Conciousness

Phil 1011
Assignment 3
November 14, 2013
Chalmers – Consciousness
What is Consciousness?
Consciousness is one of the most misunderstood phenomena of existence.
Chalmers poses the problem of consciousness as being the irreducibility of
phenomenal qualia to psychological qualia with only psychological qualia
being easily reduced to brain states. By nature the brain has a variety of
states which makes this a philosophical problem by the understanding of
"inner qualia" from within the brain. The answer may be the inquiry into
reductive materialism or the identity theory by research into neuroscience.

The hard part of consciousness is defining mental states, such as
anger, envy, hope, happiness and joy. This poses a philosophical problem
in the understanding of the mind and its qualia. The second problem is
that "consciousness can be frustratingly diaphanous: in talking about
conscious experience, it is notoriously difficult to pin down the subject
matter" (Chalmers 1). If "a mental state is conscious if it has a
qualitative feel––an associated quality of experience," the problem of
understanding phenomenal qualities is the same problem as understanding
consciousness. "This is the really hard part of the mind–body problem."
Chalmers asks, "why should there be consciousness at all?" (Chalmers 4).

Understanding your own consciousness is as hard as understanding
someone else's. How do we determine our brain states and the differences
of time in the brain as well as how our brain interprets colours, physical
material, primary qualities of figure, motion and everything else the brain
has contact with––which may be everything?
One of the qualia of the brain is that "we exist" or "I exist." Chalmers
says that
in principle, there is no deep philosophical mystery in the fact that
these systems can process information in complex ways, react to
stimuli with sophisticated behaviour, and even exhibit such a complex
capacities as learning, memory and language (Chalmers 4).
Chalmers asks "Is consciousness itself physical or is it merely a
concomitant of physical systems?" Chalmers asks again the differences of
"specific character of conscious experience." He questions why individual
experiences each have their own particular nature. (Chalmers 5).
A number of alternative terms and phrases pick out approximately the
same class of phenomena as "consciousness in its central sense. These
include "experience," "qualia," "phenomology," "phenomenal,"
"subjective experience," and "what it is like" (Chalmers 6).
Chalmers then goes on to explain a "catalog of conscious experiences" of
qualia; for example, conscious experiences, visual, auditory, tactile,
olfactory, taste, temperature-related experience, pain, other bodily
sensations, mental imagery, conscious thought, emotions, sense of self
(Chalmers 6).
The problem of consciousness can be reduced to the basics of
phenomenal and psychological aspects, qualities and properties of
consciousness. If the qualia say 'I feel pain'––the psychological
behaviour would require some sort of behaviour that the subject is
experiencing and displaying pain. The phenomena of the mind are what it
feels while the psychological is what is does. (Chalmers 11). Reductive
materialism or more commonly called "the identity theory" posits that
mental states are brain states. If so, one day brain research will explain
the inner workings of the mind. Understanding the brain leads us to
understand the mind and thus consciousness.
Brain research may be the most scientific way of understanding the
mind. "Mental states are physical states" (Churchland 26). The identity
theory says that eventually research will reveal the intricate functions of
the brain (Churchland 26). Furthermore, the identity theorist argues
'mental states' are identical with brain states in the same way that
lightning is a sudden large scale discharge of electrons in clouds.
The emergence of plasticity in the brain or "neuroplasticity" shows
the evolution of the nervous system and the primate brain and the ability
to learn. Neuroplasticity, is the ability to adapt or "bend." This ability
"is capable not just of stereotypic anticipation, but also of adjusting to
trends" (Dennett 187). Daniel C. Dennett's Consciousness Explained says
that the hardwiring of the brain from birth is the origin of things such as
speech, walking and basic knowledge that are obtained, a priori.
Individual phenotypes, traits and characteristics may inspire new research
into the inner workings of the brain that are not entirely hard-wired but
variable.
Psychological and phenomenal topics can be easily confused. Chalmers
notes that "if Descartes did not actually identify the psychological with
the phenomenal, he at least assumed that everything psychological that is
worthy of being called mental has a conscious aspect" (13). The confusion
between psychological and phenomenal qualia poses a philosophical problem
in which psychology takes credit for phenomenal contemplation, research and
theory. Eventually if theories like reductive materialism gain momentum,
psychology may use the "mental states are brain states" into diagnosing and
understanding behaviour.
Between psychological and phenomenal qualia, we are left with is the
mind-mind problem. Currently, physical explanation takes us as far as the
psychological. What is left to understand is the link from psychology to
the phenomenal mind. Furthermore the progress in explaining the mind-body
program has centered on the explanation of behaviour. "This progress
leaves the question of conscious experience untouched" (Chalmers 25).
Neurobiology, or subsection cellular neuroscience, is the study of
neurons at a cellular level (Wikipedia Cellular Neuroscience par. 1).
Furthermore, reductive materialism relies heavily on neurobiology to paint
different brain states and identify parts of the brain. Wikipedia defines
biology as the cognitive level of cognitive neuroscience of how neural
circuitry has psychological functions. Emerging new techniques of
neuroimaging, for example fMRI, PET, and SPECT, are helping to map human
cognition and emotion to specific neural substrates. The more we
understand the biology of the brain, the more we can identify different
brain states and compare them to mental states of psychology.
Neurochemistry is the science of the chemical balances in the brain.
Psychiatric drugs can aid in aligning the chemistry in the mind of a
mentally ill individual. Psychiatric drugs do not explain qualia, but aid
in correcting the behaviour and inner qualia of a mentally ill person.
Neurochemistry answers why we do things or why we act the way we act, thus
correcting the behaviour of the subject being given psychiatric drugs or
worsening the behaviour of the subject given narcotics.
Neurophysics is more fundamental than neurochemistry or neurobiology
in the understanding of consciousness. To understand qualia we must have
consciousness. The physics of the mind such as electricity, movement and
radiation all support the theory of consciousness from the activity of the
brain. Furthermore, the sharing of information in the different parts of
the brain support different types of awareness and consciousness.
Wikipedia says, on the topic of neurophysics, that it covers a spectrum of
phenomena from molecular and cellular mechanisms to measure and influence
the brain. It is an approach to neuroscience by the basis of the
fundamental laws of nature. "Fields, waves and particles, in the
spatiotemporal manifold interact in subtle ways, leading to the development
of complex systems such as brains" (Chalmers 4).
The "mass-energy equivalence" developed by Albert Einstein, says the
energy of any piece of matter is equal to its mass multiplied by the speed
of light squared. Paul Virilio, in The Information Bomb, said matter has
three aspects (119), which can be analyzed in light of the mass-energy
equivalence formula: energy (E: the possibility of movement), mass (m: the
possibility of cohesiveness), and information (E=mc²: the basis of
knowledge). The more energy, mass, and information a being has, the more
"mind" it has, and in fact a "mind" can be defined as a being with
consciousness––which also implies its main three components: energy, mass,
and information. So if something has enough energy, mass, and information,
is it conscious? Yes.
If you see something moving coherently and with a plan, it probably
has a basis in your consciousness. The goal of all consciousness is to
recognize not only your own existence, but also the existence of others,
and that is what animal evolution is all about. We humans are animals, and
since we perceive ways to survive through our own actions and the actions
of others, not only do we have conscious existence, but so do others of our
evolutionary breed. Awareness is another concept of consciousness. It is
basically "the control of behaviour." Awareness is primarily psychological
often used synonymously with "consciousness" (Chalmers 28). Phenomenal is
difficult to be reduced down to psychological.
Neuroscience may be the only scientific explanation for brain states
and identical mental states. If we are to have consistent results, we must
use a reliant scientific method like reductive materialism, the identity
theory to identify brain states and draw conclusions from answers for our
introspective and scientific research and current frameworks of brain
chemistry.

















Works Cited
Chalmers D. Chapter 1: Two Concepts of Mind. In O. Flanagan (Ed.), The
Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press, 1996.
Churchland, P. Chapter 2: The Ontological Problem (the Mind-Body Problem)
In Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the
Philosophy of Mind (Revised ed.). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1988.
Dennett, Daniel C. Consciousness Explained – 1st ed. New York, NY: Back Bay
Books, 1991.
Virilio, Paul. The Information Bomb. London: Verso, Original from the
University of Michigan, 2000.
"Neurophysics." Wikipedia..com Online Encyclopedia. 14 November 2013. Web.
Oct. 12, 2013.
"Neuroscience." Wikipedia.com. Online Encyclopedia. November 2013. Web.
Oct. 12, 2013.
"Cellular Neuroscience." Wikipedia.com. Online Encyclopedia. 23 May 2013.
Web. Oct. 12, 2013.