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I think much of this is just a language problem leading to endless communication problems and debate. If you are going to say consciousness has degrees then wh

I think much of this is just a language problem leading to endless communication problems and debate. If you are going to say consciousness has degrees then what about degrees of unconsciousness? It doesn't make sense to be more or less unconscious. When we say conscious though we don't really mean the opposite of unconscious most of the time. Usually it is the opposite of unconscious + many other things. Then we debate what those other things are. To me this is exactly a language philosophy problem and imprecision in our language causing philosophical problems.

shannifin 5y ago
> When we say conscious though we don't really mean the opposite of unconscious most of the time. Usually it is the opposite of unconscious + many other things. Then we debate what those other things are. True. I'm thinking of it a bit like a one dimensional spectrum with "unconciousness" at one end, and "as alert as you can be" at another end (imprecisely defined as that is), and various states of alertness between (tired, under the influence, dreaming, etc). Lacking a measurable numeric metric, these are not necessarily in a specific order, just somewhere between unconscious and fully conscious. > To me this is exactly a language philosophy problem and imprecision in our language causing philosophical problems. Definitely; especially with trying to define "consciousness" we reach the limits of language, as we're trying to make concrete the source of language and meaning itself.