According to Tim Crane, “the ’hard problem’ of consciousness is supposed to be the real heart of the mind-body problem in today’s philosophy”. [Crane, 2000: p. 2] The idea of the problem can be expressed in the following way: Why are the physical processes in our brain accompanied by the qualitative (or phenomenal) feel? The mere qualitative feel or qualia are those to be explained. The originator of the problem’s name is the Australian philosopher David Chalmers who divided the problems of consciousness into the ‘easy’ problems and the ‘hard’ problem. The former are ‘easy’ because they can be functionally explained. The ‘hard’ problem, in its turn, cannot. From this, it follows that the explanation of the hard problem of consciousness must be found elsewhere. Chalmers’ nonreductive theory of consciousness (or naturalistic dualism) is a serious candidate for a such-like explanation. In general, it suggests conscious experience as one of the fundamental features of our world, together with such fundamental world features as mass, charge etc. It is a general overview of David Chalmers’ philosophy of mind that is carrying out in the proposed paper.
Block, Ned. (1995). On a Confusion about a Function of Consciousness // Behavioral and brain sciences, 18, 227-287.
Chalmers, David J. (2002). Consciousness and Its Place in Nature // in: Philosophy of mind: classical and contemporary readings / David J. Chalmers (ed.). ― Oxford New York: Oxford University Press.
Chalmers, David. (1995). Facing up to the Problem of Consciousness // Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (3), 200-219.
Chalmers, David. (1996). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crane, Tim. (2000). The Origins of Qualia. The History of Mind-Body Problem. Ed. By T Crane, S Patterson. London: Routledge.
Grim, Patrick. (2008). Philosophy of Mind: Brains, Consciousness, and Thinking Machines. Parts I and 2. The Teaching Company.
Jackson, Frank. (1982). Epiphenomenal Qualia. The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 127. (Apr. 1982), 127-136.
Kirk, Robert. (2003). Zombies // Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 08.09.2003. — http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zombies/.
Kirk, Robert. (2005). Zombies and Consciousness. N. Y.
McLaughlin, B., Bennett, K. (2005) Supervenience // Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 25.07.2005. — http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/supervenience/.
Nagel, Thomas. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? The Philosophical Review LXXXIII, 4 (October 1974), 435-50.
Ramsey, Plumpton Frank. (1950). The Foundations of Mathematics and other Logical Essays. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD.