Can We Understand Human Consciousness?

Legendary quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger said: “Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.”

Quite a statement, but is it true?  Certainly, humankind has made little if any progress with respect to understanding what makes up consciousness.  In Western philosophy, the phenomenologists say that “to be conscious is to be conscious of an object”–as if that gets us anywhere.

But are we saying it can’t be explained at all? Or maybe Schrödinger’s using the word “physical” to introduce the idea that consciousness has a spiritual element.

Who knows?  I’m not predicting some sort of breakthrough before I leave this planet in the next couple of decades.  But I hesitate to claim that a certain thing — anything — is immune to our comprehension.