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> For human consciousness to be "exceptional"... we would have to have some undefiniable "other" quality that could never be explained by science and is therefo
by goatlover 3y ago
> For human consciousness to be "exceptional"... we would have to have some undefiniable "other" quality that could never be explained by science and is therefore necessarily supernatural?
No, it only means that science has limits on explaining the natural world. See Colin McGinn's argument for cognitive closure. He thinks we can't solve certain problems in philosophy because we lack the correct cognitive machinery. Consciousness being a primary example since it proposes a subjective/objective split where science only explains the objective. Nagel argued along similar lines in his paper, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?".
There's no need to invoke the supernatural. It just means some natural things may be beyond our capability to understand. Why would we have evolved to understand everything?
- afastow 3y agoYou're talking about the hard problem of consciousness, the post you're replying to is talking about the "easy" problem. Science can't and won't ever be able explain why being conscious feels like this, but it should in principle be possible to figure out what is physically going on in the brain while it's happening.
- goatlover 3y agoSure, but the tricky part is when we apply that to non-biological intelligences. Or even non-human ones, and thus questions about bat consciousness. At any rate, there's lots of room for different positions on consciousness that don't have to invoke the supernatural.