He works on philosophy of mind and is best known for formulating the explanatory gap argument against a materialist explanation for consciousness.
[1] This has been cited as a precursor to David Chalmers's formulation of the hard problem of consciousness and as one of the main objections materialist theories in philosophy of mind must address.
[2][3][4] The idea of the explanatory gap is that an unbridgeable gap exists when trying to comprehend consciousness from the perspective of natural science, as a scientific explanation of mental states would require a reduction from a physical process to phenomenal experience.
The property of mental states to be experienced from a subjective point of view (qualia) might not be reducible from the objective, i.e. outside, perspective of science.
[6][7][8] Joseph Levine is married to fellow philosopher Louise Antony and is the father of Bay Area musician Rachel Lark.