Consciousness came before life

I disagree. I don't see how qualia and subjective perception could possibly be of this world, this physical reality. So they must be of a non-physical reality. Other aspects of mind such as thought and understanding are very similar to qualia in that they are completely immaterial and evidently not of this physical reality, which justifies their inclusion with qualia in the formulation of the Hard Problem. So we have two groups of purely mental phenomena or properties of consciousness that are evidently not of our physical reality. Collectively all these aspects or properties of consciousness constitute what appears to be a conscious nonphysical entity corresponding to what is considered to be the nonphysical spirit of a physical human being. Which implies that this nonphysical spirit must inhabit a spiritual realm of reality, that is, an afterlife.

Well qualia are part of the corporeal world, if we want to reserve "physical" for only that which is measurable by physics.

The first person experience is also outside of physics, but I don't think this by necessity points to an immortal soul. It could, depending on how we try to give a solution, but AFAIK Chalmers has not ever stated that the Hard Problem on its own is proof of a nonphysical spirit.

edit: For clarity I do think the mind's ability to grasp concepts/universals is a sign of it being "immaterial" in a strict sense, as Feser notes. And if nothing else the Hard Problem of Subjectivity, along with Thoughts-About-Things + Use-Of-Reason, does lend some a priori weight to the actual Survival evidence being valid.

Well qualia are part of the corporeal world, if we want to reserve "physical" for only that which is measurable by physics.

The first person experience is also outside of physics, but I don't think this by necessity points to an immortal soul. It could, depending on how we try to give a solution, but AFAIK Chalmers has not ever stated that the Hard Problem on its own is proof of a nonphysical spirit.

edit: For clarity I do think the mind's ability to grasp concepts/universals is a sign of it being "immaterial" in a strict sense, as Feser notes. And if nothing else the Hard Problem of Subjectivity, along with Thoughts-About-Things + Use-Of-Reason, does lend some a priori weight to the actual Survival evidence being valid.

Could you explain? "Corporeal" means physical, bodily, material, or tangible, so qualia are definitely not part of the corporeal world.

Could you explain? "Corporeal" means physical, bodily, material, or tangible, so qualia are definitely not part of the corporeal world.

Well I use corporeal as Feser uses it in the article I linked to, since we need some word to describe something that may be a part of the world we live in now but is not captured by physics.

Also unclear how one defines "bodily, material, or tangible" without some sort of grounding in our subjective experiences.

One *could* make an argument that at least some qualia - if not all - are Universals, and maybe our grasp of such Universals points to an immortal soul. I just don't think simply noting the Hard Problem is an indicator that experiencing subjects have immortal souls.

Well qualia are part of the corporeal world, if we want to reserve "physical" for only that which is measurable by physics.

The first person experience is also outside of physics, but I don't think this by necessity points to an immortal soul. It could, depending on how we try to give a solution, but AFAIK Chalmers has not ever stated that the Hard Problem on its own is proof of a nonphysical spirit.

edit: For clarity I do think the mind's ability to grasp concepts/universals is a sign of it being "immaterial" in a strict sense, as Feser notes. And if nothing else the Hard Problem of Subjectivity, along with Thoughts-About-Things + Use-Of-Reason, does lend some a priori weight to the actual Survival evidence being valid.

I don't think the survival evidence when looked at unbiasedly really needs to be given extra weight by other and philosophical considerations. In my opinion the survival evidence is strong enough to stand on its own merits as being valid.

I think Feser is being extremely farfetched if he is proposing as a distinct possibility that qualia and subjective awareness are really part of a non-spiritual world that is closely related to the physical world governed by the laws of physics, and that therefore qualia et. al. are not evidence at all for the existence of a totally nonphysical and therefore spiritual essence of human beings, that the existence of qualia and subjective awareness and perception are not evidence that human consciousness is ultimately nonphysical and of another higher level of existence. This line of thought really seems to me to be grasping at straws.

I don't think the survival evidence when looked at unbiasedly really needs to be given extra weight by other and philosophical considerations. In my opinion the survival evidence is strong enough to stand on its own merits as being valid.

Perhaps, but ultimately proponents should put out the strongest case possible.

I think Feser is being extremely farfetched if he is proposing as a distinct possibility that qualia and subjective awareness are really part of a non-spiritual world that is closely related to the physical world governed by the laws of physics, and that therefore qualia et. al. are not evidence at all for the existence of a totally nonphysical and therefore spiritual essence of human beings, that the existence of qualia and subjective awareness and perception are not evidence that human consciousness is ultimately nonphysical and of another higher level of existence. This line of thought really seems to me to be grasping at straws.

But even Chalmers didn't and AFAIK still doesn't think any of the bold immediately follows from the Hard Problem?

Many scientists, operating with a materialist worldview, argue that consciousness emerges out of inanimate molecules. In contrast, Roger Penrose's longtime collaborator, Stuart Hameroff, puts forward the controversial case that consciousness precedes life and that we have evidence for this from a recent NASA experiment.