On naturalism and consciousness

[Whateverist]

...everything I believe about the mind, the soul and the nature of personal identity can be prefaced with "it is as though.." without any sense of loss on my part.

So it seems you require a more certain stance toward what you believe than I do about what I believe...Could you imagine holding your personal belief about subjective experience in a provisional way? Are you sure anyone is entitled to such certainty?

Yes, a person can go through life without pondering much of anything on a deep philosophical level and still enjoy life immensely.

Not sure where you get that. Ponder? Surely. But that is a separate question from expecting finality .. which was my actual point.

And, yes, I can imagine it because I think that way about many things. At the same time, I am by temperament a man that wants to know about reality on the most fundamental level. Some things I used to believe have proven to be more tentative that I first thought and some things I've come to know with great certainty. I see this only as a good thing.

I'm not sure why you bother with the word "know". Why not stick to "faith"? I have great faith in my ability to observe and interpret my
subjective experience. But no way would I throw around claims of knowing it in an interpersonally persuasive way.

Our epistemic position in trying to describe and explain our inner workings just is not all that good. Fortunately not much rides on it. It fascinates me but I won't go hungry if I get it wrong.