(May 23, 2017 at 6:25 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: (*Hat-tip Maverick Philosopher, here)All three can be true.
It appears that of the following three propositions only two can be true:
1) Conscious experience is not an illusion.
2) Conscious experience has an essentially subjective character that purely physical processes do not share.
3) The only acceptable explanation of conscious experience is in terms of physical properties alone.
I must hand it to Maverick Philosopher because this trilemma so neatly identifies and clarifies the dominant positions with respect to philosophy of mind. Like him, I am inclined to accept 1) and 2) which entails that I must reject 3). I have some inkling of where other AF members would place their bets but it would be nice to let people weight in and see where the discussion leads.
1. OK ! Not an illusion.
2. We experience consciousness in a manner different than we experience our heartbeat. We feel our identity, our self, in our mind. The only source of subjective experience is our mind.
3. Yes. It is physical.
God thinks it's fun to confuse primates. Larsen's God!