# David Chalmers David Chalmers (born 1966) is an Australian philosopher at New York University, known for formulating the "hard problem of consciousness"—why there is subjective experience at all, beyond explaining cognitive functions. His 1996 book *The Conscious Mind* argued that [[Consciousness]] cannot be reduced to physical processes and proposed property [[Dualism]]: consciousness as a fundamental feature of reality alongside physical properties. Chalmers developed the philosophical zombie thought experiment: beings physically identical to humans but lacking [[Qualia]]. If zombies are conceivable, consciousness isn't reducible to physics. He's also contributed to philosophy of technology, exploring the nature of reality in virtual worlds. ## Key Contributions | Concept | Description | |---------|-------------| | **Hard problem** | Why subjective experience exists | | **Philosophical zombies** | Thought experiment against physicalism | | **Property dualism** | Consciousness as fundamental property | ## Quotes <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/quote AND [[David Chalmers]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> ## Books <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/book AND [[David Chalmers]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> ## References - Chalmers, D. (1996). *The Conscious Mind* - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chalmers ## Related - [[Philosophy of Mind]] - [[Consciousness]] - [[Qualia]] - [[Dualism]] - [[Thomas Nagel]]