From Guy Inchbald, Upton upon Severn, Worcestershire, UK
In his article “Unlocking consciousness”, George Musser describes the structuralist model of conscious experience. However, he misunderstands the nature of the “hard problem” in the philosophical theory of mind – how subjective experience arises. He assumes that, by developing a structuralist model, “science will be able to explain experience after all – and the hard problem ceases to be hard. Most philosophers who are generally sympathetic to structuralism don’t go that far” (28 March, p 30).
But there is a very good reason why we do not. Structuralism arises from the study of the objective brain signals, and their objective meanings within their objective context. No objective model can possibly address the nature of subjective qualities. All we can do is experience them for ourselves. What structuralism does achieve for the hard problem is bringing that brick wall into sharper focus, to expose the common misconception for what it is.
