What Is Consciousness?

Philosophy's Deepest Inquiry into the Mind, from Ancient Meditations on the Self Through Descartes and Phenomenology to the Hard Problem and AIBy Alex Omberg

Listen with Sir Michael Caine™ and 1,000+ voices

Length3h 36m

About this audiobook

The greatest mystery in the universe isn't out there. It is inside your head. You are conscious right now. You are reading these words, and there is a specific feeling of what it is like to be you doing so. But how does wet, physical brain matter create vivid, subjective experience? This single question—the Hard Problem of Consciousness—remains the most baffling puzzle in both science and philosophy. In What Is Consciousness?, Alex Omberg takes you on an exhilarating, 2,500-year journey through the ultimate labyrinth: the human mind. From the ancient temples of Greece and the deep meditation traditions of India, to the mind-bending theories of modern phenomenology and the cutting-edge frontiers of Artificial Intelligence, this book bridges the gap between ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience. You will never look at yourself—or the world around you—the same way again.

Psychological

Identity

Artificial Intelligence

Mystery

Memory

Audiobook details

GenrePhilosophy, Science and Nature

Length3 hrs 36 mins

Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices

FormateBook with Audio

Publish dateMay 10, 2026

LanguageEnglish

1Introduction: The Mystery You Are

44The Lived Body

2Chapter 1: Know Thyself

45Consciousness and Freedom

3The Divided Soul

46The First-Person Perspective

4Form and Function

47Chapter 8: The Hard Problem

5The Ruling Faculty

48Easy Problems and Hard Problem

Show all chapters

6Atoms of the Soul

49The Knowledge Argument

7The Self Examined

50The Zombie Argument

8Chapter 2: The Inner Light

51Materialist Responses

9The Self Beyond Experience

52The Structure of Experience

10No Self to Be Found

53Integrated Information Theory

11Maps of the Mind

54Living with Mystery

12The Argument from Introspection

55Chapter 9: The Panpsychist Turn

13The Living Laboratory

56The Appeal of Panpsychism

14Chapter 3: The Ghost in the Machine

57The Combination Problem

15Two Substances

58Responses to Combination

16The Interaction Problem

59Micropsychism and Russellian Monism

17Occasionalism and Parallelism

60Objections and Alternatives

18The Legacy of Dualism

61Emergentism as Alternative

19The Problem Evolves

62Living with Uncertainty

20Chapter 4: The Identity Puzzle

63Chapter 10: Machine Minds

21Memory and the Self

64The Chinese Room

22The Bundle Theory

65Narrow AI and General AI

23Thought Experiments

66The Hard Problem Returns

24What Are We?

67Ethical Implications

25What Really Matters

68The Spectrum of Consciousness

26Chapter 5: The Problem of Other Minds

69Alternative Architectures

27The Argument from Analogy

70The Future Is Arriving

28Philosophical Zombies

71Chapter 11: The View from Within

29Behaviorism's Response

72Neurophenomenology

30Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument

73The Question of Scope

31The Inference to Best Explanation

74Altered States

32Living with Uncertainty

75Disorders of Consciousness

33Chapter 6: Mind Equals Brain?

76Contemplative Science

34The Identity Theory

77Theoretical Pluralism

35Functionalism

78The Path Forward

36Eliminative Materialism

79Epilogue: The Light That Knows Itself

37The Explanatory Gap

80Appendix A: Timeline

38Property Dualism

81Appendix B: Annotated Further Reading

39The Persistence of Mystery

82Primary Sources

40Chapter 7: The Return to Experience

83Secondary Sources: Introductions and Surveys

41The Method of Epoché

84Secondary Sources: Specialized Studies

42Being-in-the-World

85Online Resources

43Embodied Consciousness

About the author

Alex Omberg

I publish audiobooks dedicated to philosophy and the biographies of literary giants. Also known as "The Philosophy School," my work focuses on substance and clarity. I aim to provide professional, thorough overviews that explain ideas and lives simply, without talking down to the listener. Whether exploring Stoicism or the world of Virginia Woolf, you will find reliable narratives here. To stay updated on new releases, please subscribe to my mailing list using the link in the personal website section.View all by Alex Omberg