Chalmers' philosophy of mind.

A review by Jonathan Dsilva.

Hi folks. Let me share some thought provoking ideas on David Chalmers' work 'The Conscious Mind' and 'Constructing the World' which present arguments against materialism, the emergence of conscious experiences and the thesis on 'Scrutability and Knowability'. Firstly, you will be quite puzzled that Chalmers discredits materialism, arguing that while the world consists of personal, subjective experiences such as feelings and perceptions, still there is a possible world similar to ours in physical properties but differing in conscious experiences. He adds that consciousness transcends physical facts, challenging the completeness of materialism. Secondly, his 'Principle of Organizational Invariance' affirms that conscious experience stems from detailed functional organization, suggesting that systems with the same organization will exhibit identical experiences, regardless whether the system is made out of chips, ping-pong balls, brain and so on. Finally, I am quite glued to Chalmers' redefinition of the Laplace's thesis into a scrutability thesis, implying that the world is understandable based on basic truths. It will be trivial for you to understand the 'Knowability Thesis' which simply means that any truth can be known. However, you may surely doubt this for intuitive and formal reasons, as there may be truths concerning the distant past, the far away, and the very small, that it may be impossible for anyone to know. He further adds that if there’s a truth that nobody knows, then there’s a truth that is actually unknowable. 

My critical remarks.

Let me first account for Chalmers' idea of 'Organizational Invariance' as it inspires the development of conscious-like systems, by machine developers. I have serious doubts whether qualia can be justified in these conscious machines. If you doubt whether these conscious machines have subjective emotions, then you are well justified in my opinion. For me the idea of maintaining consciousness through organizational integrity seems more theoretical than empirical. On minute observation, you will find that the two notions of anti-materialism and organizational invariance cannot proceed simultaneously. 'Organizational Invariance' itself affirms that consciousness arises through the organization of matter; which is a blow for anti-materialism. I am sure that challenging materialism will have implications on our traditional understanding of causal relationships in the natural sciences. If you explore the web, you will find the famous 'Phineas Gage Case’, whose condition highlights the complex interaction between physical and mental aspects, supporting materialist views on consciousness. Though some truths are mysterious, these ideas prompt all of us to explore whether a truth is complete in itself or whether it lies in our ability of  its apprehension. Chalmers' attack on materialism is justified in a way as there is no explanation as to how the first primordial matter was moved to its conscious activity. If this matter was moved by some other matter, then there will be a chain of infinite regression. So, consciousness has to transcend the physical facts. To uncover these mysteries of affirmations and contradictions, we need to research and be ever curious in the search for knowledge.