Will consciousness remain a mystery to science?

Here’s a scientist who believes that (mortal) humans will never understand consciousness:

http://wavefunction.fieldofscience.com/2016/08/physicist-ed-witten-on-consciousness-i.html

This is something like the position held by the philosopher Colin McGinn, which is often called “mysterianism.”

I suspect that they’re right.

And I think it may be because consciousness is primary, basic, irreducible, and, accordingly, not explicable in terms of “constituent parts” or causes.  I believe it to be one of the few “givens” in the universe.  Like axioms in geometry, it’s a starting point, not the conclusion of a chain of reasoning.

Posted from Bergen, Norway