Continuing on Ned Block's “Troubles with Functionalism” (1978) and David Chalmers’s “Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia” (1995). What would it be like to be halfway between person and machine? If you think the machine can't have consciousness, then Chalmers thinks that there's no sensible way to describe such an experience, ergo the machine (if functionally Continue Reading …
Ep. 222: Debating Functionalism (Block, Chalmers) (Part One)
On Ned Block's “Troubles with Functionalism” (1978) and David Chalmers’s “Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia” (1995). If mental states are functional states, there couldn't be zombies, i.e., something functionally equivalent to you but which yet doesn't have qualia (a sense of "what it's like" to be you... an inner life). Yet Block claims that there could be such Continue Reading …
Ep. 222: Debating Functionalism (Block, Chalmers) (Citizen Edition)
On Ned Block's “Troubles with Functionalism” (1978) and David Chalmers’s “Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia” (1995). If mental states are functional states, there couldn't be zombies, i.e., something functionally equivalent to you but which yet doesn't have qualia (a sense of "what it's like" to be you… an inner life). Yet Block claims that there could be such Continue Reading …
Ep. 218: The Hard Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers, et al) (Part Two)
Continuing on "Consciousness and Its Place in Nature" by David Chalmers (2003). We finish Chalmers's account of the types of physicialism, then move on to dualism (including epiphenomenalism), and finally dally with panpsychism, the specialty of our guest, Gregory Miller from the Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast. Listen to part 1 first or listen to the unbroken, ad-free Continue Reading …
Ep. 218: The Hard Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers, et al) (Part One)
On "Consciousness and Its Place in Nature" by David Chalmers (2003), with special guest Gregory Miller from the Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast. Can we explain human experience using the terms of brain physiology? Well, it depends what you mean by "explain." Our experience has a qualitative character: the feeling of red, the smell of methane, the feel of a cat's scratchy Continue Reading …
Is Facebook Part of Your Mind?
In 1998, philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers published what would become one of the most important papers in the contemporary philosophy of mind. They argued that the mind extends far beyond the boundaries of the skull and that our social and technological environments often play large roles in our everyday cognitive functions—so much so that: If, as we confront some Continue Reading …
What Is It Like to Be Ourselves? A Debate on Consciousness and the Mind
“Consciousness is that annoying thing that happens between naps.” This is how world-renowned philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers defines the quintessentially human state in this debate, although his facetiousness is quite easy to detect: Chalmers famously formulated the “hard problem of consciousness” and built an immensely successful career around it. His Continue Reading …
Apoplectic About Outsourcing Apps
When the Partially Examined Life discussion of human enhancement (Episode 91) turned to the topic of digital technology, the philosophical oxygen was sucked out of the room. Sure, folks conceded that philosopher of mind Andy Clark (not mentioned by name, but implicitly referenced) has interesting things to say about how technology upgrades our cognitive abilities and extends Continue Reading …
Scrutability: The PPT
If you don't know what the acronym "PPT" means, consider yourself lucky that you have avoided a work or social context where doing presentations is required. If you are like me, the power of those three letters to inspire dread is almost unparalleled. The phrase 'Can you put together some slides...' evokes panic, fear and nausea made worse only when accompanied Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Ep. 68: Guest David Chalmers on the Scrutability of the World
This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
Episode 68: David Chalmers Interview on the Scrutability of the World (Citizens Only)
On his book Constructing the World (2012). How are all the various truths about the world related to each other? David Chalmers, famous for advocating a scientifically respectable form of brain-consciousness dualism, advocates a framework of scrutability: if one knew some set of base truths, then the rest would be knowable from them. What sort of base? Well, there may be Continue Reading …
Not School Digest Nov-Dec 2012: A Bonus Quasisode
Excerpts of discussions about David Chalmers's The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory, Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos, and Paul Auster's City of Glass. What's the relation between mind and brain? What is consciousness? Can science study consciousness, and can evolution really account for it? What is the self and how does this relate to language? All these Continue Reading …
Topic for #68: Interviewing David Chalmers on Conceptual Analysis and Metaphysics
On 12/4 we spoke with David Chalmers about his new book, Constructing the World. Listen to the episode. The book explores a series of related positions that attempt to generalize and improve upon Carnap's project of logical construction in the Aufbau, the subject of our episode 67 (which will be posted soon). Carnap's project was problematic mainly because first, it was Continue Reading …
Not School Philosophy of Mind Group: David Chalmers
A good prelude to our interview with the author, this discussion covers his earlier work The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory, focusing on chapter 8 but also hitting some earlier parts. Featuring Mark Linsenmayer, Alan Cook, Evan Gould, Russ Baker, Steve Lindsay, and Marilyn Lawrence. Recorded 11/17/12. He argues for a form of property dualism in which Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 21: What Is the Mind? (Turing, et al)
This is a 31-minute preview of a 2 hr, 20-minute episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat Continue Reading …
Mind Video #1: David Chalmers
We just recorded our discussion of the philosophy of mind last Sunday, though it'll be a while before it gets all mixed and edited and posted. The discussion was very wide-ranging and covered a number of colorful personalities in not very much detail at all, so I'm going to post a series of videos to introduce you to these folks. So, here, first, is apparently a member of Continue Reading …
David Chalmers on “Merely Verbal” Disputes
Here's a talk by philosopher David Chalmers presenting a general framework to determine whether a dispute is "merely verbal." This process also helps to unearth core disagreements and concepts, e.g. commitments by one party to the existence of normativity, consciousness, truth, or other fundamentals that the other side may wish to simply deny. I found this helpful both for Continue Reading …