The deepest question in psychology—perhaps the deepest question that humans have ever faced—concerns the very existence of mental life. We know that our minds are the products of our brains. We can even use methods such as fMRI to localize certain sorts of mental events, such as the concentration involved in reading a difficult passage of text, the nervousness that many whites feel while looking at a black male face, or the anger at being cheated while playing a simple game. But we remain mystified by what the philosopher David Chalmers has called “The hard problem”: How is it that a physical object (and not a fancy one at that, a bloody lump of grey meat) gives rise to pain, love, morality and consciousness?

Fortunately, scientists can make considerable progress without solving this problem. Viewing the mind as a computer, for instance, has given rise to detailed and intricate models of language learning, visual perception and logical reasoning—all without a theory of how computation can give rise to conscious experience. Similarly, clinical psychologists don’t need to solve the mind-body problem to ascertain the causes of specific mental disorders, or to assess potential treatments. Scientists were able to invent Prozac and Viagra without an explanation of how a material brain can produce the experience of sadness and lust. But, still, solving the mind-body problem remains a major preoccupation of both psychologists and philosophers; no science of the mind can be complete without it.

What does The Simpsons have to say about this issue?  …