Sisyphus’s Boulder
Consciousness and the limits of the knowable
2004
First Published
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Consciousness lies at the core of being human. Therefore, to understand ourselves, we need a theory of consciousness. In "Sisyphus' Boulder," Eric Dietrich and Valerie Hardcastle argue that we will never get such a theory because consciousness has an essential property that prevents it from ever being explained. Consequently, philosophical debates over materialism and dualism are a waste of time. Scientific explanations of consciousness fare no better. Scientists do study consciousness, and such investigations will continue to grow and advance. However, none of them will ever reveal what consciousness is. In addition, given the centrality of consciousness in philosophy, Dietrich and Hardcastle claim that philosophy itself needs to change. That the central problems of philosophy persist is actually a profound epistemic fact about humans. Philosophy, then, is a limit to what humans can understand. (Series A)
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Authors
Eric Dietrich
Author · 1 books
Eric Dietrich is a professor of philosophy at Binghamton University. Before studying philosophy, he was a concert pianist and mountain climber. He has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Wyoming, and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Arizona. Between those two degrees, he worked for a Nasa/Defense Department contractor in their artificial intelligence unit. He is the author of numerous papers, most recently focusing on paraconsistent logic and true contradictions. His most-read paper is "There is no progress in philosophy" (Essays in Philosophy, vol. 12 iss. 2, 2011; http://commons.pacificu.edu/eip/vol12...). With Tara Fox Hall, he wrote "The Allure of the Serial Killer," which came out in the book Serial Killers, edited by Sara Waller. He co-authored Sisyphus' Boulder: Consciousness and the Limits of the Knowable, a book on consciousness' resistance to scientific explanation. He also edits the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence.
