David Chalmers

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

1. Basic local alignment search tool

   · 1990 · cited 80,093x

2. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews

   · 2021 · cited 77,634x

3. The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.

   · 1986 · cited 62,991x

4. Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error

   · 1981 · cited 60,996x

5. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement

   · 2009 · cited 58,033x

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Quotes

• “Why doesn't all this information-processing go on "in the dark", free of any inner feel? ...We know that conscious experience does arise when these functions are performed, but the very fact that it arises is the central mystery. There is an explanatory gap [a term due to J. Levine, "Materialism and qualia: The explanatory gap" Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 64:354-61, 1983] between the functions and experience, and we need an explanatory bridge to cross it.”
• “Another useful way to avoid confusion [used by e.g. Allen Newell 1990 Unified Theories of Cognition] is to reserve the term "consciousness" for the phenomena of experience, using the less loaded term "awareness" for the more straightforward phenomena... If such a convention were widely adopted, communication would be much easier; as things stand, those who talk about "consciousness" are frequently talking past each other.”
• “Consciousness is the biggest mystery. It may be the largest outstanding obstacle in our quest for a scientific understanding of the universe.”
• “I am an optimist about consciousness: I think that we will eventually have a theory of it, and in this book I look for one. But consciousness is not just business as usual; if we are to make progress, the first thing we must do is face up to the things that make the problem so difficult. Then we can move forward toward a theory, without blinkers and with a good idea of the task at hand.”
• “In developing my account of consciousness, I have tried to obey a number of constraints. The first and most important is to take consciousness seriously. The easiest way to develop a "theory" of consciousness is to deny its exis­tence, or to redefine the phenomenon in need of explanation as something it is not. This usually leads to an elegant theory, but the problem does not go away.”
• “Conscious experience is at once the most familiar thing in the world and the most mysterious.”

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Key facts

Born

David John Chalmers , ( 1966-04-20 ) 20 April 1966 (age 60) , Sydney , New South Wales , Australia

Alma mater

University of Adelaide , ( BSc , 1986), University of Oxford (1987–1988), Indiana University Bloomington ( PhD , 1993)

Thesis

Toward a Theory of Consciousness (1993)

Doctoral advisor

Douglas Hofstadter

Era

Contemporary philosophy

Region

Western philosophy

School or tradition

Analytic

Institutions

New York University

Main interests

Philosophy of mind , Consciousness , Philosophy of language

Notable ideas

Hard problem of consciousness , extended mind , two-dimensional semantics , naturalistic dualism , philosophical zombie , further facts

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Wikidata facts

Official website

consc.net

Image

David chalmers.jpg

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