RE: Sam Harris On Defining Consciousness
August 26, 2015 at 10:11 am
(This post was last modified: August 26, 2015 at 10:24 am by The Grand Nudger.)
I suppose consciousness considered so reductively -could be- pretty damned boring. It takes a special kind of weirdo to stare at tumblers in a lock for hours on end and be fascinated, eh? Obviously, I'm one of those weirdos. OTOH, there might be plenty of interesting stuff to be had determining whether or not any example of a behavior or experience actually belongs to any of that other stuff, self sapience, etc...rather than "simple" awareness, reductive consciousness. That's where the human dignity bit comes in again, I guess. It might be that something cherished as self or sapience actually -isn't-.....it's just call and response.
It might -all- be call and response...with no one at the wheel, cherished fiction...and that's pretty damned interesting, no?
Do "I" "love" my wife, or is this just the expression of a necessary function? Are they referrent, and if they are, would knowing what they were referrent -to- change how we considered this experience of ours? The old, "Love is a chemical cocktail consisting of -x-" chestnut.
It might -all- be call and response...with no one at the wheel, cherished fiction...and that's pretty damned interesting, no?
Do "I" "love" my wife, or is this just the expression of a necessary function? Are they referrent, and if they are, would knowing what they were referrent -to- change how we considered this experience of ours? The old, "Love is a chemical cocktail consisting of -x-" chestnut.
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