Why Does Consciousness Exist, Anywhere?

The Consciousness Key, Chapter 8

1. Introduction

With the golden key in hand, we are now ready to unlock the door to the gold room. As we step into this room, we might feel like celebrating. We might feel as though we have arrived at a grand understanding of consciousness. Consciousness is real. Consciousness is not merely a rearrangement of the non-conscious. Consciousness is not a late-coming accident of a fundamentally mindless reality. Instead, consciousness is in some sense foundational—not explained in terms of any prior mindless realities.

This result does not imply that all forms of consciousness lack a deeper explanation. Perhaps consciousness in its most basic form is not the same as the consciousness we know in our particular human situations. Still, the view we are now considering is that consciousness, at its most basic level, is rooted in the foundation of reality.

This view marks great progress.

Yet before we rest in our celebrations, we encounter puzzle in the gold room. This puzzle may be among the strangest and most challenging puzzles I have considered as a philosopher, and as a person. The puzzle is not only about consciousness. It concerns the fundamental nature of reality. It calls into question how and why anything could exist at all.

In this chapter, we will follow this puzzle to its depth. We will ask why consciousness exists at all, why unexplained consciousness threatens to make reality arbitrary, and why appeals to God, nature, and mystery do not solve the problem. By the end, you will see why this puzzle is not a side issue in the study of consciousness. It is the final lock. Through its keyhole shines a light from the deepest possible understanding of everything that could ever matter.

We will not rush toward the answer we want to be true. We will follow lines of reason and experience into the depth of the puzzle, seeking the truth wherever it leads.