On 4/25/2012 3:24 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
On 24 Apr 2012, at 20:57, David Nyman wrote:
On 24 April 2012 19:37, Craig Weinberg <[email protected]> wrote:
Really Susan Blackmore was the
only speaker that I saw who advocated a purely materialist view and
she was practically booed when she put up a slide that said
"Consciousness is an Illusion".
Susan Blackmore, New Scientist, 22 June 2002, p 26-29:
"First we must be clear what is meant by the term "illusion". To say
that consciousness is an illusion is not to say that it doesn't exist,
but that it is not what it seems to be--more like a mirage or a visual
illusion.........Admitting that it's all an illusion does not solve
the problem of consciousness but changes it completely. Instead of
asking how neural impulses turn into conscious experiences, we must
ask how the grand illusion gets constructed. This will prove no easy
task, but unlike solving the Hard Problem it may at least be
possible."
The article in the NS, taken as a whole, suggests that her position is
more nuanced than the slogan you quoted might suggest.
I really loved her book "The search of the light", which was a rare
serious and rigorous text in parapsychology. She debunked the field,
and remains completely valid in her conclusion. But when praised by
materialists for her debunking of those results in parapsychology, she
became a super-materialist priest, and lost her initial scientific
attitude to some extent.
To say that consciousness is an illusion does not make any sense.
Everything else can be an illusion, but not consciousness. I think we
agree on that.
Bruno
Given that all appearances and phenomena are the content of said
illusion....
--
Onward!
Stephen
"Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."
~ Francis Bacon
--
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.
