Knowledge Tree
Thomas Metzinger
Facts (12)
Sources
Hard problem of consciousness - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 7 facts
claimThomas Metzinger argues that David Chalmers' conceivability arguments are 'very, very weak' because they rely on an 'ill-defined folk psychological umbrella term' like consciousness, allowing for the creation of zombie thought experiments.
perspectiveThomas Metzinger likens the hard problem of consciousness to vitalism, a formerly widespread view in biology that was eventually abandoned rather than solved.
claimPhilosophers Daniel Dennett, Massimo Pigliucci, Thomas Metzinger, Patricia Churchland, and Keith Frankish, along with cognitive neuroscientists Stanislas Dehaene, Bernard Baars, Anil Seth, and Antonio Damasio, reject the existence of the hard problem of consciousness.
claimThomas Metzinger observes that many people who discuss the 'Hard Problem of Consciousness' would be unable to state what the problem consists in.
claimThomas Metzinger claims that while David Chalmers' 'Hard Problem of Consciousness' helped clarify issues in the mid-1990s, serious researchers in the field have moved on from it, though it has taken on a 'folkloristic life of its own'.
claimThinkers who subscribe to type-A materialism include Paul Churchland, Patricia Churchland, Daniel Dennett, Keith Frankish, and Thomas Metzinger.
perspectiveThomas Metzinger stated in a 2020 interview with Sam Harris that David Chalmers' framing of the 'Hard Problem of Consciousness' is 'boring' and 'last century'.
Self-Consciousness - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 13, 2017 2 facts
claimThomas Metzinger proposed the 'Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity' in his 2003 book 'Being No One'.
perspectiveThomas Metzinger (2003) claims that the variety of ways in which self-consciousness can break down poses a challenge to the idea that the sense of ownership is a universal characteristic of experience.
Classification Schemes of Altered States of Consciousness - ORBi orbi.uliege.be 1 fact
referenceThomas Metzinger explored minimal phenomenal experience, specifically focusing on meditation, tonic alertness, and the phenomenology of 'pure' consciousness, in a 2020 article published in Philosophy of Mind and Science.
AI Sessions #9: The Case Against AI Consciousness (with Anil Seth) conspicuouscognition.com Feb 17, 2026 1 fact
claimThomas Metzinger has called for a moratorium on the development of conscious artificial intelligence.
The evolution of human-type consciousness – a by-product of ... frontiersin.org 1 fact
quoteThomas Metzinger stated: “Three decades after the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness was founded in 1994, we still do not even know (or cannot agree on) what precisely it is that needs to be explained.”