IRREDUCIBLE MIND (Part 1): How Do We Get Consciousness If We’re Just Material Objects?

Ever hear of the “Hard Problem of Consciousness” in science? If you Google that term, you will quickly see that topping the list of unanswered questions about human beings and life is this intellectual challenge:

If we are made up of nothing other than physical material, how can we also have non-material minds and thus be capable of thinking, including conceptualizing something we have never actually seen, cannot grasp in our hands or put under a microscope for observation and measurement?

Here’s how the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains the Hard Problem:

“The Hard Problem of Consciousness is the problem of explaining why any physical state is conscious rather than non-conscious.  It is the problem of explaining why there is ‘something it is like’ for a subject in conscious experience, why conscious mental states ‘light up’ and directly appear to the subject.

“The usual methods of science involve explanation of functional, dynamical, and structural properties — explanation of what a thing does, how it changes over time, and how it is put together.  But even after we have explained the functional, dynamical, and structural properties of the conscious mind, we can still meaningfully ask the question, Why is it conscious?

” This suggests that an explanation of consciousness will have to go beyond the usual methods of science.  Consciousness therefore presents a hard problem for science, or perhaps it marks the limits of what science can explain.”

In other words, explaining consciousness may well be beyond the current capabilities of science, which suggest strongly that there is something beyond the physical, or what has long been referred to as the “supernatural.”

Inspiring Philosophy’s Michael Jones digs into the Hard Problem of Consciousness in a five-part video series that does a wonderful job of credibly translating a massively complicated body of evidence and discussion from multiple disciplines into terms we laymen can understand.

Here in Part 1 of the series, Jones focuses on why the material human brain does not appear capable of producing non-material consciousness. Be sure to pay particular attention to his discussion of the evidence from individuals suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder.

Parts 2-5 will appear on successive days here on HillFaith. Today’s video is 18:56, which is longer than usual here, but be assured watching this will be a wise investment of your time:

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