Abstract
I argue that the so-called 'hard' problem of consciousness ' the problem of how consciousness is possible at all, and how it 'connects' with matter ' is only an artefact of the ways in which human scientists approach consciousness and (more generally) mind. Putting the point paradoxically but also quite precisely: the efforts to solve the mind'body problem, and this its latest variant form, are the very disease of which they take themselves to be the cure. I give examples drawn from sociology and from philosophy to support this claim, and then try to mitigate this vicious consequence of Cognitivism in both disciplines by offering a Wittgensteinian dissolution of the (pseudo-)problem as an alternative to (hopeless) cognitivist efforts to solve it.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 51-86 |
Number of pages | 36 |
Journal | Theory, Culture and Society |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Apr 2008 |
Keywords
- Chomsky
- Colin McGinn
- Dance
- Dancer
- Fodor
- Wittgenstein
- Cognition
- Consciousness
- Ludwig Joseph Johann
- Cognitivism