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The Meta-Problem of Consciousness
Also known as: The Meta-Problem of Consciousness, meta-problem of consciousness
Facts (14)
Sources
Hard problem of consciousness - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 5 facts
claimProfessor David Chalmers presented a talk titled 'The Meta-Problem of Consciousness' at Google on April 2, 2019.
claimIn 2018, David Chalmers introduced the 'meta-problem of consciousness', which he defines as the problem of explaining why humans think there is a hard problem of consciousness.
referenceHakwan Lau and Matthias Michel published the paper 'A Socio-Historical Take on the Meta-Problem of Consciousness' in the Journal of Consciousness Studies in 2019.
claimDavid Chalmers defines the 'second approximation' of the meta-problem of consciousness as the problem of explaining the behavior of 'phenomenal reports' and the behavior of expressing a belief that there is a hard problem of consciousness.
referenceD. Papineau published a response to David Chalmers' 'The Meta-Problem of Consciousness' in the Journal of Consciousness Studies in 2019.
David Chalmers on the meta-problem of consciousness selfawarepatterns.com Apr 6, 2019 5 facts
claimDavid Chalmers defines the 'meta-problem of consciousness' as the problem of why so many people believe there is a hard problem of consciousness.
claimDavid Chalmers admits that the 'meta-problem of consciousness' falls into his category of 'easy problems' of consciousness, at least in principle.
claimDavid Chalmers suggests that there may be solutions to the 'meta-problem of consciousness' that leave the 'hard problem of consciousness' intact.
claimThe author of the source text observes that the 'meta-problem of consciousness' has been raised previously by people in the illusionist camp who question whether the 'hard problem of consciousness' is a genuine problem.
claimDavid Chalmers' primary objective in discussing the 'meta-problem of consciousness' is to prevent the discourse from being dominated by 'illusionists'.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness | Springer Nature Link link.springer.com 3 facts
quote“There is nevertheless one behavioural function that has an especially close tie to the hard problem. This behavioural function involves phenomenal reports: the things we say about consciousness (that is, about phenomenal consciousness). More specifically, many people make problem reports expressing our sense that consciousness poses a hard problem. I say things like ‘There is a hard problem of consciousness’, ‘It is hard to see how consciousness could be physical’, ‘Explaining behaviour does not explain consciousness’, and so on. ... The meta-problem of consciousness is (to a second approximation) the problem of explaining these problem reports. Problem reports are a fact of human behaviour. Because of this, the meta-problem of explaining them is strictly speaking one of the easy problems of consciousness. Although the meta-problem is strictly speaking an easy problem, it is deeply connected to the hard problem. We can reasonably hope that a solution to the meta-problem will shed significant light on the hard problem”
referenceDavid Chalmers published 'The meta-problem of consciousness' in the Journal of Consciousness Studies in 2018.
claimIn his 2018 discussion of the 'Meta-Problem of Consciousness,' David Chalmers attributes a central role to 'phenomenal reports,' which are closely related to his earlier notion of phenomenal judgments.
Episode 2: The Hard Problem of Consciousness – David Chalmers ... futurepointdigital.substack.com Jul 24, 2025 1 fact
claimDavid Chalmers introduces the 'meta-problem of consciousness' as the question of why humans believe consciousness is mysterious in the first place.