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I am a dualist and I ought to accept that rabbits are conscious. They must have a soul of some sort to be able to have the Easy Problem of Consciousness between
by cristianpascu 11y ago
I am a dualist and I ought to accept that rabbits are conscious. They must have a soul of some sort to be able to have the Easy Problem of Consciousness between their ears. They see, they hear, they do lots of things. But I don't and I can't accept "consciousness in spatially distributed group entities."
The author, judging from the abstract (it's 7AM here), has it up-side-down. One has to first prove that spatially distributed complex entities (like an atom, molecule, the brain or a pen) has phenomenal experience, that is "there is something that it's like to be a pen". Then she can prove materialism is true. But to start with materialism being to true and then... well, who am I to judge.
Some say that materialism is refuting itself, in the sense that proving it true dissolves any kind of truth into non-sense.
- jimmaswell 11y agoWhy would the null hypothesis be that there is a supernatural force allowing human brains to work? In any other phenomena do you say it's magic until proven material?
- cristianpascu 11y agoI don't think we have, so far, a clear definition of what's 'material'. Thinking of the centuries old question 'why is there something rather than nothing', I believe magic and natural don't make much difference. Even an agnostic and occasional religion bashing deGrasse wonders in face of the mathematically describable world. Isn't it magic that make us wonder? Hence, supernatural is not such a despicable minion concept.
- onnoonno 11y agoTalking, arguing for materialism also means that one separates materialism from 'the rest' or 'the other ways of seeing the world'. This means that anyone calling themselves a materialist must also have a concept of this 'rest'. But what the heck is it if you fully believe in a materialist world?
- spacehome 11y ago> consciousness in spatially distributed group entities. I understand you're a dualist, but from the materialist standpoint, "spatially distributed group entities" describes neurons.
- cristianpascu 11y agoFrom a dualist pov, neurons are spatially distributed group entities too. :)