The true, hidden origin of the so-called 'Hard Problem of Consciousness'

Philosophers of mind talk much about the so-called 'Hard Problem of Consciousness.' But is it a real, objective problem to be solved, or just the subjective reflection of a confused way of thinking? And in the latter case, where and how, precisely, does the problem arise? In this essay, you will be surprised at how obvious and quaint the thought error is that underlies the hard problem, and flabbergasted that so many otherwise smart, educated people can consider the whole business a mystery of some sort. The essay is an extract from my new book, Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell, which is coming out at the end of October 2024.

To see why Physicalism fails to explain experience, notice that there is nothing about physical parameters—i.e., quantities and their abstract relationships, as given by, e.g., mathematical equations—in terms of which we could deduce, in principle, the qualities of experience. Even if neuroscientists knew, in all minute detail, the topology, network structure, electrical firing charges and timings, etc., of my visual cortex, they would still be unable to deduce, in principle, the experiential qualities of what I am seeing. This is the so-called ‘hard problem of consciousness’ that is much talked about in philosophy.

It is important to understand the claim here correctly. We know, empirically, of many correlations between measurable patterns of brain activity and inner experience. It is thus fair to say that, in many situations, we can correctly guess what experience the subject is having based solely on the subject’s measured patterns of brain activity. We have even been able to tell what subjects are dreaming of just by reading out the subject’s brain states. However, these correlations are purely empirical; that is, we don’t know why or how certain specific patterns of brain activity correlate with certain specific inner experiences; we just know that they do, as a brute empirical fact. And if we look at enough of these brute facts, we will eventually be able to extrapolate and start making good guesses about what people are experiencing, based on their measured brain states alone. None of this implies any understanding or account of what is going on; of how nature allegedly goes from quantitative brain states to qualitative experiential states. These brute facts are just empirical observations, not explanations of anything. We don’t owe brute facts to any theory or metaphysics, since they are observations, not accounts. Physicalism gets no credit for brute facts.

This is not just an abstract theoretical point I am trying to make here, but a very concrete one. We may know empirically that brain activity pattern, say, P1 correlates with inner experience X1, but we don’t know why X1 comes paired with P1 instead of P2, or P3, P4, Pwhatever. For any specific experience Xn—say, the experience of tasting strawberry—we have no way to deduce what brain activity pattern Pn should be associated with it, unless we have already empirically observed that association before, and thus know it merely as a brute fact. This means that there is nothing about Pn in terms of which we could deduce Xn in principle, under physicalist premises. This is the hard problem of consciousness, and it is, in and of itself, a fatal blow to mainstream Physicalism. It means that Physicalism cannot account for any one experience and, therefore, for nothing in the domain of human knowledge.

Notice that the hard problem is a fundamental epistemic problem, not a merely operational or contingent one; it isn’t amenable to solution with further exploration and analysis. Fundamentally, there is nothing about quantities in terms of which we could deduce qualities in principle. There is no logical bridge between X millimeters, Y grams, or Z milliseconds on the one hand, and the sweetness of strawberry, the bitterness of disappointment, or the warmth of love on the other; one can’t logically derive the latter from the former.

Going the other way around, from qualities to quantities, is possible by construction, for quantities were invented precisely as relative descriptions of qualities; i.e., descriptions of the experiential difference between, e.g., carrying a 50Kg-heavy piece of luggage and a 5Kg-heavy one (the experiential difference is described as 45Kg); driving a car for 100Km and 1Km (the experiential difference is described as 99Km); seeing blue and seeing red (the experiential difference is described as 750THz – 430THz = 320THz).

But the meaning of these relative descriptions is anchored in the very qualities they describe, which thus constitute their semantic reference. In other words, the meaning of ‘430THz’ is the felt quality of seeing red; the meaning of ‘5Kg’ is the felt quality of lifting a 5Kg weight (or the felt quality of seeing a 5Kg weight fall within a viscous fluid, bounce off an elastic surface, lie on a weighing scale and move its needle, or whatever other experience is describable by 5Kg). As such, one cannot start from quantities and try to generate qualities from them, for in this case the semantic reference—i.e., the qualities—is supposed to result from the quantities, and therefore can no longer preexist them. This robs the quantities of their meaning and makes it impossible to deduce anything from them.

Let me try to clarify this with a metaphor. Trying to deduce qualities from quantities alone is like trying to pull the territory out of the map. The lines on a map only have meaning insofar as they point to a territory that preexists the map, and to which the map refers. But if we try to account for the territory in terms of the map, then the territory can no longer preexist the map—for it’s now supposed to somehow arise from the map—and, therefore, the lines on the map lose their meaning entirely; nothing can be deduced from them anymore (that you could make this deduction based on other map-territory pairs you’ve seen before violates the spirit of the analogy; you must, instead, ask yourself whether you could deduce a territory from a map if the map were the first and only thing you had ever cognized in your life). This is exactly what the physicalist does when attempting to explain experiential qualities (the territory) in terms of physical quantities (the map).

The fundamental absence of a logical bridge to connect quantities to qualities, caused by the abandonment of the semantic reference that underpinned the meaning of the quantities to begin with, is the hard problem. The premises of mainstream Physicalism are such that, in order for quantities to have meaning, qualities need to preexist them. But when Physicalism then tries to account for the qualities in terms of the quantities, the latter must preexist the former and thus become literally meaningless. Nothing can be deduced in principle from meaningless things, and that’s the hard problem right there.

In trying to account for the territory in terms of the map, physicalists rob the map of its meaning and become confused when they fail to explain any experience in terms of it. They then promise that one day, when new and more advanced editions of the map are developed, our descendants will be able to reach into the map and pull the territory out of it; they mistake a fundamental epistemic contradiction for an operational or contingent problem.