David Chalmers: The Hard Problem of Consciousness

Hi Folks,

Please join us for a group discussion on David Chalmers’ influential 1995 paper Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness.

📖 About the Text
Originally published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, this paper introduces the famous “hard problem” of consciousness. Chalmers argues that while science can explain functions like attention and behavior, it struggles to account for the felt quality of experience (qualia). He suggests consciousness may require a nonreductive explanation, perhaps treating experience as fundamental.

📚 Reading & Participation
We will break out into two groups, one group for those who have read the full paper as found here:
https://consc.net/papers/facing.pdf

A second group who haven't read the full paper, but will discuss the ideas as summarized with AI here:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/6CBE6DJHM4#OL0wkA4B2LjO

💬 Discussion Format

• We will separate into the two groups, one who read the full paper vs one who read the AI summary version
• We will further break down to groups of 4 if needed
• We will discuss a theme as presented in the AI summary document for around 30 minutes in our groups
• We will rotate groups if we have enough people and time for rotations

Bring your curiosity, openness, and willingness to grapple with one of philosophy’s deepest puzzles.

📍 Location
Please RSVP to get the location. I've set the RSVP limit to 20 but it will be essentially first come first served depending on how many seats we can find together, so arrive on time to help you get a seat. If you cannot make it please update your RSVP to no to open up space for other people.

🌐 Event Details
All are welcome. No prior background in philosophy required. Please RSVP in order to attend as this allows us to manage numbers and lets other attendees know who to expect to see.

🪶 Questions or Feedback?
If you have questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me on Meetup.

Kind Regards,
Ryan