David Chalmers - What is Consciousness?

Consciousness is what we can know best and explain least. It is the inner subjective experience of what it feels like to see red or smell garlic or hear Beethoven. Consciousness has intrigued and baffled philosophers. To begin, we must define and describe consciousness. What to include in a complete definition and description of consciousness?



David Chalmers is an Australian philosopher specializing in the area of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. He is Professor of Philosophy and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at New York University.


Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[DavidMaurand]

can't believe how good the audio is in that wind!

[peterellis]

Mr. Chalmers is spot on. The question for me is: What is the root cause that ties and bundles together our separate experiences (seeing, hearing, thinking, feeling, etc.) into s single experience, which we call consciousness?

[JohnDoe-nvop]

Philosophers are just words. A maze office words to nowhere. This guy's has no idea about what is conscience (like the rest of us).

[Dion_Mustard]

As someone who has experienced what is termed an "out of body experience", as well as different levels of awareness during meditation and sleep state, I have come to the conclusion that consciousness is a sort of energy field which cannot be destroyed and which changes in ways we don't understand and which becomes "non-local" during certain situations, namely panic, or a meditative state, or indeed cardiac arrest.

[jamenta]

Very interesting discussion. The subject of multiple personality or "split personalities" is particularly interesting - as it being fairly unusual, a type of borderline case when it comes to consciousness, can also provide unusual clues that can lead to a greater understanding of "What is Consciousness?"

Frederic Myers (1843-1901) and his academic colleagues wrote about the scientific research in this area of consciousness, in chapter two "Disintegrations of Personality", in his book "Human Personality" (which is the title he wanted, not the posthumuous title assigned to it) he wrote: "I have already indicated my general view of the nature of human personality. I regard each man as at once profoundly unitary and almost infinitely composite ..."

The chapter then goes into some detail on different symptoms of "disintegrated personality" including citing Dr. Pierre Janet's "L'Etat Mental des Hysteriques" (Paris, 1893). The chapter also discusses the case of Miss Lucy R. - cases that Drs. Beuer and Freud elucidated in "Studien uber Hysterie, Leipsig, 1895.

Needless to say, there has been a good amount of scientific study regarding cases of hysteria (or disintegration of personality) and in my opinion, the best theoretical underpinnings (so far) explaining these breakdowns (and the unity of consciousness itself) was originally provided by Frederic Myers, and then expanded upon by Freud and Carl Jung.

[ganymede]

Sorry not to be philosophical, but I was astounded at the clarity of audio given they're on a windy mountaintop. How did you record this?

[maxwellsimoes]

Lack true evidence standard. Guys rejects any honest concepts about minds on consciencess. He dont knows how conscieness proceedings in a brains.

[kafiruddinmulhiddeen]

Nothing new here. Adi Shankara articulated this via his terminology of aparoksha (non-personal citta or consciousness) and paroksha (illusory, sensory, self)

[johnrainmcmanus]

Consciousness is NOT experience. You are conscious OF experience. You canNOT be conscious of CONSCIOUSNESS. It is like LIGHT. We can see things that are ILLUMINATED. But we don't actually see the LIGHT. Just so with CONSCIOUSNESS. Consciousness brings experience to LIGHT. Anyone out there? Jesus.

[Spirit_sunya]

Experiences through 'conscious subjects'!! Reminds me of 'conscious agents' mentioned by Nassim Haramein. Chalmers stayed to his experiential realty instead expecting a logical reason!! Respects!!

[coinking]

Consciousness should only be read in ones understanding about God and how that empowers everything else eventually leading to oneness with the UNIVERSE.

[adamwilks]

I always wonder about people who are blind or deaf?! Also those who lose a sense, does their consciousness evolve or change in some way? Interesting video.

[MoneySavingVideos]

It is not surprising we don't know how the brain makes us conscience when we don't even know how the brain adds two plus two.

[fullyawakened]

Chalmer's wrongly dismissed nonunified consciousness saying it was possible but then there is no feeling of "it is like something to be me". Makes absolutely no sense nor does it logically follow. If consciousness were nonunified, first, you wouldn't know it because you are only conscious of what you are conscious of, and second, it would feel exactly the way you do now which is that your attention is focused on one thing at a time that you can quickly switch between. what ground does he stand on here?

[jamesruscheinski]

fundamental causation of physical nature is matched by emergent causation in human being / mind, both having unity from causation (subjective?)

[jamesruscheinski]

does fundamental consciousness have a kind of entanglement with physical nature (maybe through quantum?), and does emergent consciousness have kind of entanglement with human being / mind? both conscious nature and conscious human from causation?

[WE_R_DNA]

Just as every pattern in nature, consciousness is on a spectrum all dependent on the function and capability of a brain.

[jamesruscheinski]

consciousness experiences causation of physical nature, could consciousness come from or be caused by causation, as physical nature is?

[jamesruscheinski]

causation has subjective unity which consciousness, as well as physical nature, is part of?

[francesco]

After all Chalmers idea of consciousness is the one that seems more logic to me. Even if i see a very deep spiritual under-layer.