwardthoughts]

still no mention of shamata.
nor is there any reason to without a genuine instructor ie. essentially all remaining samadhi lineages died out completely in the 1950s.

[guusvanderwerf]

Both materialism and idealism are monistic paradigms. Changing a word does not change the paradigm.

[billshitypity]

Ich hätte gerne einen Beitrag über Martin Heideggers Sichtweise zur KI-Forschung und eine Diskussion darüber.

[chey_mz]

Wahnsinnig gutes Interview. Dennett ist zwar kontraintuitiv, aber auf dem richtigen Weg.

[edwardrussell]

Consciousness exists and this is what gives us 'I'. We have a free will and the power to make decisions. Read the book The Human Self and Allah by Parwez.