When was David Chalmers born and where did he grow up?
David John Chalmers was born on the 20th of April 1966 in Sydney, New South Wales. He grew up in Adelaide, South Australia.
Questions about David Chalmers
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What book by Douglas Hofstadter changed David Chalmers career path from mathematics to philosophy?
The single volume that redirected his entire career path from pure mathematics is Gödel, Escher, Bach published in 1979. This book awakened an interest in philosophy when Chalmers was 13 years old.
How does David Chalmers define the hard problem of consciousness compared to easy problems?
Easy problems involve explaining object discrimination or verbal reports through physical mechanisms while the hard problem asks why feeling accompanies awareness of sensory information at all. He argues for an explanatory gap between objective brain states and subjective experience.
What are philosophical zombies according to David Chalmers argument about qualia?
Philosophical zombies are complete physical duplicates of human beings lacking only qualitative experience. Since such zombies are conceivable they must therefore be logically possible which means qualia and sentience are not fully explained by physical properties alone.
When did David Chalmers return to Australia after working in the United States?
David Chalmers returned to Australia in 2004 encouraged by an ARC Federation Fellowship. He had previously served as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona from 1999 to 2004.