Hi from Massachusetts, U.S.

[Laertes Oleander]

I have always had a keen interest in science and philosophy and was delighted to come upon Philosophy Now about a year ago. I have read many of the classics. My favorites are Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Kierkegaard's Fear & Trembling and Heidegger's Being and Time. I can't say I either understand or agree with all of what I have read, but I enjoy the methodical and novel approaches. I am currently reading David Chalmers, Conscious Mind and find his use of supervenience compelling. I've long been known to teach young children that green is blue to my wife's chagrin.

[RickLewis]

Welcome to the forum!

[Gary Childress]

I have always had a keen interest in science and philosophy and was delighted to come upon Philosophy Now about a year ago. I have read many of the classics. My favorites are Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Kierkegaard's Fear & Trembling and Heidegger's Being and Time. I can't say I either understand or agree with all of what I have read, but I enjoy the methodical and novel approaches. I am currently reading David Chalmers, Conscious Mind and find his use of supervenience compelling. I've long been known to teach young children that green is blue to my wife's chagrin.

Welcome Laertes Oleander! I'm currently reading Chalmers' The Conscious Mind as well. I'm thinking I may start a thread in the "Book Club" forum (bottom of the forum list) to discuss it if you are interested in dropping in. I'm a little new to Chalmers' ideas and there are some places in the book where I'm having difficulty following him.

[Laertes Oleander]

That whole idea of supervenience was introduced in the early 20th century. It reminds me of a line from The Sound of Music,

Nothing comes from nothing, and nothing ever should...

Apparently the phenomenon of conscious experience (as Chalmers limits the term 'conscious') is not physical but nor is it an illusion. It may seem obvious that conscious experience is not physical, but Chalmers goes to great lengths to prove that it is the second half of a dualist ontology. I do see, however, why conscious experience is advantageous as an evolutionary trait. It would seem to me that pain stimuli would not be nearly as effective as a negative survival mechanism without the phenomenal experience of it. The same evolutionary advantage argument can be made for all the other sensory phenomena although somewhat more subtly. Philosophical zombies aside, The Conscious Mind is a cogent and well developed foundation for further study, and I would relish a thread to discuss it with others.