ABSTRACT
The problem of consciousness People often talk about consciousness as a mystery. But there isn’t anything mysterious about consciousness itself; nothing is better known to us than our own experiences. The problem of consciousness arises when we try to work out how the reality of my consciousness fi ts in with the material reality of my body and brain. If you cut open the top of my head and peer inside you’ll fi nd extremely complex physical processes ultimately constituted of neural fi rings. On the face of it, however, what you won’t fi nd – no matter how much you prod around inside my skull – are feelings, emotions or experiences. The reality of my conscious experience as it is known to me through introspection seems to have nothing in common with the reality of my brain as it is known to empirical science.
