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Philosophy vocabulary · Philosophy of Mind

Hard problem of consciousness

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In philosophy, hard problem of consciousness means: The problem of explaining why and how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience at all, instead of running without any inner feeling.

In Turkish: bilincin zor problemi

How it is used

The phrase was introduced by David Chalmers in the mid-1990s. He contrasted it with the easy problems of explaining functions such as attention, memory and the ability to report. People often just say the hard problem.

Example sentences

  1. Even a complete map of the brain might leave the hard problem of consciousness untouched.

  2. Some physicalists argue that the hard problem of consciousness is an illusion created by our concepts.

Common collocations

  • the hard problem
  • easy problems of consciousness
  • solve the hard problem
  • explanatory gap
  • consciousnessThe state of having experiences, of there being something it is like to see, feel or think; also the state of being awake and aware.
  • qualiaThe subjective qualities of conscious experience, such as how the redness of red looks or how a headache feels to the person who has it.
  • physicalismThe view that everything that exists is physical or depends entirely on the physical, so that the mind is ultimately part of the physical world.
  • mind-body problemThe question of how the mind, with its thoughts and feelings, is related to the body and especially to the brain.

More terms: Philosophy of Mind

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