On Sunday, October 13, 2013 12:56:58 AM UTC-4, Liz R wrote: > > On 13 October 2013 17:40, Craig Weinberg <whats...@gmail.com <javascript:> > > wrote: > >> >> I don't believe in philosophical zombies. I use puppet because a puppet >> implies an absence of conscious presence, which is an ordinary condition of >> macrocosmic objects as we seem them, because the sensation associated with >> them belongs to a distant frame (microcosm). A zombie is supernatural >> because rather than the seeming absence of presence (normal), they imply >> the presence of absence, which is unnatural and cannot exist. There can be >> no undead, only the unlive. >> > > Puppet implies a puppeteer. In a sense our bodies are puppets controlled > by our brains. So there is a conscious presence. >
But the brain cannot be separated from the body. It's made of the same stem cell. It is not the prosthetic appendage of itself, it is a whole organism on a zoological level, a community of organisms on a biological level, and an ocean of chemical reactions on a chemical level. That the brain can influence the behavior of the other organs and tissues of the body and vice versa is not a puppet-ventriloquist relation, it is a multivalent fugue of interdependence (in which we participate directly, and through which we participate in social and super-personal dramas). > I wonder if there are psychological conditions that are similar to > philosophical zombiehood? I.e. doing things as though conscious when you > aren't. (Maybe sleep walking?) > Sure, sleepwalking, blindsight (patients can guess what they are seeing correctly but have no ability to see), psychopathy (emotions are simulated but not felt). Synesthesia and plain old acting show that specific qualia and behaviors need not be linked automatically to what we expect them to represent. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
