philosophy-of-mind

I was recently reading Quine (1948) and came across this passage: The physical conceptual scheme simplifies our account of experience because of the way myriad scattered sense events come to be ...

How people talk about AI with awe, fear, prophecy, and evangelism (not literally a religion) There comes a moment in every generation when the world tilts just enough to make everyone wonder whether we’re witnessing a technological revolution, a cultural awakening, or just another overhyped gadget destined to end up in a drawer next to the PalmPilot. For Gen X, that moment seems to arrive every f…

Since Copernicus, nothing has done more to upend our understanding of the world than Kant’s idea that the human mind actively structures our experience of reality.

How does a physical system such as the brain produce the ineffable phenomenon of conscious experience? Philosopher David Chalmers famously named this the “Hard Problem of Consciousness” in 1995. Proponents argue that, while cognitive functions such as categorisation or information integration might be explained mechanistically in the central nervous system, the origins of subjective experience [&…

Vision has a dual life or possibly more. On the one hand, vision describes the environment as being a certain way. On the other hand, vision guides the execution of actions. Vision is, thus, Janus-faced : it is tied to both describing properties, this description being related also to spatial properties relevant for action, as well as to guiding the motor execution of that action. Philosophers an…

We have spent centuries being knocked off our pedestal. Earth isn't the centre of the Solar System, the Sun isn't the centre of the Galaxy, and we are not the point around which everything else turns. Now two philosophers want to take the demotion one step further and apply it to the thing we hold most precious of all, our own conscious minds. If they're right, awareness may be far more widesprea…

In other words, Can sensory capacities be explained within the framework of purely physical explanation? Light rays make an impact on the sensory organ. If it hits the visual sense organ, we have a ...

Could consciousness exist in alien life forms that look nothing like us? Could it even appear in machines? According to a new paper by philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel of the University of California, Riverside, and Jeremy Pober of the University of Lisbon, the answer may be yes. The researchers argue that consciousness is probably not limited […] The post Consciousness may exist beyond humans, ani…

Does consciousness depend on flesh and blood? The answer is almost certainly no, according to Eric Schwitzgebel, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. In a new working paper, Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober, a former UCR graduate student who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, assert that consciousness is likely possible in lif…

What is matter, really? Is matter an independent substance, or is reality fundamentally relational? In this episode, we explore some of the deepest questions in philosophy, metaphysics, and modern science, including Quantum Physics, Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, Dark Matter, Consciousness, Space, Time, Cosmology, and the Nature of Reality itself. From atoms and particles to galaxies […]

I asked a question about this topic in general recently but it’s not the same question so bear with me. The cogito’s force seems to come from treating “thinking” as exempt from the doubt applied to ...

A conversation with Harvard philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin on material, biological, and spiritual belonging The post How to Feel at Home in the Modern World appeared first on Nautilus .

Sociological theories typically understand power as arising from the interaction between an individual's intrinsic capacities (e.g., will, agency, consciousness) and social relations and conditions. ...

It seems a couple classic objections to Plato's philosophy of ideal forms are: The Third Man: If the existence of men in the ordinary world derive from or "participate in" the "man-...

Descartes thought conscious experience was the one indubitable foundation: even if everything else is illusion, the experiencing itself cannot be denied. But there’s a problem: the moment you try to ...

_European Journal of Analytic Philosophy_. forthcomingDavid Chalmers’ two-dimensional argument against physicalism—commonly known as the zombie argument—stands as one of the most extensively debated arguments in contemporary analytic philosophy. One comparatively neglected response to the argument maintains that considerations of conceivability cut both ways: just as the ideal conceivability of p…

This paper challenges the assumption that reality possesses an ultimate foundation, final truth, or metaphysical endpoint that can be reached through inquiry. Through a phenomenological investigation of lived experience, it argues that consciousness encounters not an ultimate reality but an inexhaustible depth that continuously unfolds through presence. Human beings frequently approach existence …

This paper outlines a rigorous mathematical and structural framework addressing the foundational "Hard Problem of Consciousness" by mapping both physical and subjective mental states onto a unified ontological dimension designated as the "Information Plane." Rooted in John Archibald Wheeler's posture of "It from bit," this research conceptualizes the biological entity as an integrated information…

杰克逊的“玛丽房间”知识论证对物理主义构成严峻挑战，该思想实验长期使学界陷入物理主义与二元论的对立僵局，其根源在于论证本身包含三项未经验证的隐性预设。本文依托《元统一论》六篇定稿构建的纯形式元框架，从本体论、方法论、认知路径、探索分类四个底层维度逐层解构上述预设。论证表明：主观体验是本源的客观内在运化，其内容超出物理符号的刻画边界；物理学仅为适配特定目标的狭义方法，存在天然认知边界；书本理论知识源于人为隔离变量的“逆态”研究，亲身感官体验来自全域联动的“顺态”交互，二者演化形态不可相互替代。同时结合元行为回溯论证完成逻辑闭环验证，依据运化专论规划预留具象实证拓展空间。本文跳出传统二元对立框架，提出一条逻辑自洽、具备可证伪性的第三条解释路径，也印证了元统一论作为跨学科通用理论地基的强大解释力。 Jackson’s “Mary’s Room” knowledge argument poses…

The relationship between consciousness, subjectivity, self-awareness, and phenomenal experience remains one of the central problems in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Biological systems maintain continuity through self-maintenance, regulation, memory, anticipation, and self-reference. This paper argues that a significant organizational transition occurs when information concerning a sys…