Quentin Anciaux wrote: > Hi Brent, > > Le Vendredi 21 Juillet 2006 17:52, Brent Meeker a écrit : > >>That's simply an assumption. When we know how to make a conscious brain we >>may find that we do have a good idea of what it experiences - as evidenced >>by its self-reports and other behavoir. >> >> >>>On the other hand, >>>if you know every empirical fact about a non-conscious entity well enough >>>to make an exact working replica, then you know everything there is to >>>know about it. We could define consciousness as what is left over when >>>you subtract what can be known about an entity by an external observer >>>from what can be known by being that entity yourself. >> >>If there is anything left over. I don't think it is sufficiently >>appreciated that this "unknowability" is an assumption. > > > Frow what you say, I understand that you could know what it is like to being > myself if I'd described to you my all life ? Whatever I could say about me > will be 3rd persons communicable fact...
No, the hypothetical was stronger than that: it was that I knew exactly how your brain worked to the degree that I could make one. You certainly don't know how your brain works, so while it is in princple communicable, it would not be part of your self description. >Even when I describe a feeling, I > describe it in a 3rd communication way, and you could infer from your own > feeling what it would be like, never to be sure it is... because if you were > sure of this, then you'll no longer be Brent Meeker, but me. I don't think that follows. When I'm sure that my wife is in pain from torn cartilage in her knee, it doesn't mean that I am my wife. But in any case, being sure is a higher standard than we apply to any scientific belief. Brent Meeker --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
