On 27/08/07, Brent Meeker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm prepared to remain agnostic. There is no 3rd person explanation of > consciouness that is anywhere near as complete as the explanation of gravity > or life. Maybe when I see one I'll consider it as complete as I do the > biochemical basis of life (which is not to say that *everything* is > explained).
Might you perhaps then feel that what may fail of explanation may be categorically similar to the *fact* - as opposed to the mode - of existence in general? In Wittgenstein's terms: the mystery is *that*, rather than how, the world is. > "One cannot guess the real difficulties of a problem before > having solved it." > --- Carl Ludwig Siegel Indubitably true. David > > David Nyman wrote: > > On 27/08/07, Brent Meeker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> But my point is that you're insisting that explanation is something that > >> you find satisfying. It's not that explanation fails in general, it fails > >> subjectively for you. Every explanation can fail in that way on any > >> subject. > > > > Well, it certainly fails for me at this point, but the question of > > whether it succeeds generally is moot. In this case in particular, are > > you - or some notionally normative generality - ready to accept pure > > third person discourse as an exhaustive basis for conscious > > experience? Don't you feel - in contrast to any other topic - that > > there is a categorical first person distinction (that is: the > > intrinsic nature of qualitative experience itself) that transcends the > > possible scope of extrinsic third person explanation? Can we > > confidently dismiss this from further speculation as mere intuitive > > prejudice? > > I'm prepared to remain agnostic. There is no 3rd person explanation of > consciouness that is anywhere near as complete as the explanation of gravity > or life. Maybe when I see one I'll consider it as complete as I do the > biochemical basis of life (which is not to say that *everything* is > explained). > > What I'm not ready to do is to conclude that a 3rd person explanation is in > principle impossible. I'm willing to entertain the possibility that the > problem is my intuition rather than the form of explanation. > > Brent Meeker > > "One cannot guess the real difficulties of a problem before > having solved it." > --- Carl Ludwig Siegel > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
