RE: The burden of proof relating to conciousness, free choice and rationality
March 2, 2012 at 4:05 pm
In a strictly deterministic universe consciousness would be irrelevant. People could be just walking/talking electro-chemical reactions, zombies without any internal subjective experience (which might apply to some of my co-workers). We would be like biological thermostats that adjust their physical states to external conditions. But the fact is that unless we are in a coma or similar state, each of us has privileged access to internal experiences of sensation, emotion, thought and intention. Since we know that humans have subjective experiences then I would say we are obliged to grant thermostats some rudimentary type of subjective experience. I find that very counter-intuitive, but not impossible. On the other hand, in a cosmos that allows for freewill consciousness appears to serve a function. Consciousness could be a non-contingent causal agent. So I find that possibility more plausible.
