Phenomenal Consciousness; a Challenge to Physicalism
Journal of Philosophical Investigations February 26, 2022 Samad Hosseini, Abbas Yazdani
Neuroscience's success in explaining mental states has led many scientists and philosophers to adopt physicalist methods, aiming to explain human nature solely through physical concepts. The main challenge to this view is consciousness, specifically the mind-body problem. This article argues that phenomenal awareness is the most important challenge to materialism. By dividing consciousness into "perceptual consciousness" and "phenomenal consciousness," it contends that scientific theories can at best explain perceptual consciousness, but phenomenal consciousness remains beyond the reach of physical sciences due to the inherent nature of mentality, unless a first-person perspective science is recognized.