> On 15 Oct 2018, at 16:34, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 10:53 PM Brent Meeker <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > The reason for not doubting that other human beings are conscious is that > > (1) I am conscious and > > But you know for a fact you're not conscious all the time, you know you're > not conscious when you're sleeping or under anesthesia or before you were > born and, although you don't know for certain, you probably suspect you won't > be conscious after you're dead. And you may have also noticed a pattern here, > you seem to only be conscious when you have the ability to behave > intelligently.
How do you know that? How could you know that? Sure the brain made us forgetting quickly our REM dreams, and even more quickly our consciousness in the Slow Sleep. Yet, the idea that there are moment where we are not conscious is very natural, but it is not a fact, it is a theory, probably selected by evolution, and so hard to doubt, but it is still a theory. Descartes doubted it, and I would say that with mechanism, it might be possible that Descartes was right. “I am unconscious” is non sensical, but “I was unconscious” is mot much more sensical. My point here is just that the idea that we are not conscious all the time is not a fact, but a theory. Bruno > > > (2) other human beings are made of the same stuff in approximately the same > > way that I am > > There is a lot of wiggle room in that "approximately", what difference is > important and what is just incidental? Maybe men are conscious and women are > not, maybe white people are conscious and black people are not, maybe right > handers are conscious and left handers are not. Maybe, but I doubt it. > > Structurally the difference between you and you're recently deceased twin > brother is at only one point, your unfortunate sibling has a hole in his > heart and you do not, but you're still more similar to your twin than you are > to me, and yet I bet you believe I am more conscious than your brother > because one of us can still behave intelligently and one can't. > > > and (3) they behave the same way in relation to what I am conscious of, > > e.g. they jump at a sudden loud sound. > > As I said neither you nor other people act that way all the time, only when > they have the ability to behave intelligently. > > John K Clark > > > > -- > 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] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list > <https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
