Questions tagged [consciousness]
Consciousness, and related notions like sentience and self-awareness, denote the capacity of certain organisms to express recognition of their own presence in the world.
356
questions
0
votes
7answers
587 views
Consciousness in Simulation theory & AI, why do some believe that it is even possible?
There are many famous philosophers that assume that "consciousness can be create by calculations in a computer". For example: Nick Bostrom with the simulation theory [I greatly respect and ...
0
votes
0answers
40 views
Does Eternalism imply looping consciousness?
If the idea of Eternalism as expressed by those like J.M.E. McTaggart and Sean Carroll is true (as much of physics seems to suggest), the idea of the present moment being more real than the past or ...
-1
votes
0answers
21 views
Can one distinguish if conciousness experiences time continuously or discretely?
Can we tell whether we knew we existed the very moment ago, or there was a delay between our last thought and this introspection?
Also, can consciousness be treated as a rapid update of information ...
0
votes
0answers
42 views
What is the relationship between consciousness and memory?
If someone has amnesia for a certain experience, was that person conscious of that experience in the past or was that person never conscious at that moment? If that person dies, their memories are ...
-1
votes
0answers
30 views
What is the function of consciousness in phenomenological view?
Discuss the function of being embodied in the formation of consciousness in phenomenological view. What do you think about it?
0
votes
0answers
176 views
Is it possible philosophically that the entire cosmic void with one or more universe/s inside it will stop exist eternally?
As a conscious agent who suddenly appeared in this cosmic void as a child to my parents and got a consistent memory since about the age of 3;
With time I have learned of the question "why is there ...
1
vote
1answer
51 views
Do really all mental states exist in some universe according to Many-Minds Interpretation?
According to the Many Minds interpretation of quantum mechanics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-minds_interpretation), the distinction between worlds in the Many Worlds interpretation should be ...
6
votes
1answer
238 views
What do philosophers mean when they say qualia do not exist?
In university, my professor said that his position is that there are no qualia. He acknowledged that non-philosophers can find this position bizarre, but did not explain the rationale behind why he ...
-2
votes
2answers
145 views
Is murder wrong accross the board? If not, when?
Is it wrong to murder anything, in any circumstance?
If sometimes its justified, based on species, circumstance, self defense, ideology, when is it considered wrong?
What is the justification for ...
0
votes
0answers
24 views
Are thoughts independent of physical variables around them and arise from inside?or just consequence of forces around it
For example non conscious bodies can't do a thing on their own ,like wind will move them, water will soak them, gravity will make them fall,but conscious beings can go against the nature like if i am ...
-1
votes
1answer
42 views
What is justice? Is justice blind?
Is justice something you find at a courthouse? Where would you find justice?
From my perspective there is no justice until the one being judged has a say in how he is being judged. I believe ...
1
vote
3answers
235 views
What possible refutations are there for “we die every time we sleep”? [closed]
The proposition is as follows:
When I sleep, my consciousness dies. Next morning, another person's consciousness is born. He believes that he is me, but my consciousness is dead and never awake.
Are ...
0
votes
0answers
48 views
Do panpsychism and its variants (such as Russellian monism) face an interaction problem?
Many philosophers of the mind—such as David Chalmers, Galen Strawson and Philip Goff—have become sympathetic to variants of panpsychism when it comes to explaining consciousness. Yet, on their own ...
1
vote
1answer
146 views
Does human conciousness “prove” that God exists?
I'm aware this question assumes our universe isn't an infinite regression.
The logic is as follows:
A is the source of everything. B exists. B came from A. Therefore B is an attribute of A.
A being ...
-1
votes
2answers
55 views
Definition of a “sense”
Besides the five basic senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) there is also, for example, the sense of balance. While it may seem that this one is not really about perceiving the external world ...
0
votes
6answers
159 views
Probability of something given that time will exist forever?
What is the probability of something happening given that time always will exist? If time never ends, is it 100% likely that I will be born again after death?
I have a great way to illustrate my ...
2
votes
1answer
236 views
An English room inside Searle's Chinese Room?
The Chinese room experiment has a fundamental function of giving the system/person interacting with it the illusion that the room understands chinese, but it seems flaky to me what the term ...
0
votes
0answers
35 views
Assigning “self-awareness” to qualia as a necessary attribute [duplicate]
The teleportation question which I'm sure most of you have researched,
If I replicate you atom for atom, which one of them will be you?
The issue of materialistic basis for consciousness posits a ...
3
votes
5answers
171 views
Why does Man ask Why questions? [closed]
I am not a particularly educated or intelligent individual. If this question is easily answered, forgive me. As I can think of no answer, I am compelled to ask. I'm afraid this line of questioning ...
-1
votes
1answer
223 views
Is a theory of everything even possible? [closed]
Isn't there a random element in quantum mechanics?
Isn't consciousness somewhat random?
We make random decisions all the time. They may not seem random to us. But to a piece of wood, for example, it ...
2
votes
0answers
73 views
Is dualism unlikely because the mind is inextricable in its activity from matter?
I've been thinking about dualism lately, but one thing that deals a pretty strong blow to this view in my mind is that it implies that the mind can exist apart from physical reality (an immaterial ...
1
vote
0answers
38 views
What is the theory of defining consciousness by the ability to use counterfactuals called?
I'm aware there are a number of ways of defining if something is conscious or sentient. Such as the ability to experience qualia, or the ability to be aware you're experiencing qualia. Another theory ...
1
vote
1answer
121 views
How do epiphenomenalists explain our knowledge of felt-states?
The traditional epiphenomenalist claim is that the mental properties are simply a by-product of neurophysiological events and so have no causal efficacy over the physical world. This obviously implies ...
-1
votes
2answers
197 views
Thought experiment: The distorted brain in a vat
[This is the second version of another question: How does consciousness depend on spatiality?]
I admit that the technical details of the following thought experiment sound completely weird but that's ...
0
votes
1answer
73 views
Reverse epiphenomenalism and recursion?
Let's say for a moment that the mind is of unknown substance, and that the state of a particular brain region is emergent from it. That is certain states of the mind will cause certain states of this ...
0
votes
1answer
60 views
Are neural correlates of consciousness and immortal souls compatible?
Can one be a hard-boiled believer in neural correlates of consciousness and at the same time believe in things like
the immortal soul
reincarnation
telepathy
and if so, which approaches have been ...
0
votes
4answers
604 views
Is consciousness (as we perceive it) what really separates us from animals?
The last couple of weeks or even months, I'm thinking a lot about consciousness.
I have some ideas I would really like to discuss with some open minded, philosophical people. And in the search for ...
0
votes
1answer
39 views
The role of qualia in explaining Skinner box experiments
I wonder if this point of view has been considered before and which role it does play in the discussion of consciousness:
Consider a typical Skinner box experiment: A rat is exposed to some pleasant ...
3
votes
0answers
93 views
Does being able to remember conscious experience mean consciousness cannot be an epiphenomenon?
It has been proposed (or maybe just speculated) by a number of philosophers and scientists, including Richard Dawkins, that consciousness might be an epiphenomenon, but I think this cannot be the case....
3
votes
3answers
180 views
Physical correlates of consciousness
The term neural correlates of consciousness is well established (~ 277,000 Google results, one Wikipedia article), but I'd like to ask for more general physical correlates of consciousness (~ 6,000 ...
1
vote
1answer
123 views
Is there any theory of consciousness that extends conscious existence into the future?
I would like to be able to claim that consciousness is a physical phenomenon, arising from, subject to, and embedded in the physical structure of the universe, while at the same time claim that ...
2
votes
1answer
172 views
What does “there is something that it is like” in Thomas Nagel's “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” mean?
I was reading The enigma of human consciousness in ANNALS of the New York Academy of Sciences and this came up:
think it’s very hard to define consciousness in terms of anything more basic than ...
1
vote
1answer
70 views
Why does consciousness appear unitary? [duplicate]
Let us imagine lightning striking you so hard it disintegrates all your atoms and then, simultaneously, lightning strikes just a few meters from where you stood, somehow happening to rearrange all the ...
1
vote
1answer
64 views
Free will and consciousness [duplicate]
I am reading about free will and it seems to me that for everyone free will is associated with consciousness and this is why the Libet experiment has been so important in this debate.
I do not ...
0
votes
1answer
101 views
Are these arguments — in philosophy of mind?
Do any of these arguments [epiphanies] exist in the philosophy of mind?
Consciousness is a complex structure, and it is unlikely to be realizable in just any structure, else anything big enough would ...
5
votes
3answers
327 views
What is the utility of consciousness if free will is an illusion?
Introspectively speaking, it seems to me obvious that free will is illusion. Thoughts just emerge from background causes, and actions are just thoughts about actions that we have more thoughts about ...
1
vote
1answer
104 views
Why do we personally identify with our future selves, but not mental copies? [closed]
I'm sure this question has been asked somewhere before, but I don't know the name of this type of question, and so I've been unable to find it. Any pointer to literature written on the topic would be ...
4
votes
3answers
122 views
What is duality called when it refers to the separation between us and the external world?
Like many philosophical terms, dualism and duality are used differently by different people and in different circumstances. I am aware of Substance dualism (mind and body being separate things ...
-2
votes
2answers
71 views
Is there a 5'th position on conscious experience interacting with the physical world?
Question
So there are 4 positions I think of on how the conscious experience interacts with the physical world. I have some intentionally heuristic terms such as physical world and conscious ...
1
vote
1answer
151 views
On Kierkegard's definition of the Self: “ a relation that relates itself to itself” ( question based on an SEP's quote)
In The Sickness unto death , Kierkegaard says in a sybilline way that the self is
(1) a relation that relates itself to itself
(2) a synthesis of finite and infinite.
Should I understand that " ...
0
votes
1answer
71 views
What is the self? [closed]
Let us accept that science has an answer. The self then would be a representation of one's own body in the context of the environment. However if that is true wouldn't it imply that something is aware ...
2
votes
1answer
105 views
From Sartre's Being and Nothingness, what is the difference between reflective consciousness and self-reflective consciousness?
I am currently writing a philosophy paper for one of my graduate courses and one of the questions posed is "how can consciousness be pre-reflective, reflective, and self-reflective?"
My ...
0
votes
2answers
198 views
Does the first law of thermodynamics guarantee us free will?
I'm considering what may already be a well-known argument. Overall I am looking for a rebuttal.
I'd like to make a quick point before the argument:
For this question I would like to think of free ...
0
votes
1answer
87 views
Can we create a paradox of self-consciousness?
On the theme of Russell's paradox:
Does the set of all sets that do not contain themselves contain itself?
And the Barber's paradox:
Does a barber who shaves all men who do not shave themselves ...
1
vote
3answers
119 views
Consciousness and a simulated brain
There are already several projects that are trying to simulate the human brain (see, for example, Algorithm for large-scale brain simulations)
Let's suppose that it is possible to simulate with an ...
3
votes
3answers
219 views
Is space experienced?
Space doesn't have a taste, a smell, a sound or a "shape". Anything we experience and think seem to require it. It doesn't have any experiential property whatsoever, but we still normally refer to it ...
3
votes
3answers
274 views
The “Brain” of Theseus?
I'm sure everyone is familiar with the Ship of Theseus paradox, basically "If you replace parts of a ship over time until none of the original ship is left, is the end product still the same ship?"
I ...
6
votes
6answers
278 views
The experience of simultaneously holding very different interpretations of reality
Disclaimer: I am describing here something that's been my personal perception/interpretation/mode of being for many many years. I may not (probably don't) know the correct terminology, or whether this ...
10
votes
10answers
4k views
What makes things real?
Suppose that a person can't sense anything. He can't see, hear, feel. Nothing. So for him, does anything even exist?
Does that mean only things we can sense are real or existent?
Also, how would you ...
3
votes
0answers
76 views
Has any philosopher discussed pre-cognitive or pre-linguistic conceptualization?
To get an idea of what I'm talking about one may pay close attention to their own thought process. It may become evident that one can gain awareness of certain conceptual assemblages. If awareness at ...
