ciousness, how is one to decide which theory best describes consciousness as we experience it? I will argue that given the choice of dualism or materialism, materialism can best account for our intuitions about consciousness. In the following section, I will examine what I believe to be the main strengths and weaknesses of both of these schools of thought. First, Chalmers is able to offer perhaps the most appealing explanation of consciousness of the three schools of thought. Chalmers endorses what is known as property dualism, which in his case boils down to the view that consciousness naturally supervenes, but does not logically supervene on the physical. Property dualism differs from interactionist theories such as Descartes' in which two distinct types of substance exist. Chalmers and other property dualists hold that while there is only one type of substance (physical matter), there are properties of objects which cannot (in principle) be explained in physical terms. He believes that there are psycho-physical laws which correlate certain physical states with phenomenal states. These laws are not laws of physics but must still be accepted as fundamental, for they cannot be reduced to any more basic laws or principles. Chalmers agrees that accepting the existence of such additional fundamental laws goes against our current scientific view of the world (the view that everything is explainable by physics), but he argues that it is necessary to satisfactorily account for consciousness. Chalmers does not provide a full-fledged theory of consciousness, but he claims to provide an outline for how such a theory might go. He concentrates on the correlation between consciousness and awareness (where awareness is supposed to be explainable by psychology). The reason that property dualism might seem to provide a simpler explanation of consciousness is that instead of having to reduce consciousness to physical phenomena, which seem completely di...
