Metaphysics: What is Consciousness?

• Metaphysics and Philosophy of Mind addresses "What is Consciousness?" through an introduction and Thomas Nagel's exploration of 'What Is It Like to Be a Bat?'

Introduction to Consciousness

• When you pinch your skin, your nervous system reacts and you feel pain, raising the question of whether pain is purely a physical event.
• A central question is what makes consciousness special.

Positions on Consciousness

• Physicalism or materialism suggests phenomenal consciousness can be fully explained in physical terms.
• Dualism says phenomenal consciousness cannot be fully explained in the same way.
• In Dualism, consciousness is an additional element beyond physics and chemistry.

Varieties of Consciousness

• Awareness
• Self-consciousness
• Creature (agent) consciousness
• Phenomenal consciousness.

Explanatory Gap

• There is an "explanatory gap" in understanding how physical states lead to phenomenal consciousness.
• David Chalmers refers to this as "the hard problem".

Implications of Dualism

• Dualism says phenomenal consciousness cannot be explained in physical terms, implying physicalism or materialism is incorrect.
• Dualism posits consciousness as an addition to what physics and chemistry recognize, and this view is supported by David Chalmers and Frank Jackson.

Transparency of Consciousness

• Michael Tye claims consciousness is transparent.
• When attempting to focus on phenomenal consciousness, attention shifts to external things instead of internal experiences.

Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

• The core claim is that experiential facts are accessible from only one point of view, making it mysterious how physics can reveal the character of experiences.

Mind-Body Problem

• Consciousness makes the mind-body problem especially difficult.
• Current theories of the mind do not adequately address consciousness.

Nature of Consciousness

• Consciousness is a widespread phenomenon of experience.
• Conscious experience means there’s something it is like to be that organism, the subjective character of experience.
• This isn't captured by theories that reduce the mental to the physical.

Physicalist Theories

• Fully understanding consciousness/experience is required to form a solid physicalist theory.

Bat Example

• Considering bats helps clarify the character of experience.
• Bats have different ranges of activity and sensory apparatus that differ from humans.
• There must be something it is like to be a bat.

Understanding Bat Experience

• Bat sonar, a form of perception, is unlike any human sense.
• The experience of being a bat is impossible to experience or imagine.
• It's possible to imagine what it would be like for me to be a bat, but not what it is like for a bat to be a bat.

Subjective Character

• There are specific subjective characters of experience which is beyond conception.
• Facts exist about subjective experience, even when inconceivable.
• Facts embody a particular point of view.

Accessibility of Experience

• Experience is not accessible only to the single possessor.
• Experience is accessible to others who are sufficiently similar.

Return to Mind-Body Problem

• If experiential facts are accessible only from one POV, how can the true character of experience be revealed in the physical operation of an organism?

Objective Character

• Some concepts are best studied without a specific POV to determine their objective character.
• Reducing lightning to electrical discharges involves descriptions that don't rely on human senses or viewpoints.
• A more objective description is achieved by reducing dependence on human viewpoints.
• The issue is whether objectivity works for experience.

Subjective Character of Experience

• Experiences relate to subjective character and connection with a particular POV.
• Removing the viewpoint of the bat eliminates what it is like to be a bat.

Objectivity and Experience

• Objectivity appears to not help in understanding experience.
• Shifts to greater objectivity do not bring us closer to the real nature of the phenomenon, but instead move us further.

Physicalism and Consciousness

• There is a mistake in concluding that physicalism must be false.
• It notes we aren't able to confirm how it might be true.
• Mental and physical events are normally related, but it may not be so clear if the relationship is disparte.

Caterpillar Analogy

• Being in the position of someone like this is like when a caterpillar is locked in a sterile safe and the safe is later reopened, revealing a butterfly.
• There is a reason to believe the butterfly was once the caterpillar, without any sense of how.

Summary

• An organism possesses conscious mental states if there's something it's like to be that organism
• Reflecting on the bat's experience shows it's only accessible from the bat's POV.
• An organisms physical operations cannot reveal the true character of experience, since certain facts are accessible from only one point of view.
• Concluding that physicalism is false off this argument is a mistake.
• Understanding what physicalism is may depend on grasping how a mental state is a state of the body.