(March 19, 2016 at 4:11 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:(March 19, 2016 at 11:15 am)bennyboy Wrote: Brain activity is measured with MRI experiments. Mind is not. If you equate the two, then the question has been officially begged.
Except I didn't equate the two; my point is that MRI data supports my point, insofar as it corresponds consistently with both localized brain functions which are known to produce subjective experiences, and with the subjective reporting offered by the subjects of those scans.
We haven't even touched upon electrode-stimulation which produces entirely subjective mental events.
I don't think you can say that reporting OF subjective experiences is sufficient to establish that there are in fact subjective mental events. In living as a human, I all the time do this: assume that other people have minds and feelings. However, science based on such a fundamental assumption is going to have problems with circularity. If you say, for example, "I know this subject has experiences because he can describe them," then what happens thirty years from now when your average toaster will be able to tell you how it feels today? What if your computer says "Ouch!" when you start soldering the wrong connection?
I think Rhythm and others would say "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck." But I would counter that doesn't guarantee that it experences like a duck-- unless it's actually a duck.
