(i) Neuronic interactions somehow generate consciousness. Thus, animals and human beings are conscious whereas inanimate objects, plants and artifacts are not. OK.
(ii) Some other kind of physical process might also generate consciousness. In this case, some post-organic entities would be conscious, as in Poul Anderson's Genesis. OK.
(iii) A computer or other mechanism that merely manipulates symbols according to programmed rules is conscious neither of the meanings of the symbols nor of anything else. OK.
(iv) Consciousness is one kind of organism-environment interaction. The organic side of the interaction comprises sensory inputs, neuronic interactions and motor reactions. Thus:
I perceive a threat (sensory input);
my brain processes visual and other data (neuronic interactions);
I run away (motor reaction).
These organic processes are objective/scientifically detectable/empirically observable like the external environment whereas my bodily sensations and fear are subjective, directly experienced only by me.
How do objective interactions generate subjective experiences?
Could the entire organic response from sensory input to motor reaction occur without generating anything subjective?
I think that there is necessarily a qualitative difference between how I appear to others, as an empirically discernible organism, and how the rest of the universe appears to me in my perceptions, conceptualizations etc. Therefore, there will continue to be a mind-body question.
1 comment:
What we don't yet understand at all is how neuronic events generate the subjective experience of consciousness. This is a -really difficult- problem.
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