(January 10, 2019 at 8:27 pm)Grandizer Wrote:(January 10, 2019 at 8:02 pm)bennyboy Wrote: That's right. That's why when I wake up in the morning, I act as though everyone is real-- it makes my social interactions so much more meaningful.
That being said, an argument by similarity is only as valid as the similarity itself. Seems-so-is is the fundamental issue here, so declaring "seems-so-is because inductive argument" doesn't really address that underlying philosophical problem.
It's only a problem if you're looking for a deductive type of proof. Otherwise there is nothing unreasonable about assuming other people just like you and me have minds of their own, just as we do. What's more plausible? That we all share a lot of universally common features being members of the same species, or that somehow there's something really special about you that others who look and behave similarly to you just don't have: consciousness?
I don't think anybody here is genuinely doubting that other people have consciousness. Even I'm not that skeptical.
The point of the p-zombie thought experiment isn't to challenge the idea that other people are conscious. It's just to pose the question: what precisely can we point to that will distinguish a conscious subject from a high-functioning non-conscious robot?
