For our sixth gathering of The Table, we’ll be exploring one of philosophy’s biggest and strangest questions: what is consciousness, and can it ever be fully explained?
We all know what it feels like to be ourselves, to think, feel, remember, notice, dream, suffer, imagine, and experience the world from the inside. But how do we explain that inner experience? Is consciousness simply the result of brain activity? Could science eventually explain it completely? Or is there something about subjective experience—what it feels like to be you—that cannot be captured from the outside?
We’ll use a short excerpt from Thomas Nagel’s famous essay What Is It Like to Be a Bat? as our starting point. The essay asks whether we can ever truly understand the experience of another conscious being, even if we know every scientific fact about it.
Some questions we may discuss:
- What does it mean to be conscious?
- Is consciousness just brain activity?
- Can science explain what it feels like to be alive?
- How do we know other people are conscious?
- Are animals conscious in the same way humans are?
- Could artificial intelligence ever be conscious?
- Is there something about inner experience that language can never fully describe?
No background in philosophy is needed. The goal is not to arrive with perfect answers, but to think together, listen carefully, and follow the questions wherever they lead.
As always, The Table is a small, informal philosophy café for curious people who enjoy thoughtful conversation. Come as you are—with questions, doubts, half-formed ideas, or quiet curiosity.
Suggested reading: Thomas Nagel, What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Nagel_Bat.pdf
Reading is encouraged but not required.
