RE: Non-existence
August 12, 2009 at 8:32 pm
(This post was last modified: August 12, 2009 at 11:34 pm by Jon Paul.)
(August 12, 2009 at 8:15 pm)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote:And that's all I mean with "consciousness", the fact of being conscious.(August 12, 2009 at 8:07 pm)Jon Paul Wrote: But that doesn't prove a neccessary causal link exists between brain activity and consciousness generallyIt doesn't need to. There's not even any self-evidence of consciousness as a phenonmenon in itself. I have self-evidence that I'm conscious,
(August 12, 2009 at 8:15 pm)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote: There's no evidence for consciousness existing as a phenomenon seperate to the brain.Nor have I said that there is, or that there needs to be. Theres no evidence that there is a necessary causative link between the brain and consciousness. There is only the fact that I am consciously aware of my brains states, but that in no way proves a necessary causative link between brain activity and consciousness, which would have to be predicted by general principles and observational knowledge aside from conscious experience to be causally proven.
(August 12, 2009 at 8:15 pm)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote: But if the concept of p-zeds is incoherent then other people have consciousnesses too, seperate to mine - otherwise I'd be conscious of them. So other minds exist apart from mine, and thus solipsism is erroneous.That is not demonstrable given solipsism. It is only demonstrable given p-zeds because p-zeds is a naturalistic/realist ontology, and thus it grants the existence of an independently existing reality outside of the conscious experience of it.
The people who are the most bigoted are the people who have no convictions at all.
-G. K. Chesterton
-G. K. Chesterton