My name is Shankar and I have created this blog to discuss consciousness, qualia, the mind-body problem and related issues. I am not a professional philosopher in any sense, and am not familiar with the latest papers/technical terms used in the philosophy community. However I think this allows me to view these issues from a fresh perspective. And really, one cannot say that established philosophers have a better picture than novices like me - the established ones themselves are split into many different camps that it is logically impossible for *all* of them to be better than me! Unlike physics where a novice cannot hope to make any significant contribution to current theories without a PhD in Physics and a fundamental understanding of the Standard Model or String theory, fortunately the field of consciousness and qualia is based more on ones intuition and subjective experiences. Thus it is within easier reach of earnest individuals like me who seek to find answers for personal as opposed to professional reasons.
Even though I am not familiar with all the various theories floating around, and all jargon, I want to present my own theories/thought experiments as well as contribute jargon of my own! It is quite possible that my exact arguments/theories have already been published, but I most likely will not know about it (since I don't have access to professional journals and rely mostly on what I read on the web). Of course, readers can leave comments on my blogs to bring to my attention any similarities/discrepancies.
I wish to stop here for now. I look forward to your interest in my subsequent posts. Thanks.
