(May 31, 2017 at 4:34 pm)Khemikal Wrote:Quote:So... these "Eliminative Materialists" are claiming that neurons cannot produce the feelings that we observe as consciousness, is that it? Why not?
No. They're claiming that nuerons do not or cannot produce a mental state that maps to the feelings we observe as we describe them. We observe ourselves as being in here, a little man..a singular entity in a stream of present moments. That;s what it feels like to be. That's the referent of every other experience. That's not what those neurons are, that's not what those neurons are doing. In some cases, the discrepancy goes further..not only are they not that thing, not only are they not doing that..they can't. Not even neurons, for example, can process in zero time.
I must be a bit thick.... I don't think I get it.
In essence, there's something about neurons not processing stuff instantaneously. I agree.
But what is this stuff that neurons cannot do?
They can't process our awareness of the self at the same time as they process the fact they we are aware of the self?
I'd say they can, if such processing can be parallelized... and I'm sure lots of parallel activity is going on in the brain... but I can't say anything about that particular conundrum... it often seems that our conscious thought process is a single-thread affair, thus eliminating such simultaneity in two thought processes... but is it really single-threaded? How can we tell?
