A Dramatic Answer to The Hard Problem

Tom Stoppard's 2015 play The Hard Problem engages with David Chalmers' philosophical concept of the hard problem of consciousness. The play uses a chronologically linear, stage realist structure and heavily discursive dialogue to interrogate reductive physicalist answers to this problem. Stoppard argues that physicalist and materialist views cannot account for what humans experience when they spectate drama, embracing a view of the human mind that allows for immateriality. The work extends Stoppard's fascination with analytic philosophy by using the theatrical experience to rebut the claim that humans are nothing but their biological hardwiring.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Tom Stoppard’s 2015 play The Hard Problem centres on an argument about the eponymous philosophical concept related to the study of consciousness, a phrase coined by the Australian analytic philosopher David Chalmers. The play’s investment in philosophy of mind results in heavily discursive dialogue, which many critics of the play felt rendered the script more like a series of arguments than a human drama. While The Hard Problem may lack the overt plot devices for which Stoppard is famous, it uses a chronologically linear stage realist structure to interrogate reductive physicalist answers to the hard problem. Stoppard deploys this approach, atypically straightforward for his style, to rebut the claim that humans are nothing but their biological hardwiring. For Stoppard, physicalist and other materialist views cannot account for what humans experience when they spectate drama. The Hard Problem extends Stoppard’s career-long fascination with analytic philosophy by utilizing the theatrical experience and one of the most conventional stage genres to embrace a view of the human mind that allows for immateriality .