Mindfulness or Mindlessness?

[vulcanlogician]

Sometimes I wonder how much of a role (if any) the development of language played in spurring consciousness experience. When I think about “what it is like,” it seems impossible to consider without the language necessary to identify and describe those experiences. So much of how we refer to ourselves and the world we come in contact with is couched in metaphor and comparison. Though it could just be a lack of imagination on my end.

To one who wants to say language and consciousness are related:

What about dogs (or even simpler organisms) who don't have a developed language like we have? Are they "less conscious" than we are? It seems to me that (in humans) language plays a crucial role in how we talk about consciousness. We also have developed mammalian memory systems that allow us to remember past events. (Not all living creatures have these endowments.)

I think these things, rather than skewing our intuitions about consciousness, allow us to form more accurate ideas about consciousness. After all, language and memory allow us to learn a great deal about the world that we otherwise couldn't. We can learn about the nature of trees, rocks, and other natural objects. I personally think language allows us to understand consciousness better too. To me, consciousness is just one natural phenomenon among many others.

Those who see the link between language, memory, and consciousness have a point. They are definitive aspects of our own conscious experience. It may be true that a fly can't remember what happened a few seconds ago. So our consciousness is different than a fly's consciousness. That means we can't "relate to the fly" as much as we can "relate to a dog." A fly's perception of the world has too much to do with "right now" for us to relate to what it might like to be a fly. But I still think it is "like something" to be a fly. It is just way different than the human experience for us to intuit it.

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@HappySkeptic Are you a logical positivist? If you are, that may be where much of our disagreement in approach stems from. A logical positivist is apt to disregard much that I and others have to say about the mind/body problem and embrace Dennett's thinking.