RE: Occams Hatchet and Is Materialism "Special"
September 30, 2016 at 11:35 am
(This post was last modified: September 30, 2016 at 11:51 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(September 30, 2016 at 11:05 am)bennyboy Wrote:(September 30, 2016 at 3:36 am)Gemini Wrote: Two cases where were in a similar position. Alfred Wegener had evidence that continental drift had happened, but he didn't have a mechanism to explain it. Darwin had evidence for evolution, but the mechanisms driving it wouldn't be apparent until the discovery of genetics. Those promissory notes turned out good. It's fine to have evidence for something without a robust explanation of mechanism.
The difference is that continental drift and the unknown mechanism both share the same context-- earthly stuff, doing stuff. Mind/brain/materialism etc. is very much different than that. To draw a parallel, it would be like you have to ASSUME that there are fossils there, despite nobody being able to actually see them, or even really describe them very well, and THEN explain the mechanism for their presence. Nobody would say that's science, I think.
Is your experience of qualia just an assumption? If not, then stop. The science is science regardless of whether or not you appreciate or agree with it's conclusions. It's fine to be opposed to them, it's ludicrous to argue that they are not what they are.
It's obvious that you cannot accept what science has to say about qualia, our minds, or our brains...but that you also feel the need to be considered by yourself and others as a scientific and rational person. Faced with this impossible dilemma, you seem to think that the only way to maintain the integrity of your position and your self appraisal, is to claim that the offending body of science simply doesn't exist, that it's "not-science". Can you recognize the absurdity of this situation, and of your suggestion?
OFC it's science, you just don't agree with it. Internalize that, own it. Stop trying to rationalize your way around it.
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