XAT 2018 Question Paper | Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning

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Please read the passage below and answer the questions that follow:

It is sometimes said that consciousness is a mystery in the sense that we have no idea what it is. This is clearly not true. What could be better known to us than our own feelings and experiences? The mystery of consciousness is not what consciousness is, but why it is.

Modern brain imaging techniques have provided us with a rich body of correlations between physical processes in the brain and the experiences had by the person whose brain it is. We know, for example, that a person undergoing stimulation in her or his ventromedial hypothalamus feels hunger. The problem is that no one knows why these correlations hold. It seems perfectly conceivable that ventromedial hypothalamus stimulation could do its job in the brain without giving rise to any kind of feeling at all. No one has even the beginnings of an explanation of why some physical systems, such as the human brain, have experiences. This is the difficulty David Chalmers famously called ‘the hard problem of consciousness’.

Materialists hope that we will one day be able to explain consciousness in purely physical terms. But this project now has a long history of failure. The problem with materialist approaches to the hard problem is that they always end up avoiding the issue by redefining what we mean by ‘consciousness’. They start off by declaring that they are going to solve the hard problem, to explain experience; but somewhere along the way they start using the word ‘consciousness’ to refer not to experience but to some complex behavioural functioning associated with experience, such as the ability of a person to monitor their internal states or to process information about the environment. Explaining complex behaviours is an important scientific endeavour. But the hard problem of consciousness cannot be solved by changing the subject.

In spite of these difficulties, many scientists and philosophers maintain optimism that materialism will prevail. At every point in this glorious history, it is claimed, philosophers have declared that certain phenomena are too special to be explained by physical science – light, chemistry, life – only to be subsequently proven wrong by the relentless march of scientific progress.

Before Galileo it was generally assumed that matter had sensory qualities: tomatoes were red, paprika was spicy, flowers were sweet-smelling. How could an equation capture the taste of spicy paprika? And if sensory qualities can’t be captured in a mathematical vocabulary, it seemed to follow that a mathematical vocabulary could never capture the complete nature of matter. Galileo’s solution was to strip matter of its sensory qualities and put them in the soul (as we might put it, in the mind). The sweet smell isn’t really in the flowers, but in the soul (mind) of the person smelling them … Even colours for Galileo aren’t on the surfaces of the objects themselves, but in the soul of the person observing them. And if matter in itself has no sensory qualities, then it’s possible in principle to describe the material world in the purely quantitative vocabulary of mathematics. This was the birth of mathematical physics.

But of course Galileo didn’t deny the existence of the sensory qualities. If Galileo were to time travel to the present day and be told that scientific materialists are having a problem explaining consciousness in purely physical terms, he would no doubt reply, “Of course they do, I created physical science by taking consciousness out of the physical world!”

Question 8 : Which of the following statements captures the essence of the passage?

1. Materialists redefine the hard problem by changing the issues.
2. The hard problem cannot be solved by materialists.
3. Materialists can explain the reasons humans see a particular colour.
4. Materialists and philosophers agree on the concept of consciousness.
5. The hard problem can best be solved by segregation.

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Explanatory Answer

A. Materialists redefine the hard problem by changing the issues. – This option only gives a reason as to why the hard problem becomes difficult or impossible to solve by the materialists. The passage conveys other ideas as well. This is not the essence. Hence, this option can be eliminated.
B. The hard problem cannot be solved by materialists. – The passage defines the hard problem and how materialists are finding it difficult to grapple with it. It goes on to say how it can be solved and why possibly materialists cannot be the ones who solve it (the Galileo example of separation). The whole run-up was to convey that the materialists would not solve the hard problem. This is the right answer choice.
C. Materialists can explain the reasons humans see a particular colour. – The sensory perceptions and Galileo’s theory on ‘colours’ form only a part of the passage but that is not the main idea or essence of it. So, this option can be eliminated.
D. Materialists and philosophers agree on the concept of consciousness. – It is only stated that scientists and philosophers believe that materialism will prevail. The passage clearly notes that the materialists deviate from the hard problem by treating ‘consciousness’ not as an experience but as a behavioral pattern. This indicates some level of disagreement. So, this cannot be the right answer choice.
E. The hard problem can best be solved by segregation. – This talks squarely about the solving part, and does not mention anything about who are trying to solve it, or anything else. This is not the essence. This option can be done away with.

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The question is "Which of the following statements captures the essence of the passage?"

Hence, the answer is The hard problem cannot be solved by materialists.

Choice B is the correct answer.