Hi Ham, > Hi Platt [with consolations to Arlo] -- > > > Since Arlo can't understand consciousness as anything but > inorganic-biological-social patterns, as defined by Pirsig, he wants to > turn > philosophy into anthropology. I've repeatedly told him that philosophy - > especially metaphysics - is not a study of genetics, social development, > or > physiological evolution, suggesting that he consult the anthropology texts > for the information he demands.
Yes, Arlo is married to scientific reductionism wherein all emerges magically by chance from "DNA-driven evolution" and "growing complexity" while playing lip-service to the MOQ. Sad really. > I've also made it quite clear that I have no quarrel with Darwin's theory > of > natural selection or the evolution of the species, provided that such > constructs are understood to be based on experiential (objective) > evidence. > However, scientific models are not ontologies. Anthropologists and > neuro-scientists can only account for data obtained from objective > phenomena > that conform to natural laws and can be repeatably demonstrated. As it > happens, consciousness is not objective. It can't be genetically linked > or > historically dated. So Arlo is disappointed that, despite his insistence, > we're not willing to discuss subjective consciousness as an objective > phenomenon. > > Arlo's "consciousness" is a physiological finction, like bipedality, > muscular coordination, or language skills. He is apparently incapable of > grasping the concept of awareness as the subjective self. There is no 'I' > for Arlo. What he feels and thinks are only patterns of something > external > to him - something vaguely attributed to a "universal level" that can be > broken down into organic, inorganic, and intellectual components. > I'm sorry that Arlo has no self-awareness. It must be a boring and > unsatisfying life, thinking up ideas and having feelings and desires that > are not his but are only borrowed from the external world. It's a shame > that belief in anything that can't be quantified or localized is "Poof" to > him. But, then, nature isn't perfect. Even Darwin acknowledged that not > all members of a species evolve at the same rate. Let's hope that Arlo's > heirs overcome this gap and become "fully developed" self-aware > individuals > with the capacity to realize there is more to reality than patterns and > levels of existence. Yes, there is always hope that he and others will see that there's a lot more going on besides "neuro-biological complexity" and poof-like "unintended consequences." Best regards, Platt Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
