Marsha: Dumpling, what are you quoting?
On Dec 5, 2010, at 1:49 PM, david buchanan wrote: > > "This book, more than any other (besides Being and Time), opened my mind to > how philosophy always goes astray when it fails to consider the metaphorical > nature of philosophical discourse. Chalmers is able to conceive of > consciousness as this disembodied inner movie only because he uncritically > uses object-metaphors and treats consciousness as a nonphysical thing modeled > on our everyday interaction with physical things. > In my opinion, William James was making the same basic point in his famous > article “Does ‘Consciousness’ Exist?“. James’ point was not that thoughts and > introspections don’t exist, but rather, that consciousness does not exist in > the same way a rock exists, hence, consciousness “does not exist” (as an > entity). But thoughts and introspections certainly do. As James says, > To deny plumply that ‘consciousness’ exists seems so absurd on the face of it > — for undeniably ‘thoughts’ do exist — that I fear some readers will follow > me no farther. Let me then immediately explain that I mean only to deny that > the word stands for an entity, but to insist most emphatically that it does > stand for a function. > While this might sound absurd to traditional Heideggerian scholars, I contend > that Heidegger would emphatically agree with James on this point. > Consciousness is not a present-at-hand thing. But it still exists. How? As an > operation. As something we do." > > >> From: [email protected] >> Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 13:30:36 -0500 >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [MD] Reifying carrots >> >> >> >> "Even when the mind is settled in meditative stabilization without human >> conceptual constructs, it is not considered by Buddhist contemplatives to be >> entirely free of all traces of conceptualization. One's inborn sense of a >> reified self as the observer and the reified sense of the duality between >> subject and object are still present, even though they may be dormant while >> in meditation; and when one emerges from this nonconceptual state, the mind >> may still grasp onto all phenomena, including consciousness itself, as being >> real, inherently existing entities. To penetrate to the fundamental nature >> of appearances and their relation to consciousness, it is said that one must >> go beyond meditative stabilization and engage in training for the >> cultivation of contemplative insight." >> >> (Wallace, B. Alan, 'The Taboo of Subjectivity: Towards a New Science of >> Consciousness', p.112) >> >> >> ___ >> >> >> 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/md/archives.html > > 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/md/archives.html ___ 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/md/archives.html
