Turning the Tables

Dr. Michael Egnor posted The Hard and Easy Problems in the Mind-Brain Question at Evolution News and Views. Egnor has this to say:

The hard problem of consciousness is the most important problem in understanding the mind, and thus far materialism has provided no insight. It is unclear how it even could provide insight. Nothing about the scientific characterization of matter—and nothing about materialism—explains the emergence of subjective experience. The principal materialist response to this catastrophe for materialist ideology has been to deny the relevance of subjective experience to our understanding of the mind. Yet the retreat to science and the denial of the relevance of philosophy is no refuge. Science is natural philosophy.

Materialists, left with the choice of denying materialism or denying the reality of subjective mental experience, deny subjective mental experience. There is no fanaticism like materialist fanaticism.

Egnor turns a favorite tactic of materialists against them. Materialists like to refer to the material nature of the brain in arguing against duality. But the material nature of the brain demands explanations that are consistent with materialism and Egnor has highlighted the fact that no insight into subjective experiences is forthcoming from a materialist perspective. He who lives by the sword...