The Hard Problem: Interview with Steve Robbins Part 1 (Daymakers 15)

Meet Stephen Robbins for a discussion on metaphysics and consciousness. In part 1 of this interview, Robbins introduces himself and considers the difficulties surrounding conceptualizations of what David Chalmers has termed "The Hard Problem." According to Robbins, the problem ought to be defined by posing the question as follows: how is it that the world around us becomes manifest to our senses? As Chalmers has it, however, the question is, How is it that objective physical processes culminate in subjective experiences? Robbins says Chalmers is getting the question wrong and locates the origin of the philosophical trouble in Galileo's instantiation of "the classic metaphysic": the idea that there's an objective, measurable world that exists apart from the qualities (or qualia) that our senses impose upon it. To put the problem poetically, you might wonder, as Thomas Nagel did, "What is it like to be a bat?"