The source of the 'Hard Problem of Consciousness'
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 8:00 pm
Hi all! This is my first time posting on here. I don't know many people on here, I heard about this forum's existence through Discord. But, I don't know how many people on here have used Discord, I think AshvinP goes by the name Awakening Soul on there--he has shared links to some threads on here through Discord to different people (including myself).
I am writing this post to see if anyone here has insight they'd like to share regarding the so-called hard problem of consciousness and its origins (or similar). I know that a few people on here are interested in Rudolf Steiner's epistemology, I am trying to use it for this post.
As far as I understand he encourages people to introspect on themselves and the activity of thinking itself, which seems to be a core facet of esoteric practice. Gaining inner freedom, in thought and action, seems to be the central focus of Steiner's "The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity" (die Philosophie der Freiheit). The way to inner freedom is using introspection or meditation, becoming conscious of what is unconscious within ourselves (which is basically depth psychology).
Steiner tried to demonstrate that knowledge is gained in two core ways: perception (e.g. sensory observation) and concept (e.g. the ideas we have about objects in the sense-world). However, Steiner seemed to argue that the ideas we have about objects are actually shadows of ideas which come from spiritual domains of nature, and give rise to physical processes, and our experiences; we need to do introspective work to gain fuller knowledge of those Ideas (and the beings producing them). Goethe seemed to have a similar approach.
So it would seem that the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity is laying a kind of starting point for esoteric training.
Steiner also tried to demonstrate how it is often the case that the two elements--perception and conception--are initially sort of split into two parts, and as a result we experience duality such as subject and object, I and World, mind and matter, etc. Human beings have a fundamental desire to unify these dichotomies back together.
I think he also tried to demonstrate that humans have a type of reasoning faculty in us that allows us to gain knowledge and things like that. It is a faculty that allows us to transform raw sense-data into meaningful phenomenon. There is an author similar to Rudolf Steiner called Owen Barfield, and I have read a little bit of his work. It seems that he went to great lengths to demonstrate the existence of this subtle reasoning faculty. For example, when I hear bird song, I don't really hear just sound or "sound waves" coming in, there is something inside my mind that turns this raw sound into something that I recognize as a particular bird song.
Another examples is when I read some writing, the raw visual data might just be squiggles on a page but there is a process within me that, unconsciously, turns these squiggles into something with meaning; we see the meaning when we read rather than just arbitrary shapes. This is what is happening when reading this forum.
A great example I heard recently was when we look at some picture, but it's not clear what we are looking at, it just looks confusing; we can't figure out what it is meant to be represent. And when someone points out it what it is meant to represent, e.g. it is meant to be a dog, we then see the dog very easily. It becomes almost impossible to unsee it.
I think this faculty within us is also a cause of the phenomenon called pareidolia.
So what I am hoping to discuss is how this is connected to these various insoluble problems that keep cropping up in modern philosophy and science, such as the 'hard problem of consciousness' (how physical processes create something mental). My supposition so far is that this problem has arisen because there does not seem to be a deep focus on the conceptual activity that is happening within us; as in, the inner faculties that allow us to form these ideas. As Steiner argued in PoSA "He [the materialist] overlooks that, in doing so, he is merely shifting the problem from one place to another. He ascribes the power of thinking to matter instead of to himself. And thus he is back again at his starting point." In other words, these problems originate within ourselves, not in the world itself. Therefore, it is logical that we should look within ourselves to discover the missing knowledge instead of putting total faith into the possibility that, someday, material science will explain all these problems away (which is something a lot of materialists seem to put faith in).
Since I have referred to Steiner's epistemology, I would also like to bring in his "Human and Cosmic Thought". I have only read lecture 1 and 2, I remember that he takes you through the different metaphysics positions like you are going around a circle, and points out that often philosophers can reason to one worldview and just stop there. Which I think is also another source of these hard problems in philosophy such as "how does matter create mind out of itself?".
However, I think another significant source of these conundrums is because modern man (at least in western cultures) has lost connection with spirituality. And therefore limitations of knowledge are inevitable.
I have also noticed that a similar 'hard problem' that keeps cropping up among philosophers and scientists is along the lines of "how do the separate contents of experience unite into a single experience?". However, I believe this 'problem' is solved easily through introspection; it is that subtle Reason faculty (I tried to describe above) that allows us to separate, and unite back together, the contents of experience.
So to finish off, those are my thoughts right now. I am wondering if anyone here has any deeper insight into the cause of the 'hard problem of consciousness', or similar conundrums, because I think it could provide valuable insight that I simply can't give on my own. Or if anyone wants to share any feedback on what I have written feel free to do so. Much thanks.
P. S. I am unsure if I have posted this in the correct room. If I am in the wrong room, please let me know, because I am unfamiliar with how this forum works.
I am writing this post to see if anyone here has insight they'd like to share regarding the so-called hard problem of consciousness and its origins (or similar). I know that a few people on here are interested in Rudolf Steiner's epistemology, I am trying to use it for this post.
As far as I understand he encourages people to introspect on themselves and the activity of thinking itself, which seems to be a core facet of esoteric practice. Gaining inner freedom, in thought and action, seems to be the central focus of Steiner's "The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity" (die Philosophie der Freiheit). The way to inner freedom is using introspection or meditation, becoming conscious of what is unconscious within ourselves (which is basically depth psychology).
Steiner tried to demonstrate that knowledge is gained in two core ways: perception (e.g. sensory observation) and concept (e.g. the ideas we have about objects in the sense-world). However, Steiner seemed to argue that the ideas we have about objects are actually shadows of ideas which come from spiritual domains of nature, and give rise to physical processes, and our experiences; we need to do introspective work to gain fuller knowledge of those Ideas (and the beings producing them). Goethe seemed to have a similar approach.
So it would seem that the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity is laying a kind of starting point for esoteric training.
Steiner also tried to demonstrate how it is often the case that the two elements--perception and conception--are initially sort of split into two parts, and as a result we experience duality such as subject and object, I and World, mind and matter, etc. Human beings have a fundamental desire to unify these dichotomies back together.
I think he also tried to demonstrate that humans have a type of reasoning faculty in us that allows us to gain knowledge and things like that. It is a faculty that allows us to transform raw sense-data into meaningful phenomenon. There is an author similar to Rudolf Steiner called Owen Barfield, and I have read a little bit of his work. It seems that he went to great lengths to demonstrate the existence of this subtle reasoning faculty. For example, when I hear bird song, I don't really hear just sound or "sound waves" coming in, there is something inside my mind that turns this raw sound into something that I recognize as a particular bird song.
Another examples is when I read some writing, the raw visual data might just be squiggles on a page but there is a process within me that, unconsciously, turns these squiggles into something with meaning; we see the meaning when we read rather than just arbitrary shapes. This is what is happening when reading this forum.
A great example I heard recently was when we look at some picture, but it's not clear what we are looking at, it just looks confusing; we can't figure out what it is meant to be represent. And when someone points out it what it is meant to represent, e.g. it is meant to be a dog, we then see the dog very easily. It becomes almost impossible to unsee it.
I think this faculty within us is also a cause of the phenomenon called pareidolia.
So what I am hoping to discuss is how this is connected to these various insoluble problems that keep cropping up in modern philosophy and science, such as the 'hard problem of consciousness' (how physical processes create something mental). My supposition so far is that this problem has arisen because there does not seem to be a deep focus on the conceptual activity that is happening within us; as in, the inner faculties that allow us to form these ideas. As Steiner argued in PoSA "He [the materialist] overlooks that, in doing so, he is merely shifting the problem from one place to another. He ascribes the power of thinking to matter instead of to himself. And thus he is back again at his starting point." In other words, these problems originate within ourselves, not in the world itself. Therefore, it is logical that we should look within ourselves to discover the missing knowledge instead of putting total faith into the possibility that, someday, material science will explain all these problems away (which is something a lot of materialists seem to put faith in).
Since I have referred to Steiner's epistemology, I would also like to bring in his "Human and Cosmic Thought". I have only read lecture 1 and 2, I remember that he takes you through the different metaphysics positions like you are going around a circle, and points out that often philosophers can reason to one worldview and just stop there. Which I think is also another source of these hard problems in philosophy such as "how does matter create mind out of itself?".
However, I think another significant source of these conundrums is because modern man (at least in western cultures) has lost connection with spirituality. And therefore limitations of knowledge are inevitable.
I have also noticed that a similar 'hard problem' that keeps cropping up among philosophers and scientists is along the lines of "how do the separate contents of experience unite into a single experience?". However, I believe this 'problem' is solved easily through introspection; it is that subtle Reason faculty (I tried to describe above) that allows us to separate, and unite back together, the contents of experience.
So to finish off, those are my thoughts right now. I am wondering if anyone here has any deeper insight into the cause of the 'hard problem of consciousness', or similar conundrums, because I think it could provide valuable insight that I simply can't give on my own. Or if anyone wants to share any feedback on what I have written feel free to do so. Much thanks.
P. S. I am unsure if I have posted this in the correct room. If I am in the wrong room, please let me know, because I am unfamiliar with how this forum works.