An Underlying Philosophical Question

Poul Anderson wrote:

heroic fantasy

historical fantasy

historical fiction

historical science fiction

futuristic science fiction

alternative history fiction

detective fiction

Thus, in some works, supernatural entities literally exist whereas, in certain other works, there are characters who believe that such entities literally exist. For example, medieval Catholic doctrines are true in The Merman's Children and several characters are Jerusalem Catholics in the Technic History. Thus, the philosophical issue of naturalism versus supernaturalism has at least an indirect relevance to some texts and we, or at least I, occasionally discuss this issue here.

Consciousness generates distinctions between:

subjects and objects of consciousness;

objectivity and subjectivity;

reality and appearance;

how reality appears to a conscious organism as against how that organism appears to other conscious organisms.

Scientists detect electrochemical interactions between electrically firing neurons while the person whose brain they are examining sees, hears, thinks, imagines etc. His neurons are part of how he appears to them while his perceptions, reflections etc are how everything else appears to him. Examining his neurons does not explain his consciousness. We know consciousness by being conscious and by recognizing conscious behaviour but not by empirically observing consciousness. That an examination of neuronic interactions does not explain consciousness does not refute the materialist proposition that consciousness has arisen from organism-environment interactions. Such interactions have changed qualitatively from unconscious to conscious. A supernaturalist who argues that consciousness cannot be reduced to neuronic interactions is correct.