Why Philosophy Converges on the Hard Problem

Philosophy of Mind
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Metaphysics asks what is real. Eventually it arrives at the question of the nature of the reality that includes experience.

Epistemology asks how we know. Eventually it arrives at the question of who or what is the knower.

Ethics asks what we should do. Eventually it arrives at the question of for whom it matters.

Aesthetics asks what is beauty. Eventually it arrives at the question of for whom it is beautiful.

Philosophy of mind asks what is consciousness. This is directly the Hard Problem.

Philosophy of language asks what is meaning. Eventually it arrives at the question of for whom it means.

Phenomenology asks what is experience. This is directly the Hard Problem.

Ontology asks what exists. Eventually it arrives at the question of what is the being for whom things exist.

Every path leads to the same place: the existence of subjective experience.

Why This Happens

Experience is presupposed in every inquiry. You cannot ask a question without being conscious.

Every answer is given to a subject. There is no answer that is not an answer for someone.

Every framework assumes an experiencer. There is no framework without a point of view.

The Hard Problem is the presupposition of all problems. It is the condition of there being any problem at all.

The Hard Problem as the Ground

If the Hard Problem is the ground, then all philosophy leads to it. It is not one problem among many -it is the fundamental problem.

It cannot be solved from within, because it is the condition of inquiry itself.

It dissolves when understood, because it is not a problem - it is the ground of all problems.

My Position
Consciousness is fundamental. It is the ground of all inquiry.

The Hard Problem dissolves because it is not a problem - it is the condition.

Language introduces duality. The duality is between the inquirer and the inquired.

Simulation Theory taken seriously dissolves the problem because it reveals the inquirer as the player - not an object within the simulation.

Either Consciousness is non-physical and so too everything experienced as physical.
or
Consciousness is physical and everything experienced as physical is made of the same stuff as consciousness.

Thus consciousness in essence is the most refined physical state and all things created from it are various densities of consciousness which produce formation which can be experienced by that which creates them from itself.

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That’s a really good philosophy, how did you arrive at this ?

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All you have written ignores the Hard Problem, because you have described everything in third person: this is that…, this does that…, this arrives at that… This way you have considered each thing you have talked about, including the Hard Problem, as an object. The Hard Problem does not exist in such a context in third person, made of objects. Nobody would have ever talked about or would have been interested in “The Hard Problem”, or “The Vertiginous Question”, if they wouldn’t have considered their own feeling while thinking about self identity. I think there are now thousands of definitions of the Hard Problem, or of Consciousness, all in your same style: the Hard Problem is this, Consciousness is that. Some people invoke quantum physics, other ones invoke other systems, but they are all the same: all in third person, all considering their topic as an object.

Try instead to pay attention to yourself, now. Why did it happen that precisely you exist now, in your location, instead of anyone else? The meaning of this question should be understood not by referring to you as an entity that exists like other entities, but by referring to your live, ongoing, actual, present, current experience of you feeling yourself alive and present, powerfully available to your own attention. The problem arises the moment you do not limit yourself to just thinking and reflecting, but try to pay attention to the fact that you can feel your presence in your ongoing present, in this moment, in first person, as something that is yours, living, commanded by you. If you try to do this, you will realize that in your experience you are not just another one, but the one who is feeling your alive experience from inside your self consciousness in its current action. You are the only person in this world able to feel yourself in first person. This is the Hard Problem. I have made an effort to guide you to feel it, but it cannot be described, it can only be felt. In this first stage of feeling, it is not a problem, it is just a feeling.

It becomes a problem the moment you decide to try to apply to this feeling the activity of reasoning, reflecting, wanting to understand. In this next step you jump into adopting the third person, which means you enter into a mentality of objectification. This is the moment when your feeling becomes the Hard Problem of consciousness, because in that moment the objectifying mentality bumps into the impenetrability of subjectivity and gets frustrated, because it thought that it was able understand and penetrate everything with her analytical power.

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Consciousness is the combination of contemplation and experience as formed by the matter and mass that is the Human Body.

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That’s close to my position. Consciousness is the ground from which everything else proceeds. My position would also include that existence is at the very least metaphysically impossible without consciousness/mind. Maybe logically impossible.

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I arrived at this. Not through a single insight, but through the convergence of many.
Philosophically, this became more pronounced recently, as I have read various threads on this very board.

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If existence requires acknowledgment, then existence without consciousness is not just metaphysically impossible - it is incoherent. There is no ‘existence’ without something to acknowledge it. The two are inseparable. That is what I mean when I say the Hard Problem is not a puzzle to be solved - it is the condition of there being any puzzle at all. It is the ground from which all else must arise.

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Maybe, that’s why I added that it might be logically impossible.

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I’m interested in how you developed your conclusion over time?

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That’s a big book to write.

Which is why I have been sharing “snippets” on said journey here on this site…

The Rattling Chains of Supernaturalism and The Occult
Mentor and I - Journalling
The Coherent Causality Argument

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Various densities of consciousness?

I think density is usually quantifiable, but I wouldn’t know where to start measuring the density of consciousness.

Can you say more?

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Yes. This is based on the idea that the essence of Consciousness itself is Material. (The most refined) and that formation results through purpose and having said material in which to “make it so”.

No one (so far) has. Generally the language of duality frames “consciousness” as “non-physical” and so, how does one measure something that isn’t physical?

The idea I present here is that consciousness is not only fundamental - but also the fundamental of all things we can measure as formation.

These are the densities. In our reality, they are the space and everything inside of that particular space which can be measured.

So in effect The Hard Problem maybe = “how to we accurately measure it?”

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How does one “feel” a color?

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Why not:
Philosophy of mind asks what is consciousness. The inquiry and its subject are the same thing.

Why not:
Phenomenology asks what is experience. The inquiry begins with what it asks about.

Why “physical” here? You already said that consciousness is fundamental.

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Why physical is that everything else is.
Or
We could state that yes - consciousness is non-physical and therefore everything else is also non-physical.

What is being argued is that there is one fundamental “stuff” and since we think of “things” as being physical, and consciousness is “some thing”… The word “physical” is not a metaphysical commitment—it is a consequence of the fact that consciousness is something, not nothing.

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Something and not nothing then is presupposed to consciousness?

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Every point you have made (about ontology, phenomenology, metaphysics, language, epistemology) presupposes a split between subject and world. You are correct that this split defines the hard problem. But identifying this split doesnt dissolve the hard problem, it reifies it. What dissolves the hard problem is taking phenomenological philosophy seriously when it demonstrates that the subjective and the objective poles of experience are not independent entities but reciprocally dependent aspects of a single process. Consciousness is not a subject peering out at world from one side of a divide, but a process which constitutes both subject and world via their interaction.

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What do you mean by “feel”? I see red. I feel surface as rough. I have a tingling sensation. I taste sweetness. I hear sounds.

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Does anything exist without consciousness existing?

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THat is part of my overall point, yes.

True. That is why I add what “my position” is, in the opening post.

If such demonstrates, then yes…

This is acheived by consciousness being able to have subjective experiences throughout apparently objective formations.
“You” and “I” - The same fundamental Consciousness expressing through different formations

Remove all other things and Consciousness remains not only its own subject but also its own object.