Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: July 27, 2025, 6:11 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
If beauty doesn't require God, why should morality? (Bite me Dr. Craig.)
#42
RE: If beauty doesn't require God, why should morality? (Bite me Dr. Craig.)
(July 28, 2014 at 11:05 am)rasetsu Wrote:
(July 28, 2014 at 12:08 am)bennyboy Wrote: I've been pretty clear that I'm talking about the ability to experience qualia.

In cerebral achromatopsia, the ability to experience the qualia of color is lost. Not only are they unable to see things in color, they're unable to imagine colors, and their memories are all colorless. I'd say that's a pretty convincing display that the ability to experience qualia is tied to brain circuitry.
The inability to imagine colors is especially interesting. I don't know whether the other selective brain damage studies I mentioned also include a corresponding ability to process IDEAS. For example, do those who cannot recognize faces have the same problem when they're dreaming, or thinking about their mothers? My guess would be that might be the case. A more blunt observation could have been made, though-- if you shoot someone through the brain, they will no longer experience qualia.

That being said, the philosophical question of capacity isn't really about the link between brain and specific qualia. It's why ANY physical structure, under any circumstance, would experience qualia. Why does anything in the universe have this capacity for the existence of subjective experience, rather than just grinding through its mechanical processes sans esprit?

Quote:I guess if you want to see consciousness as a separate layer from the physical world
I can't speak for Chad, but I'm not thinking of qualia as separate from the rest of the universe-- quite the opposite, in fact. It seems to me that the capacity for mind must be INTRINSIC to the universe, as an essential part of its makeup. The question is why would a bunch of "stuff," grinding through the interaction of the 4 forces we know about and maybe others we don't, at any point see redness as "red," rather than just processing it and outputting a red-appropriate response? Given our current physical understanding, this seems absurd; therefore, I think our current view of the universe is insufficient. Trying to fit mind into a purely physicalist model, with old definitions of matter and forces, fails to explain too much of human experience-- like trying to say Casablanca is just a collection of celluloid film frames being flashed in front of a light.

There's some equivocation here-- because I already know that if the existence of qualia is ever understood, it will be established as a new physical force, rule, or mechanism. I'd prefer to refer simply to the "universe," than to start talking about layers or parallel universes, or layers, or whatever. There's reality, and it is what it is-- we just haven't got as much of it figured out as some would say.
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: If beauty doesn't require God, why should morality? (Bite me Dr. Craig.) - by bennyboy - July 28, 2014 at 6:29 pm

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Beauty, Morality, God, and a Table FrustratedFool 23 4582 October 8, 2023 at 1:35 pm
Last Post: LinuxGal
  Is Moral Nihilism a Morality? vulcanlogician 140 19673 July 17, 2019 at 11:50 am
Last Post: DLJ
  Subjective Morality? mfigurski80 450 68857 January 13, 2019 at 8:40 am
Last Post: Acrobat
  Law versus morality robvalue 16 2318 September 2, 2018 at 7:39 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Objective morality: how would it affect your judgement/actions? robvalue 42 11714 May 5, 2018 at 5:07 pm
Last Post: SaStrike
  dynamic morality vs static morality or universal morality Mystic 18 4772 May 3, 2018 at 10:28 am
Last Post: LastPoet
  Can somebody give me a good argument in favor of objective morality? Aegon 19 5797 March 14, 2018 at 6:42 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Morality WinterHold 24 4839 November 1, 2017 at 1:36 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  What is morality? Mystic 48 10489 September 3, 2017 at 2:20 pm
Last Post: Edwardo Piet
  Morality from the ground up bennyboy 66 15752 August 4, 2017 at 5:42 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)