consciousness is social.
Consciousness is not that complicated! So why do we struggle so much with it—what makes it a “hard problem” 18 for philosophers?
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Since “hardness” is subjective, a cross-cultural perspective is helpful.19 As it turns out, philosophers in the modern European tradition are far from the norm; they are, to use evolutionary anthropologist Joseph Henrich’s term, WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic.20 Let’s step outside this bubble, which is, both historically and psychologically, a minority.
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WEIRD beliefs about what counts as a “who” are particular. Then again, any such beliefs are particular. What seems to distinguish WEIRD beliefs from those of traditional societies is their single-mindedness—literally. Philosophical debates about consciousness in the West focus heavily on the inner life of an individual: per Descartes, “Cogito, ergo sum,” meaning “I think, therefore I am.” That packs a lot of “I” for such a short sentence.
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Centuries of introspective discourse have carried on about qualia and “phenomenal consciousness” while ignoring the fundamentally social and relational nature of theory of mind, and the way consciousness arises precisely when we model ourselves the way we model others. For example, in her book Conscious, Annaka Harris writes,
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→ I disagre with the rcis anthropocentric framing of this claim; “constituted through social practice”, yes, but bacteria too are engaged in social practice.