On 2 February 2014 21:30, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: >> Whether the consciousness is epiphenomenal or not is irrelevant. > > > Right. The problem is that epiphenomenalism is a step toward justifying the > consciousness and conscience eliminations. > It makes also consciousness unnatural, not explainable by evolution. It > makes consciousness basically non-sensical, when consciousness is better > understood as the opposite: the maker of sense, the attributor of meaning, > the owner of some faith in some reality.
If consciousness is epiphenomenal I don't see how that diminishes its importance in any way, let alone eliminates it. It is consistent with evolution since it is not an optional extra: if intelligence evolved then consciousness had to evolve as a necessary side-effect. It is also consistent with the world being causally closed and eliminates the paradox that David Nyman sees. What's not to like? -- Stathis Papaioannou -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
