RE: Sam Harris On Defining Consciousness
August 28, 2015 at 7:34 pm
(This post was last modified: August 28, 2015 at 8:19 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
If I see two things doing some "x" I can't differentiate, and attribute that "x" to awareness for one of them.....saying that the other is not aware, in spite of my inability to differentiate and the presence of that very same "x", removes the justification for accepting awareness in the first. May as well flip a coin or decide on the basis of nothing at all. Not that this makes it any less possible that one really is aware and the other is not, agreed....but it has nothing to do with semantics,nor is it any more (or less) a game of words than any other philosophical statement. Again, as mentioned many times, whether or not something appears to be aware, and whether or not theres an "in there" can be (and I think should be) handled separately. It's not as though we're suffering under any shortage of terms, specificity and division is useful if it's knowledge you're looking for.
I'm perfectly fine with accepting the possibility that whats in the mind may not be a copy of whats "out there". In many cases it seems that we can demonstrate this to be so. Is that a problem for any particular notion in a way that it isn't a problem for -every- notion?
What is there to debase here, and how might I debase it? I've stated -very- clearly what I mean, I've acknowledged that no matter what argument I offer, no matter how compelling or complete, it makes no comment upon whatever other thing it is you feel is not contained within my self imposed limits, whatever thing you think it is that I'm debasing. Whats the problem?
I have to get this out of the way, because it's been coming up repeatedly in thread. When these discussions turn to terms like dignity and debasement.....I can only say "well, that's like, your opinion, man". I see no debasement, I see no impact on dignity, if you do, you do.....and that's fine, but is that supposed to mean something to me? Consciousness is neither less dignified, nor debased...to me....if it's just tumblers in a lock, and I don't see why there's any requirement that I defend any dignity or loss thereof perceived by another, why I should be concerned with what some other feels is debasement. Neither has -any- bearing on the accuracy of an explanation.
I'm perfectly fine with accepting the possibility that whats in the mind may not be a copy of whats "out there". In many cases it seems that we can demonstrate this to be so. Is that a problem for any particular notion in a way that it isn't a problem for -every- notion?
What is there to debase here, and how might I debase it? I've stated -very- clearly what I mean, I've acknowledged that no matter what argument I offer, no matter how compelling or complete, it makes no comment upon whatever other thing it is you feel is not contained within my self imposed limits, whatever thing you think it is that I'm debasing. Whats the problem?
I have to get this out of the way, because it's been coming up repeatedly in thread. When these discussions turn to terms like dignity and debasement.....I can only say "well, that's like, your opinion, man". I see no debasement, I see no impact on dignity, if you do, you do.....and that's fine, but is that supposed to mean something to me? Consciousness is neither less dignified, nor debased...to me....if it's just tumblers in a lock, and I don't see why there's any requirement that I defend any dignity or loss thereof perceived by another, why I should be concerned with what some other feels is debasement. Neither has -any- bearing on the accuracy of an explanation.
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