3 ms·
> "why" assumes that the chicken had some reason for taking the action "cross the road". I don’t think so. It’s pretty normal to ask “why” questions about non-
by baddox 6y ago
> "why" assumes that the chicken had some reason for taking the action "cross the road".
I don’t think so. It’s pretty normal to ask “why” questions about non-conscious entities. “Why does my stomach hurt?” “Why is the sky blue?” And so on.
- cgriswald 6y agoDoes a chicken have consciousness? If so, when talking about conscious beings, are we using why in the sense that we use it when asking why the sky is blue?
- baddox 6y agoI don’t think it even necessarily matters whether the chicken is sufficiently conscious. If we asked “why does the chicken have a red comb?” it would be clear we weren’t asking for an explanation of the chicken’s conscious choices.
- cgriswald 6y agoSure, but I think if I ask “Why did you do that?” I’m specifically asking for an explanation related to your consciousness rather than a physical explanation. That’s a different sort of question than “Why are you six feet tall?” I asked if chickens are conscious because, if the chicken is conscious (or at least if the question asker believes they are) than we’re asking the first sort of question and it may or may not be fair to call that question invalid based on a chicken’s conscious understanding and sysrpl’s reasoning. If it’s not, then we can only reasonably ask the second kind of question and I agree it wouldn’t be “invalid” to do so.