What Can Neuroscience Tell Us about the Hard Problem of Consciousness?

Abstract

A main research goal within neuroscience is to explain the relation between neurophysiological processes and conscious experiences. One approach involves focusing on problems such as the integration of information, the deliberate control of behavior, the ability to discriminate and categorize environmental stimuli, etc. These problems have been dubbed by philosophers as “easy” to suggest that the present limitations hindering progress could be overcome by more sophisticated methods in the near future (Chalmers, 1995, 1996). For example, explaining the integration of information requires describing the neurophysiological mechanisms responsible for information processing. Although these mechanisms are not currently well known, it is very likely that neuroscience will be able to explain them in the near future. It has been argued, however, that the problem of phenomenal consciousness cannot be explained by reference to such mechanisms because it involves a special kind of subjective qualities, i.e., phenomenal qualities that are present in experience (Dennett, 1991, 2003; Block, 1995; Chalmers, 1996; Revonsuo, 2006; Majeed, 2016). For example, the experience of seeing a red patch has a different phenomenal quality (a redly quality or “feel”) from the experience of seeing a green patch (a greenly quality or “feel”)1. The problem of explaining how or why neurophysiological processing gives rise to phenomenal experiences has been dubbed the “hard problem of consciousness” to suggest that solving it requires a paradigm shift in neuroscience (Chalmers, 1995, 1996).