Solving the Qualia Problem

Consciousness and subjective experience (qualia) arise not from brain processes but from communication, problem-solving, and the creation of signs and mental realities, according to this philosophical article. The author rejects the physicalist framing of the brain as a generator of consciousness, instead drawing on cultural-historical, semiotic, and phenomenological approaches. Five case studies illustrate this: a child's concept of the 'painted sun,' Jung's adolescent religious experience, distorted-vision experiments, distinguishing sleep from reality, and mask therapy for schizophrenia. The brain is a necessary substrate, not the cause. Qualia is part of a holistic mental reality that can be transformed through changed meanings and awareness of boundaries between worlds.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article attempts to reconsider the "hard problem of consciousness" (D.Chalmers, S. Harnad), a long-standing problem in analytical philosophy, which concerns the inability to explain the origin of subjective experience (qualia) from the physical processes of the brain.The author does not deny the reality of qualia, but rejects the very formulation of the question of the brain as the "generative mechanism" of consciousness, proposing instead a cultural-historical, semiotic and phenomenological approach.Relying on case study methodology, he examines five episodes: the development of the concept of the "painted sun" in a child, C.G. Jung's adolescent religious experience, experiments with distorted vision at A.N. Leontiev's school, the practice of distinguishing between sleep and reality and G. Nazloyan's method of sculptural portraiture (mask therapy) for the treatment of schizophrenia.In each case, it is demonstrated that consciousness and qualia arise not as a result of neurophysiological processes, but in the space of communication, problem-solving, the invention of signs and schemas and the formation of "mental realities."The brain is treated merely as a necessary substrate, not the cause of consciousness.The key conclusion: qualia is not an isolated sensory experience, but one of the planes of a holistic mental reality that can be purposefully transformed (including therapeutically) through a change in meanings, awareness of the boundaries between worlds (wakefulness, sleep, art) and a return to a healthy core personality.Thus, the article offers an alternative to the physicalist paradigm, bringing the explanation of consciousness into the realm of semiotics, cultural studies and the humanities.