How does this sound?
Solidity And Consciousness
We detect the property of solidity in material objects by touching them and experiencing their impenetrability. Although solidity is an effect of molecular cohesion, we can describe molecular interactions without describing solidity.
We detect the property of consciousness in organisms with central nervous systems by observing and interpreting their behavior. Although consciousness is an effect of neuronic interactions, we can describe neurons without describing consciousness.
In Harvest Of Stars
When Sayre tells download Guthrie that the wiping of his discs will mean:
"'Oblivion... Nonexistence. As if you never had been." (3, p. 50)
- Guthrie replies:
"'No different from what's always waited for everybody... Unless there is something after death. I doubt that very much, but if there is, I suppose I'll get a share of it.'" (ibid.)
Comments on Guthrie's Reply
(i) My thought exactly.
(ii) On the soul theory, would there be a soul for the original organic Guthrie and another soul for each copy of his download?
(iii) However, if consciousness is a property of some organisms, then it does not survive the deaths of those organisms any more than the solidity of a block of ice survives the melting of the ice.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Problem is, consciousness as consciousness is still IMMATERIAL in and of itself. You cannot taste, touch, see, or hear consciousness.
And things like the miracles recorded at Lourdes also makes me skeptical materialism can explain everything.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Many things in the material universe cannot be tasted etc.
How is consciousness immaterial? Individual experience is subjective, not objective? Granted. Immaterial consciousness is logically possible? I think that it is. Consciousness cannot be materially explained? But I think that it can: naturally selected organismic sensitivity to environmental alterations qualitatively increased until it was qualitatively transformed into conscious sensation.
Whether consciousness is materially explicable and whether everything is are different questions.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But I can't see, taste, touch, etc., my thoughts about your comments here. I agree the "matter" of my physical brain and body enables or allows me to think, but my THOUGHTS are still immaterial. So, I am still skeptical about materialism.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
By "matter," you mean what can be sensed. By "matter," I mean that which exists independently of consciousness. We cannot sense most of the electromagnetic spectrum, cosmic rays, particles, quanta or potential energy.
If "matter" means mass as opposed to energy, then it can be replaced by "mass." If it means being/reality/what is as opposed to consciousness, then it can be replaced by "being." Thus, the ambiguous word, "matter," could be avoided.
Materialists believe that being preexisted consciousness, not that everything that exists can be sensed.
Paul.
Post a Comment