Phenomenal Consciousness; a Challenge to Physicalism

Neuroscience's success in explaining mental states has led many scientists and philosophers to adopt physicalist methods, aiming to explain human nature solely through physical concepts. The main challenge to this view is consciousness, specifically the mind-body problem. This article argues that phenomenal awareness is the most important challenge to materialism. By dividing consciousness into "perceptual consciousness" and "phenomenal consciousness," it contends that scientific theories can at best explain perceptual consciousness, but phenomenal consciousness remains beyond the reach of physical sciences due to the inherent nature of mentality, unless a first-person perspective science is recognized.

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Abstract

The undeniable success of neuroscience in explaining human mental states, which in the past were explained in terms of supernatural concepts, has led many modern-day scientists and philosophers to advocate physicalist methods in explaining human nature. According to this view, science, by recognizing the physiological structures of man, especially the brain and its functions, will finally be able to explain human nature with all its features through mere physical concepts. The most important challenge to this view has always been the question of consciousness, or in its traditional sense, how the mind and body relate. However, contemporary scientists try to explain the phenomenon of consciousness through the physical sciences by presenting new scientific theories and concepts about the mechanisms of the brain and its relation to mental states. The purpose of this article is to show that phenomenal awareness is the most important challenge to the theory of materialism. Examining the concept of consciousness and dividing it into two parts, "perceptual consciousness" and "phenomenal consciousness", we have argued that scientific theories at best provide only an explanation of perceptual consciousness, while challenging The main science of the natural sciences is the explanation of phenomenal consciousness. But phenomenal consciousness is beyond the reach of the physical sciences because of the inherent nature of mentality, unless it recognizes first-person perspective science.