On 26/06/07, Russell Standish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: RS: This sounds to me like you're paraphrasing Bruno's programme.
DN: Yes, but I only realised this after I'd painfully thunk myself into it during my exchange with Brent. But I think I learned something in the process, even tho' I'm not exactly sure what. RS: The only snag is how you can eliminate the possibility of a non-functionalist model also explaining the same set of physical laws. DN: I suppose so. RS: In fact the "God did it" model probably indicates this can't be done. DN: But would having the possibility of two entirely different causal accounts of the same thing be bug or a feature? - Show quoted text - > On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 10:17:57PM +0100, David Nyman wrote: > > > > Here's what's still not completely clear to me - perhaps you can assist > me > > with this. We don't know *which* set of physical events is in effect > > selected by the functionalist account, even though it may be reasonable > to > > believe that there is one. Given this, it appears that should we be > finally > > convinced that only a functional account of 1-person phenomena uniquely > > survives all attempted refutation, we can never in that case provide any > > 'distinguished' bottom up physical account of the same phenomena. IOW > we > > would be faced with an irreducibly top-down mode of explanation for > > consciousness, even though there is still an ineliminable implication to > > specific fundamental aspects of the physics in 'instantiating' the > bottom-up > > causality. Does this indeed follow, or am I still garbling something? > > > > David > > > > This sounds to me like you're paraphrasing Bruno's programme. > > The only snag is how you can eliminate the possibility of a > non-functionalist model also explaining the same set of physical > laws. In fact the "God did it" model probably indicates this can't be > done. > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Mathematics > UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Australia http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
