The `Hard' Problem of Consciousness Is Continually Reproduced and Made Harder by All Attempts to Solve It
Theory Culture & Society March 1, 2008 DOI: 10.1177/0263276407086791 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Citations | 9 |
| Key points | Argues that the hard problem of consciousness is an artifact of scientific approaches, and that cognitivist efforts to solve it are the very disease they claim to cure. Proposes a Wittgensteinian dissolution as an alternative to hopeless cognitivist solutions. |
Abstract
I argue that the so-called 'hard' problem of consciousness ' the problem of how consciousness is possible at all, and how it 'connects' with matter ' is only an artefact of the ways in which human scientists approach consciousness and (more generally) mind. Putting the point paradoxically but also quite precisely: the efforts to solve the mind'body problem, and this its latest variant form, are the very disease of which they take themselves to be the cure. I give examples drawn from sociology and from philosophy to support this claim, and then try to mitigate this vicious consequence of Cognitivism in both disciplines by offering a Wittgensteinian dissolution of the (pseudo-)problem as an alternative to (hopeless) cognitivist efforts to solve it.