Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
The Conscious Mind summary
David J. Chalmers
In Search of a Fundamental Theory
18 mins
Brief summary
The Conscious Mind by David J. Chalmers explores the nature of consciousness and the mind-body problem. Chalmers presents his influential theory of the 'hard problem' of consciousness and offers new insights into this philosophical puzzle.
Topics
Table of Contents
The Conscious Mind
Summary of 4 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 4
An easy and a hard problem
To understand the problems that science faces in explaining the experience of consciousness, it’s important to understand the difference between easy and hard problems that must be solved. On the one hand, functions relating to cognition and behavior have clear neural links. Neuroscientists make progress daily in connecting memory formation in the hippocampus or decision signals in prefrontal cortex networks to their psychological purposes.
Studying how the brain enables perceptions, thoughts, actions, and skills is what the author grouped as the easy problems. Not much doubt remains about these processes in cognitive neuroscience. But most accept that physical systems somehow support mental functions, so further research will keep connecting those dots.
But these discoveries leave a lot of mystery around conscious experience itself. For instance, why the redness of red, the bitterness of sourness, the feelings of what anger or joy are like. Unlike functions, these raw sensations have an accompanying aspect called phenomenal consciousness. And here lies the hard nut to crack: on top of all cognitive, behavioral abilities made possible by the brain, lies the more mysterious emergence of the subjective inner life.
Chalmers argued that no amount of solving easy problems can explain why or how conscious experiences arise at all. Most organisms on Earth, after all, likely process information by reacting to their environments without feeling anything inside. Imagine swarms of silicon artificial intelligence bots faithfully mimicking people but with no consciousness. They lack this phenomenal consciousness – the rich world of felt sensations – that makes life worth living.
The mystery is why hunks of biological matter produce inner worlds full of images, sounds, and scents, which live in technicolor phenomenology, or experience of being. Our brains somehow enable this, yet the qualities themselves float free somewhere outside of information processing.
By comparison, understanding everything about how TVs work – from electrodes firing pixels to circuit boards computing signals to speakers popping – doesn’t directly explain what it’s like to experience watching a movie. The hardware supports the content but remains silent on where the vivid scenes come from.
Similarly, no list of neural connections that correlate to perception or decision-making can reveal what it feels like to see red, concentrate on a book, or hurt from a breakup. Science might be able to map processes supporting consciousness, but it dodges the heart of the issue: why activity produces such eruptions of feelings and experiences at all.
In philosophical terms, there appears to be an explanatory gap between physical systems described by science and the phenomenal properties we experience as a result. The story of objective functions around vision misses the main character: the subjective sight with all its technicolor glory that we experience. Easy explanations leave the hard problem a total mystery.
For decades science has struggled to fit sentience into a cold mechanical universe, but we’ve achieved no satisfactory answer as to why or how our brains manufacture soul-like conscious minds. So the hard problem stands as a gauntlet thrown, the last bastion for materialist science to conquer.
Want to see all full key ideas from The Conscious Mind?
Key ideas in The Conscious Mind
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is The Conscious Mind about?
The Conscious Mind (1996) is a groundbreaking work analyzing why subjective experience has remained so resistant to conventional scientific explanations. It argues that consciousness must be considered a fundamental property woven into reality rather than an illusory emergent product of brain computations.
The Conscious Mind Review
The Conscious Mind (1996) by David J. Chalmers presents a comprehensive exploration of consciousness and its place in the world. Here's why this book is worth reading:
- Offers a rich understanding of consciousness by examining various theories and philosophical approaches, making it an enlightening read for anyone interested in the mind.
- Challenges traditional assumptions and provides fresh perspectives on consciousness, encouraging readers to think critically and expand their understanding of the subject.
- Engages readers with its clear and thought-provoking insights, ensuring that the exploration of consciousness is anything but boring.
Who should read The Conscious Mind?
- Technologists and futurists contemplating machine consciousness
- Curious minds exploring the connections between science and spirit
- Anyone appreciating thought experiments that challenge fundamental assumptions about reality
Categories with The Conscious Mind
Book summaries like The Conscious Mind
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked these summaries
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
32 Million
Downloads on all platforms
10+ years
Experience igniting personal growth
The Conscious Mind FAQs
What is the main message of The Conscious Mind?
The main message of The Conscious Mind is exploring the mystery of consciousness and the nature of our subjective experiences.
How long does it take to read The Conscious Mind?
The reading time for The Conscious Mind varies depending on the reader, but it typically takes several hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is The Conscious Mind a good book? Is it worth reading?
The Conscious Mind is a thought-provoking read, unraveling the enigma of consciousness and offering profound insights into the workings of our mind.
Who is the author of The Conscious Mind?
The author of The Conscious Mind is David J. Chalmers.
What to read after The Conscious Mind?
If you're wondering what to read next after The Conscious Mind, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Olivia Telford
- Mindstuck by Michael McQueen
- A New Way To Think by Roger L. Martin
- Choosing to Run by Des Linden
- I Didn't Know I Needed This by Eli Rallo
- Dopamine Detox by Thibaut Meurisse
- The Seven Circles by Chelsey Luger & Thosh Collins
- Come Together by Emily Nagoski
- The Poetry and Music of Science by Tom McLeish
- Power And Prediction by Ajay Agrawal