On Tuesday, March 31, 2015, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: > On 31 March 2015 at 09:28, Stathis Papaioannou <[email protected] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote: > >> >> On Tuesday, March 31, 2015, Bruno Marchal <[email protected] >> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote: >> >>> >>> On 30 Mar 2015, at 10:06, LizR wrote: >>> >>> On 30 March 2015 at 19:26, Stathis Papaioannou <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Fading qualia in the setting of normal behaviour, if logically >>>> possible, would destroy the common idea of consciousness that we have. >>>> It would mean, for example, that you could have gone blind last week >>>> but not realise it. You would look at a painting, describe the >>>> painting, have an emotional response to the painting - but lack any >>>> visual experience of the painting. If that is possible, what meaning >>>> is left to attribute to the word "qualia"? >>>> >>>> Well, it would mean that comp is false, because the electronic >>> replacements are not generating any conscious experience despite having >>> their I/O matched to the rest of the brain. >>> >>> Yes, there would be p-zombies. Behaving like conscious person, but >>> without any private knowledge, qualia, sensation or consciousness. >>> >> >> And there would also be the possibility of partial p-zombies, which would >> mean that private knowledge, qualia, sensation and consciousness make no >> subjective difference, or equivalently that they don't exist. >> > > Yes, exactly, partial zombies. This is sounding like Daniel Dennett's > view, that consciousness etc don't "really" exist but are a sort of > illusion or "user interface" or like "elan vital", some mysterious > ineffable property that science will do away with once we understand > enough. I don't necessarily believe this, but I need more than "an argument > from incredulity" to convince me that it's wrong. >
I can't think of a situation where I would be more incredulous than if someone told me I wasn't really experiencing what I thought I was experiencing. For this reason, I don't think the consciousness-deniers are really consciousness-deniers - more a type of consciousness-explainers-away. -- 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/d/optout.
