Professor David Chalmers

About the Speaker: David Chalmers is professor of philosophy at the Australian National University. He is also Director of the Centre for Consciousness, and an ARC Federation Fellow. His work specializes in the philosophy of mind, and in related areas of philosophy and cognitive science. Dr. Chalmers is particularly interested in consciousness, philosophical issues about meaning and possibility, and in the foundations of cognitive science and of physics.  He is the author of The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory (Oxford, 1996), one of the most important works in the philosophy of mind in recent years. For more information on Dr. Chalmers, please visit his web site at: http://consc.net/chalmers/

"The Matrix as Metaphysics"
Abstract: Are we living in a Matrix?  And if so, is our perception of the external world illusory?  Many people, including philosophers from Descartes to Morpheus, say yes: if we're in a Matrix, then the ordinary objects that we seem to see don't exist, and we're radically deluded.  I say no: even if we're in a Matrix, ordinary objects still exist, and most of our beliefs about the external world are correct. Instead, we can see the Matrix hypothesis as a metaphysical hypothesis about the underlying nature of our world.

Mon., March 27, 2006 at 4:10 p.m. in the Business Auditorium

Tues., March 28, 2006 at 4:10 p.m. in the Business Auditorium