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There Is A Soul, But Not A Transcendent One
Consciousness is not the “hard problem” that philosophers say it is.
TL;DR
- Carlo Rovelli argues that the "hard problem" of consciousness, as defined by David Chalmers, is a misinterpretation stemming from Western philosophy's historical separation of soul and body.
- Rovelli believes scientific understanding is fundamentally about experience, not an external, objective account of reality.
- He asserts that subjective experience and scientific accounts are normal perspectival differences, not an unbridgeable gap.
- The concept of a "soul" is compatible with a naturalistic worldview, representing our inner self and spiritual life as phenomena derived by "subtraction" from a complete physical account, not an addition.
- Ultimately, Rovelli emphasizes that humans, living beings, and the soul are all integral parts of nature, not metaphysically distinct from inanimate matter or the body.