Why materialists are predominantly materialists

[Arkilogue]

How does that follow?

If you cannot perform the same function on two things, they are not identical.  At best, one is a property of the other.

A simple example: I can eat an apple.  I cannot eat "red," even though redness is a property of the apple.  It would be pretty deep to say, "the apple is its redness, and the redness is the apple."

So if consciousness arises from the function of a particular layering and bridging of brain functions, you can say that due to the way the parts of the brain interact, the property of conscious arises.  You cannot then say that the layers and functions ARE consciousness-- because while there may be definitions of say a "unicorn" in the brain, you cannot find more than correlates for my daydream about unicorns.  I think we will all agree that you will not find a unicorn in my head.

I'd first look for unicorn poop in your head.

I think we can all agree our experience of being an individual conscious rides on the composite of several layers of sensory input. These are experienced simultaneously as an overlap of fields that the point like nature of the focus of our consciousness can be "pulled into" at any time. You stub your toe, you're no longer thinking about the business meeting you're focused on your physical body and the number of curse words you can weave into a continuous train.

We could list the different layers like the range of visible light and the range of human hearing, the, layer of conscious mental contemplation and the one of subconscious emotional inertia. Then the basic background noise layer of the physical body whether in good health or bad, high function or low, old or young. I'm sure there are more....hopes and dreams, if one has /created/preserved that layer. How many can you think of?


Don't forget the distinction between the space containing nature of consciousness and the things contained that color that space. If you look at a perfectly transparent glass full of red water....you might mistake it for a red glass.