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>an organism is conscious if there is something that is like to be that organism. I am afraid i don't seem to parse that
by smegger001 6y ago
>an organism is conscious if there is something that is like to be that organism.
I am afraid i don't seem to parse that
- falcor84 6y agoThe relevant reading material is "What is it like to be a bat"[0]. The way I understand it is that is asking you to imagine yourself as that type of being and try to identify whether it makes sense to you, such that if it does, then that object could be conscious. I (and many others) find it to be a really silly thought experiment, since it's testing your own power of imagination rather than anything interesting about the object. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F
- Cytobit 6y agoI agree. Here is the quote from the Wikipedia article intro. >Nagel famously asserts that "an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism—something it is like for the organism." I cannot figure out what the pronoun "it" is supposed to be refering to: the organism, or the something? Specifically the phase "it is like to be" does not grok for me.