I ought to get caught up on this one before I call it a day.
Solms has been a hell of lot more fun and energizing and optimistic than Donald Hoffman’s poop - I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about him since he makes such a perfect segue from the philosophizing meta-physical disconnect of Chalmers ~ Mind-Body “Problem” ~ to the philosophizing I’m going to be doing. I think his work is worth sharing and I do what I can.
MARCH 10, 2021
Mark Solms demystifies Chalmers’ “Hard Problem” of Consciousness
... All that inspired me to put together this collection of lectures given by Dr. Mark Solms PhD, I'll be following up with another post highlighting a few of his many scientific papers.It makes a perfect transition between Hoffman’s philosophizing and my own upcoming philosophizing. Whereas I can only offer reasoning behind the perspective I believe in, Solms provides us with scientific physical evidence and clear cut justifications that are harmonious with my perspective and trust in science.
Solms deftly demystifies Chalmers’ “Hard Problem” of Consciousness, thus taking the air out of the wavy gravy meta-physical approaches to consciousness that removes it from fundamental evolutionary processes and physical reality as we know it. It’s no wonder Hoffman never mentions Solms name, nor the promise of neuropsychoanalysis.
Among the points that resonated with my own understanding,
was Solms explaining that the way we frame our questions, constrains what they can reveal to us.
Solms explains why studying visual perception and optical illusions offer little for constructively understanding consciousness.
Though he doesn’t explicitly discuss Evolution, Solms does trace the roots of consciousness to within our primal brainstem, what used to be called our ‘reptilian brain.’ This clearly places the development of consciousness way back in the dawn of creature development, with change over time driving creature Evolution, and human consciousness being part of a continuum.
Mark Solms makes consciousness accessible to understanding through the physicalist paradigm by breaking down the problem into the following categories.
The functionalist problem of consciousness
Consciousness is not a cognitive function
Consciousness is an affective function
Affect is a homeostatic function
The function of mechanism of consciousness
Regarding vision studies, from “NERV: Mark Solms - A New Approach to the Hard Problem of Consciousness”: …