1 - Introduction

Introduction draft - something like the following:

For centuries, philosophers and scientists have struggled to explain the nature of consciousness; whilst considerable progress has been made, there remains no widespread consensus as to what constitutes a valid explanation. The contribution of science to this debate has been particularly interesting; questions that were once considered purely philosophical in nature are now often approached from a scientific perspective. In light of this development, it is worth drawing attention to the following question: to what extent is science able to explain the nature of consciousness?

The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the issues relating scientific explanation to consciousness. I begin with a brief discussion of scientific explanation, outlining the deductive-nomological and causal-mechanical accounts, and acknowledging the absence of an ideal explanatory model. I then introduce the hard and easy problems of consciousness, and examine the role of scientific explanation in addressing these problems.