On 11 March 2015 at 07:18, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 3/10/2015 10:41 AM, John Clark wrote: > > > I agree that no falsifiable theory of consciousness can be >> materialistic. >> > > It goes far beyond that, no theory of consciousness of any sort is > falsifiable and that's why the subject is such a colossal waste of time. > > We routinely judge whether people are conscious or not based on their > behavior. Materialist theories generally predict that chemical, > electrical, or mechanical stimulus of the brain will have repeatable > effects on the behavior we use to judge consciousness. That's why we rely > on anesthesia, get a buzz from alcohol, and relieve epilepsy by surgery. > If these didn't work repeatably that would be evidence against material > theories of consciousness. Not definitive falsification - but lots of > theories don't admit definitive falsification. >
Bear in mind that materialism in this context is shorthand for primary materialism, about which such theories say nothing. -- 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/d/optout.
