http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/03/13/the-consciousness-deniers/

I think this essay is fascinating, but it leaves out a few important points… one of which is the compelling urge to believe that something is complete when we know stuff ‘about’ parts of it. For example, our ideas presume that the brain is ‘responsible’ for consciousness… but there has never been a brain separated from an entire body and universe that is or can be conscious.

“What is the silliest claim ever made? The competition is fierce, but I think the answer is easy. Some people have denied the existence of consciousness: conscious experience, the subjective character of experience, the “what-it-is-like” of experience. Next to this denial—I’ll call it “the Denial”—every known religious belief is only a little less sensible than the belief that grass is green.

The Denial began in the twentieth century and continues today in a few pockets of philosophy and psychology and, now, information technology. It had two main causes: the rise of the behaviorist approach in psychology, and the naturalistic approach in philosophy. These were good things in their way, but they spiraled out of control and gave birth to the Great Silliness. I want to consider these main causes first, and then say something rather gloomy about a third, deeper, darker cause. But before that, I need to comment on what is being denied—consciousness, conscious experience, experience for short.”