Broader debates around consciousness

The problem of consciousness is one that has perplexed scientists and philosophers alike. This article by Oliver Burkeman published in The Guardian, Why can’t the world’s greatest minds solve the mystery of consciousness? provides a useful background to some of the ongoing debates around what consciousness is, what beings have it and how it might be objectively found. Needless to say, the debates are ongoing!

The value of reading this article in the context of this course is to introduce you to some of the broader issues around what is known as ‘The Hard Problem’. My particular focus in this course is not to prove whether consciousness exists but to discuss how consciousness - the feeling of being something - is a necessary criterion for determining whether something has a mind.