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We have cognition (our own experience of thinking and the thinking communicated to us by other beings) and we have the (apparent) physical world ('maths and sci
by oska 4y ago
We have cognition (our own experience of thinking and the thinking communicated to us by other beings) and we have the (apparent) physical world ('maths and science'). It is only an assumption that cognition, a primary experience, is based in or comes from the physical world. It's a materialist philosophy that has a long lineage (through a subset of the ancient Greek philosophers and also appearing in some Hinduistic traditions for example) but has had fairly limited support until recently, where I would suggest it is still not widely accepted even amongst eminent scientists, one of which I will now quote :
Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.
-- Erwin Schrödinger
- mr_toad 4y agoClaims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. - Carl Sagan
- oska 4y agoSchrödinger was a real and very eminent scientist, one who has staked their place in the history of science. Sagan, while he did a little bit of useful work on planetary science early in his career, quickly descended into the realm of (self-promotional) pseudo-science. This was his fanciful search for 'extra-terrestrial intelligence'. So it's apposite that you bring him up (even if the quote you bring is a big miss against a philosophical statement), because his belief in such an 'ET' intelligence was a fantasy as much as the belief in the possibility of creating an artificial intelligence is.
- kaba0 4y agoWhile I do hold that Schrödinger was a giant of his field, let’s not forget about the Nobel disease. Blind appeal to authority does no good.
- dalmo3 4y agoThen it's also worthless to say that consciousness arise from physics. We don't know if physics is the fundamental substrate of being, and given Agrippa's trillemma we can't know.